Would a reviewer flag your contractor ad?
Contractor advertising has one flag that carries real legal weight and several that are simply unsupportable claims.
A screening tool, not legal review. Your compliance officer has the last word.
Free · 25 checks a day · no sign-in. We log which phrases matched — never your copy.
Why it doesn’t cry wolf
A phrase list flags everything. This doesn’t, and the difference is the part that took the longest to build.
29 negation words. “We can’t guarantee a closing date” is not blocked as a guarantee — the screen notes it and clears the piece.
Curly apostrophes count. The negator list holds “don’t” with a straight quote. Written the way a word processor actually produces it, it used to tokenise as two words and match no negator — so we don’t guarantee read as a guarantee. There were 222 of them in the corpus when we found it.
A negation has a reach. “With no side effects and permanent results” promises permanence. The word and ends what the no governs, so the second half is still caught.
Warning about a thing isn’t doing it. “If anyone offers to cover your deductible, walk away” is advice against the practice, not an offer of it.
Every one of these exists because the scan got it wrong on real copy first. When the rules are ambiguous it fails toward flagging, never toward clearing — a false alarm costs you a minute, and a miss costs you the thing you bought this for.
And what you have to include
Every checker sells the list of things you cannot say. This is the other half: the identifiers a published piece is supposed to carry in contractor advertising.
? the contractor’s licence number, where your state requires one — we cannot confirm this from the copy alone, and we say so rather than show you a tick
A missing identifier is not a phrase you can search for, which is why most checkers ignore this half entirely.
Why this rule set catches people out
Offering to absorb or waive an insurance deductible is restricted or outright illegal in many states, and it is the single most common phrase in storm-season roofing copy.
Real examples, and how to rewrite them
Every flag below is genuine output from the checker above — not an illustration. Paste any of them in and you will get the same result.
Flagged
“We will waive your insurance deductible and give you a free roof. Licensed and bonded.”
Publishable
“We will inspect the damage at no charge and work directly with your adjuster. You are responsible for your deductible, as your policy requires.”
Flagged
“Lifetime warranty guaranteed on all work. We are the best roofer in Indianapolis.”
Publishable
“Workmanship warranty in writing, with the term and what it covers stated on the contract. Manufacturer warranty registered on your behalf.”
Questions
Why is waiving a deductible flagged?
Because in many states it is restricted or illegal, and it can constitute insurance fraud. It is the highest-risk phrase in this rule set.
Can I ever say “lifetime warranty”?
Only where the term is defined and backed in writing. Unqualified, it is a claim you may not be able to honour.
What about “licensed and bonded”?
That is a statement of fact and is fine if it is true and current.
Does this replace my attorney?
No. It is a screening tool that catches common flags before anything publishes.
Add-on · $49/month
The gate on its own
This page is the free front of the same engine. The subscription opens all seven rule sets — 258 prohibited phrases, plus the ones you add — and checks a screenshot or a link, not just pasted text.
Already included in Starter, Pro and Teams. This is for people who want the checking without the marketing around it.
This runs on every draft, automatically
The checker on this page is the public front of the gate that screens everything our marketing system writes for you — before it reaches your queue, in your industry’s rulebook, with a dated record you keep.