# WEB-026 — The site must look established rather than erected for the registration

> The website should show signs of being an operating business, not a shell created to pass vetting.

- **Rule ID:** WEB-026
- **Layer:** Website (`WEBSITE`)
- **Checks:** `brand website`
- **Severity:** HIGH — Rejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** AI judgement over the crawled website or policy page
- **Fix type:** Fix the website — no form edit clears it
- **Required by:** TCR, Twilio, AWS
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/website/web-026/

## Why this rule exists

Reviewers weigh apparent age and depth because a site built the week before registration is the standard fraud pattern. Thin, brand-new sites are not automatically rejected but attract manual review and slower vetting.

## How to fix it

Publish real depth before registering: products or services with detail, an about page, contact information, and any customer-facing content that shows the business operating.