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EN 301 549 (Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services) is the European standard, published jointly by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, that defines the accessibility requirements for information and communication technology products and services and how they are to be tested. Accessibility
Entity An entity means a distinct thing that search and answer engines recognise — a person, an organisation, a place, a product or a concept. Answer engines
EU declaration of conformity An EU declaration of conformity is the document, drawn up and signed by the manufacturer or its authorized representative, in which the manufacturer declares under its own responsibility that a product meets the requirements of the EU legislation that applies to it. Certified manufacturing
What is an EU declaration of conformity?
An EU declaration of conformity is the document, drawn up and signed by the manufacturer or its authorized representative, in which the manufacturer declares under its own responsibility that a product meets the requirements of the EU legislation that applies to it.
According to the Blue Guide, the EU’s guide to product rules, the declaration is drawn up and signed by the manufacturer or its authorized representative; it is kept for ten years. The CE marking is the visible face of this declaration on the product: not proof of conformity, but an important indicator. The Blue Guide also states clearly that the marking is not a marketing tool.
Why is “CE certificate” a wrong phrase?
Because there is no central EU body that grants permission or certificates for CE, and voluntarily issued “CE certificates” have no legal standing. In some product groups, a notified body takes part in the conformity assessment; these bodies are listed in the EU’s NANDO database. Even then, it is the manufacturer who declares the product’s conformity.
Whether a notified body takes part in the process is determined by the legislation that applies to the product. For some products, the manufacturer assesses conformity itself; for others, a notified body takes part in the assessment. In both cases, it is the manufacturer who signs the declaration and bears the responsibility.
How is it shown on the site?
- By the document’s name: “EU declaration of conformity”, not “CE certificate”.
- With the product or product group it covers and the legislation it is based on.
- If a notified body took part, with the body’s name and a link to its NANDO record.
- The declaration itself as a downloadable document, linked from the product page.
Where does the CE marking belong on the site?
The Blue Guide defines the marking’s place as the product itself: on the product or its data plate, or if that is not possible, on the packaging or accompanying documents, at least 5 mm high. A CE image on the site does not replace the marking on the product; on the product page, a link to the declaration itself is more useful than the marking. The buyer’s question is usually “under which directive or regulation?”, and the answer to this question is in the declaration.
How are a declaration, a certificate and a registration distinguished?
A certificate is issued by an independent body. A declaration is signed by the manufacturer itself. A registration is a notification made to an official database: such as REACH registration for chemicals; the European Chemicals Agency issues a registration number after a completeness check but does not assess the quality of the data. Gathering all three under an “Our certificates” heading on the site presents the declaration and the registration as if they were certificates.
How a declaration, a certificate and a registration are kept apart on the site is covered in the certified manufacturer website guide; how a notified body is verified is covered in the certificate verification guide.
For a site that shows your certificates as a record buyers can verify, B2B website builds and measures the certificate page, the product scope and the path to a quote together.
Certified manufacturing
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Field data is the sum of performance measurements experienced by real users on real devices and real networks. Performance
Focus trap A focus trap is when keyboard focus enters a region and cannot leave it again, and WCAG prohibits it explicitly at level A. Accessibility
Font subset A font subset is a font file regenerated with only the characters that are needed. Multilingual
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GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the work of increasing the likelihood that a site is chosen as a source in the answers generated by AI systems. Answer engines
Global ACI (Global Accreditation Cooperation Inc.) is the organization that runs the international mutual recognition arrangement of accreditation bodies and replaced IAF, which ceased operations on January 1, 2026. Certified manufacturing
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hreflang is the markup that declares a page’s different language and region versions to search engines. Multilingual
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Index (search index) The index is the database in which a search engine keeps the pages it has decided to store out of those it crawled, and the only place it selects search results from; it is also called the search index. Being found on Google
IndexNow is an open protocol that tells search engines immediately that a page has changed. Answer engines
INP (Interaction to Next Paint) is the time from a user interaction until the page responds visually, and Google counts anything under 200 milliseconds as good. Performance
ISO/IEC 17025 is the international standard that sets the requirements for the competence, impartiality and consistent operation of testing and calibration laboratories, and on which laboratory accreditation is based. Certified manufacturing
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JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is a structured data format that declares a page’s meaning in a machine-readable form without changing the page’s appearance at all. Answer engines
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Language tag (BCP 47) A language tag is the standard coding form that tells machines which language a text is in. Multilingual
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is the paint time of the largest content element in a page’s visible area, and Google counts anything under 2.5 seconds as good. Performance
Live region A live region is an area of a page whose changes a screen reader has to announce to the user. Accessibility
llms.txt is an optional file placed in a website’s root directory that summarises, in Markdown, what the site is about and where its most important pages are for language models. Answer engines
Locale A locale is the setting that defines a user’s language and region together and determines the formatting rules. Multilingual
Localisation (Localization) is adapting content to the culture, habits and search language of a target market; it is a wider undertaking than translation. Multilingual
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Mobile-first indexing means that Google bases indexing and ranking of a page on the version of the page shown to its smartphone crawler. Certified manufacturing
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noindex is a directive asking that a page not be added to a search engine’s index, given either with the robots meta tag inside the page or with the server’s X-Robots-Tag response header. Being found on Google
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Redirect chain A redirect chain is when an address reaches its final address not in a single hop but by passing through more than one redirect; for example, if an old address is redirected first to an intermediate address and from there to the final address, there is a two-hop chain. Site migration
Reflow A reflow is the browser recomputing the positions and sizes of elements on a page after a change. Performance
Relative luminance is the value expressing a colour’s perceived lightness between 0 and 1, and it is the basis of the contrast ratio calculation. Accessibility
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Screen reader A screen reader is assistive technology that turns on-screen content into speech or braille output and lets the user navigate by keyboard. Accessibility
Search Console is a free service from Google for monitoring a site’s status in Google Search and for seeing and fixing its problems. Being found on Google
Semantic HTML means choosing each element for its meaning rather than its appearance — a heading element for a heading, a button element for a button, a list element for a list. Accessibility
Sitemap A sitemap is a file, usually written in XML, that lists the addresses of a site’s pages and, optionally, their last modification dates for search engines in a single file. Being found on Google
Social compliance audit A social compliance audit is the examination by an independent auditor of working conditions, occupational health and safety and business ethics at a production site against a code of conduct. Certified manufacturing
Soft 404 A soft 404 is a page that shows visitors “page not found” or empty content but returns a 200 (success) code from the server instead of an error code; Google treats these pages as error pages and does not index them. Site migration
Structured data is an additional layer that labels a page’s content with a standard vocabulary machines can understand. Answer engines
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Text expansion is the same content being of different lengths in different languages, and the layout having to flex accordingly. Multilingual
TLS certificate lifetime is the period from the day the certificate that provides a site’s HTTPS connection is issued to the day its validity ends. Certified manufacturing
Total cost of ownership is the sum of all the costs of buying an asset or service and using it over its service life. Certified manufacturing
Transaction certificate A transaction certificate is the document, issued by a certification body under Textile Exchange standards, that shows a specific delivered consignment of goods is certified. Certified manufacturing
Translation memory A translation memory is a database that stores previously translated sentences and suggests them when the same or a similar sentence comes up again. Multilingual
TTFB (Time to First Byte) is the time between the browser sending a request and receiving the first byte from the server. Performance
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URL inventory A URL inventory is a single list that gathers every address of a site that search engines know — current pages, address variants and old addresses; in a site redesign or migration, the redirect map is derived from this list. Site migration
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WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the international standard published by the W3C that defines the accessibility of web content through testable success criteria. Accessibility
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x-default is a special hreflang value declaring the default page to show when no language version matches the user’s language. Multilingual