<b>The page-template slot audit</b>

<b>The page-template slot audit</b>

Before a template scales, count what is unique per URL versus boilerplate. Index bloat is almost always a boilerplate ratio problem.

Run this on a single rendered page:

☐ Total visible word count recorded
☐ Boilerplate words counted (nav, footer, repeated intro, repeated CTA, disclaimers)
☐ Dynamic words counted (data pulled per-entity)
☐ Unique ratio computed: dynamic / total
☐ Gate: ratio at or above 0.55 → pass
☐ Ratio 0.35–0.54 → add one more data-backed module before scaling
☐ Ratio below 0.35 → template fails, do not ship

Guardrail: "unique" means data that differs across entities, not synonym-spun sentences. A swapped city name in the same paragraph counts as boilerplate.

Fastest fix when you fail: move repeated explainer copy behind a collapsed accordion or a single hub page, and link to it. The crawler still reaches it, the per-page boilerplate ratio drops.

Ship gate: don't publish until all boxes are checked.