# WEB-148 — The profile substitute is for small businesses without an established site

> The social-profile route is available to small businesses and sole proprietors that have no established website, not to larger businesses choosing not to submit one.

- **Rule ID:** WEB-148
- **Layer:** Website (`WEBSITE`)
- **Checks:** `entity size vs the substitute path`
- **Severity:** MEDIUM — Usually survives review, but lowers your trust score or invites manual review.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** Human check — only someone holding the document can settle it
- **Fix type:** Supply evidence only you hold
- **Required by:** Sinch, SignalWire
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/website/web-148/

## Why this rule exists

Two providers restrict the substitution by business size while the others do not, so the same profile is accepted at one destination and rejected at another. A business large enough to be expected to have a site, submitting a profile instead, reads as evasive rather than small — and that judgement is made by a person, from facts about the business we do not hold.

## How to fix it

Where the business has any web presence of its own, register it and keep the profile as a supporting link. Where it genuinely has none, expect the substitute to be questioned and be ready to say why no site exists.

## Check this yourself

**Would this business look odd to a stranger for having no website of its own?**

1. Judge it as a reviewer would, from size and trading history: the social-profile substitute is for small businesses and sole proprietors with no established site.
2. Where the business has any web presence of its own, register that and keep the profile as a supporting link.
3. Where it genuinely has none, be ready to say why.

*What wrong looks like:* A substantial business submits a Facebook page instead of a site. Sinch and SignalWire restrict the substitution by size and Twilio and Bandwidth do not, so the same profile is accepted at one destination and read as evasive at another.

## Notes

Nothing on the form carries employee count, revenue or trading history, so we cannot decide whether a brand is small enough for this route. The user has to make the call themselves: if the business would look odd to a stranger without a website, build one before registering. The catalog records this as a genuine divergence — Sinch and SignalWire restrict the substitution by size, Twilio and Bandwidth do not.