About How we build Method and checks Checked 27 September 2026
A small UK software company, showing its working

How we build,
and how we check
what we say.

One home for every claim · Tested before it goes live
No. 01 One home for every claim Prices, status and headline claims

Written once,
checked every time.

This site talks about twelve products, and each of them has its own website. The easy way to get that wrong is to type a price on one page, change it on the product's site, and forget the first page. So we stopped typing them.

I. One file

Every price lives in one place

Each product's price, status and headline claims are written once, in a single facts file. Every page, the press boilerplate, the structured data search engines read and our llms.txt are filled from it when the site is built.

II. Evidence attached

Each fact says where it came from

Every fact carries the page on the product's own site it was read from, and the exact words that must still be there. Today that is 57 phrases across 18 pages, last checked by hand on 27 September 2026.

III. Re-read on every build

If a product changes, the build stops

Each time the site is built, a script fetches those pages again. If any phrase has gone, the build fails and a person has to re-check the fact. That is how a stale price stays off the live site.

IV. Status in plain words

Open, open in part, or not yet

Each product's badge comes from the same file: four of our seven core products are fully open today. 3 Wee Pages and The Boat Market are open in part, and ServicePay is in early launch. Each product on the estate page says which.

No. 02 What the build refuses to ship Each rule says why it exists

Some sentences
cannot get through.

A second script reads every page before it is built and fails on anything we have decided we will not say. Each rule is written down with its reason, so a failure explains itself.

Claims we know are untrue.

24 rules today, among them: a review called verified when nothing verifies it, a payout time we cannot promise, a launch date we have not set, an absolute privacy promise the connected products would contradict. When a product changes what it offers, the old claim is added here so it cannot creep back.

Example · how GotAPal explains its own reviews: gotapal.com/trust ↗

A price that is not in the file.

Any amount in pounds that the facts file does not hold fails the build. The only exceptions are the invented amounts in our labelled illustrations, and each one is listed by name in the rules.

Rule · type prices in the facts file, never in a page

Old links and competitors' names.

Links to retired addresses fail the build. So do competitors' names: we describe what ours does and leave the comparison to you. And the physical things we sell are called touchpoints, everywhere, so one thing has one name.

Vocabulary · one term per thing

Visual faults we have fixed before.

Decoration crossing the words, a rotated label covering text, a colour that was never defined. Each fault we fix gets a check, so it is caught if it comes back. Our accessibility statement lists what is tested and what is still open.

Layout probe · every page at phone, zoomed and desktop widths
No. 03 Tested before it goes live And put back if it fails

A restore point,
then tests, then the release.

This is the routine for this site, and the one we follow on the bespoke software we build for clients. Nothing about it is clever. It is just never skipped.

1. Restore point

Before any change

We mark the last good version first, so going back is one step rather than a rebuild from memory.

2. Tests that can fail

Every check has a control

Each guard is tested twice: once on the real site, and once on a copy with the old mistake put back in. A check that cannot fail is not a check.

3. Live check

After every release

Every page in the sitemap must load, have one main heading and the right canonical address, and carry structured data that parses. Every internal link must resolve directly, and made-up addresses must return "not found".

4. Rolled back

If the live check fails

The previous version goes back automatically. Then a person finds the cause, fixes it, and writes down how it is stopped from happening again.

No. 04 Written down, and where it runs UK company · UK host

What changed,
and what it did.

Each product keeps a changelog that records what changed, how it was checked and the measured result, so a claim made in one month can be checked in the next.

Results, not just changes.

A release note says what was measured afterwards: which pages returned what, which checks passed, what is still open and who has to decide it. Illustrations on this site use invented businesses and figures, and each one says so.

Changelog · one per product, kept with the code

Where this site runs.

Towpath Digital Ltd is a UK company, registered at Huntingdon Boathaven, The Avenue, Godmanchester, Huntingdon PE29 2AF. This site runs on a server hosted by Krystal, a UK web host that says its power is matched 100% with renewable energy.

Krystal also plants or protects trees for its customers: our hosting has planted over 100 trees so far ↗.

Source · krystal.io ↗, read 28 September 2026

What we leave out.

No star ratings in our structured data, because we have no public ratings to show. No testimonial from someone we cannot name, and no result for a client that we have not measured.

Check us.

The company number, ICO registration and product facts are on the press page, and every product's own site is linked from the estate. If you find something on this site that is not true, tell us at hello@towpath.digital and we will fix it and say what changed.

Company no. 16913912 · ICO ZC210106
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Co. no.16913912
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