Labs Explained

Editorial standard

How we turn lab data into careful answers.

A large dataset is not a publishing license. Every guide must pass a source, scope, authorship, review and duplication check before it becomes eligible for search indexing.

Our publishing gate

  1. One canonical topic. One test gets one primary educational URL. We do not create thin query, symptom or city variants.
  2. Claim-level source verification. Material medical claims need nearby, clickable support from guidelines, public-health agencies or identifiable research. Every citation must resolve over HTTPS and map to a listed source.
  3. Scope control. Pages explain measurements and limitations; they do not diagnose readers or prescribe treatment.
  4. Accountable authorship. A named author, profile, evidence-check date and visible revision record are mandatory.
  5. Qualified clinical review. A biomarker guide remains marked noindex and is omitted from the sitemap until a named qualified clinician signs off. Automation cannot promote it to indexable status.
  6. Distinct value. Labs Explained owns educational intent. Vitals Vault owns testing-service intent. We do not duplicate the same article across both domains.

Reference ranges

We distinguish the performing laboratory’s reference interval from diagnostic cutoffs, risk thresholds and individual treatment goals. We avoid presenting an “optimal” number as universal when age, sex, pregnancy, assay, medication or clinical context changes interpretation.

Corrections and updates

Substantive changes update the visible review date and append a dated note stating what changed and who made the change. Stale, unsupported or duplicate pages are revised, redirected or removed—not kept alive for traffic.

Use of automation

Automation may help structure source data and flag missing fields. It cannot approve a health claim, invent a reviewer or publish a page that fails the gate. Search-engine or answer-engine visibility never overrides reader safety.

Commercial separation

Labs Explained is owned by Vitals Vault. A guide may contain one contextual link to a relevant Vitals Vault service. The relationship is disclosed beside the link, and the educational conclusion does not depend on a purchase. We do not place a site-wide purchase link in the editorial header.

Last updated: August 17, 2026