Carriers open the business's website to confirm it's real and to see how people agree to texts. Most rejections come from the website, so step 10 of Set up texting has Zeus check it first.
What Zeus reads
The live site (never a draft): the home page, the header and footer links, the legal pages, the pages you named in "How people agree", and the sitemap, up to 50 pages. On a Mount Olympus site Zeus reads the site on its real domain.
While it reads, the step shows the page count ("23 of 41 pages") and ticks off the home page, the form pages and the legal pages. It saves after every page, so closing the window doesn't stop it: it carries on and the bell tells you The website check for texting is done.
The checks
Each check shows pass, to fix (with the exact fix) or couldn't read (what to check by hand, for example a form inside an iframe).
- The site loads over https and isn't under construction.
- It shows the business name (the legal name or the name customers know).
- The address matches the application (service-area businesses can leave it off).
- The phone and email match.
- A privacy policy is linked, and it says mobile numbers and text consent are never sold or shared for marketing.
- A texting terms page (a page, not a pop-up) with the program name, message types, how often, rates, STOP, HELP and a support contact.
- The form: the texting box starts unticked, isn't required, names the business and each kind of text, and when you text offers there's a separate box for them. See Texting boxes on website forms.
- No prohibited content.
- The site matches your answers: what you'll text, the links in your samples, and the pages in "How people agree".
The results say "The website meets every published carrier requirement we check." when everything passes. Carriers make the final decision.
Prohibited words and "worth a look"
- The hard list (cannabis, CBD, firearms sales, gambling, adult content, tobacco / vape, payday loans, debt collection) fails the check.
- Worth a look: some words are fine for most businesses (for example "financing" at a dental office). Zeus shows the page and sentence. If it isn't what the business sells, tick This isn't what the business sells. The tick and the sentence are saved with what we send.
When the agency reviews first, a tick the client made carries over: the agency sees it already ticked and can untick it.
Website fixes
- Mount Olympus sites: Zeus builds the fixes (the privacy policy's "Text messages" section, a texting terms page linked in the footer, the footer details, the form's texting boxes). Each change shows the page before and after, and you can untick any you don't want. Fixes are free with the texting setup.
- Who approves: a client person who can edit that site approves the fixes themselves. When the client's people can't edit it, the agency approves (bell: "Website changes for texting are waiting for you"). Publishing follows the same rules as any edit: without publish rights, approved changes wait for whoever publishes.
- Zeus never overwrites text a person changed since the review: that item moves to the fix list instead.
- Outside sites: you get a fix list with the exact wording to copy.
The live re-check
After the fixes are published, step 12 checks the live site again. Send (step 14) checks it once more, so the warnings are about the site as it is right now. Failing items never block sending: they warn, and whoever sends decides (see Send anyway).
After approval: the weekly check
Zeus re-checks the website once a week, quietly. When an item starts failing (for example the texting terms link was removed from the footer), the business and agency get one bell and one email with the fix, and on a Mount Olympus site Zeus offers to fix it. Texting keeps working; carriers can look again at any time.
What we keep
When it's sent we save what we sent: the exact application, the review results, a copy of every page checked and any Send anyway confirmation. Open it from What we sent. It's kept privately for as long as the registration exists plus 5 years.