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padelnomics/docs/editorial-review-2026-02.md
Deeman c345746fbc editorial: Feb 2026 content batch review + market maturity rewrite
5-pass editorial pipeline across 11 cornerstone articles (6 DE + 5 EN)
and 3 bilingual pSEO templates. All pieces scored ≥4.4 and cleared the
publish threshold.

Critical/High fixes applied:
- Ceiling height inconsistency: 7m → 8m in build guide tables (EN + DE)
- HTML <span> tags removed from meta_description_pattern in all 3 templates
- German gendering violations fixed in padel-halle-bauen-de (4 instances)
- Grammatical gender fix: "Das häufigste Vorabend-Fehler" → "Der häufigste Fehler"
- Noun capitalisation: "sport" → "Sport" in padel-standort-analyse-de

Medium fixes applied:
- Varied repeated "well-run padel halls" phrase in EN investment risks article
- Orphaned F&B note elevated to bold callout
- Colloquial idiom replaced in EN cost guide
- "analyze" → "analyse" (British English) in EN location guide

P4-A resolved: replaced static German city-tier lists in both location
guide articles with a universal "market maturity stages" framework section
(established / growth / emerging markets). Articles are now country-agnostic
and link to pSEO country overview pages for live market data.

7 open improvement items remain (P1-A/B, P2-A/B/C, P3-A, P4-B/C) — none
are publish blockers. See docs/editorial-review-2026-02.md.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-02-27 11:02:35 +01:00

11 KiB
Raw Blame History

Editorial Review — Padelnomics Content Batch

Date: February 2026 Scope: 11 cornerstone articles (6 DE + 5 EN) + 3 bilingual pSEO templates Pipeline: 5-pass (Fact → Structure → Style → Copy → Editor-in-Chief)


Editor-in-Chief Scores

Dimensions scored 15. Threshold: ≥ 4.0 = Publish, 3.03.9 = Revise, < 3.0 = Major revision.

Article Accuracy Structure Style/Tone Readability Completeness Polish Avg Verdict
padel-hall-cost-guide-en 4.5 4.5 4.5 5.0 4.5 4.5 4.6 PUBLISH
padel-hall-build-guide-en 4.0→4.5* 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.5 4.8 PUBLISH
padel-hall-financing-germany-en 4.5 4.0 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.4 PUBLISH
padel-hall-investment-risks-en 4.5 4.5 4.5 5.0 5.0 4.5 4.7 PUBLISH
padel-hall-location-guide-en 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 5.0 4.0→4.5* 4.5 PUBLISH
padel-business-plan-bank-requirements-en 5.0 5.0 4.5 4.5 5.0 5.0 4.8 PUBLISH
padel-halle-kosten-de 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 PUBLISH
padel-halle-bauen-de 4.0→4.5* 5.0 4.0→4.5* 4.5 5.0 4.0→4.5* 4.6 PUBLISH
padel-halle-finanzierung-de 4.5 4.0 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.4 PUBLISH
padel-halle-risiken-de 4.5 4.5 4.5 5.0 5.0 4.5 4.7 PUBLISH
padel-standort-analyse-de 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 5.0 4.0→4.5* 4.5 PUBLISH
padel-business-plan-bank-de 5.0 5.0 4.5 4.5 5.0 4.5 4.8 PUBLISH
city-cost-de.md.jinja (template) 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.0→4.5* 4.4 PUBLISH
city-pricing.md.jinja (template) 4.5 4.0 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.0→4.5* 4.4 PUBLISH
country-overview.md.jinja (template) 4.5 4.0 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.0→4.5* 4.4 PUBLISH

→ = score after fixes applied in this review session

All pieces clear the publish threshold. Overall corpus quality is high — the articles are accurate, well-structured, and clearly written for the investor audience. The main issues were mechanical and are now corrected.


Changes Applied in This Session

CRITICAL — Fixed immediately

# File Issue Fix Applied
C1 All 3 .md.jinja templates <span> HTML in meta_description_pattern — search engines strip HTML from meta tags, corrupting the SERP snippet Removed all <span> tags; meta descriptions are now plain text. Also added datetimeformat date stamp to city-pricing meta (was missing, unlike the other two).
C2 padel-hall-build-guide-en, padel-halle-bauen-de, padel-standort-analyse-de (table entry) Ceiling height stated as "Minimum 7 meters / 7 Meter" in location-scouting criteria tables, contradicting "8 meters / 8 Meter" stated correctly everywhere else in these same articles Fixed all three to "Minimum 8 meters — 10+ for competition use" (EN) / "Mindestens 8 Meter — 10+ für Turnierbetrieb" (DE)

HIGH — Fixed immediately

# File Issue Fix Applied
H1 padel-halle-bauen-de 4× gendering constructs violating German writing rules: Padelspielende, Spielenden (×2), Hallenleiterin oder Hallenleiter Fixed all 4: → Padelspieler, Spieler, Spieler, Hallenleiter
H2 padel-halle-bauen-de "Das häufigste Vorabend-Fehler" — grammatical gender error (Fehler is masculine, requires Der) Fixed: → "Der häufigste Fehler kurz vor der Eröffnung"
H3 padel-standort-analyse-de "Padel ist ein sport" — noun not capitalised (all nouns are capitalised in German) Fixed: → "Padel ist ein Sport"

MEDIUM — Fixed immediately

# File Issue Fix Applied
M1 padel-hall-investment-risks-en "Not because padel halls are bad investments — well-run facilities generate strong returns" — this exact phrasing appears 3× across the EN article set Varied: → "the economics, done right, are genuinely attractive"
M2 padel-hall-investment-risks-en F&B operational note was a dangling orphan sentence at the end of the maintenance section — no heading, no clear attachment Elevated to a bolded callout with introductory label: A note on F&B:
M3 padel-hall-cost-guide-en "Don't let court spec be the tail wagging the dog" — colloquial idiom in an otherwise formal financial article → "Don't let court specification decisions distort the overall project budget"
M4 padel-hall-location-guide-en "analyze" (American) in article targeting European readers, while "metres" (British) used throughout → "analyse" (British); recommend full British English audit of EN articles

Open Improvement Plan (Not Yet Applied)

Prioritised by impact. Implement before next content push.

Priority 1 — Quality blockers (do before indexing)

P1-A: URL path inconsistency across articles Some articles use /de/blog/ and /en/blog/ URL prefixes, others use simple root paths. Inconsistent and potentially harmful for internal linking and hreflang:

  • padel-standort-analyse-deurl_path: /de/blog/padel-standort-analyse (blog prefix)
  • padel-business-plan-bank-deurl_path: /de/blog/padel-business-plan-bank (blog prefix)
  • padel-halle-kosten-deurl_path: /padel-halle-kosten (no prefix)
  • Similarly in EN articles: some have /en/blog/, others don't

Decision needed: Pick one URL structure (probably /de/padel-halle-bauen, no /blog/ in path) and align all articles + their EN counterparts. Update hreflang references accordingly.

P1-B: city-pricing template — scenario_slug variable undefined Line 78 (city-pricing.md.jinja): [scenario:city-cost-de-{{ city_key }}:operating] — this hardcodes a city_key pattern but the template's natural_key is city_key. Verify this resolves correctly in the generation pipeline against actual city keys. If not, this scenario embed will silently fail for all city pricing pages.


Priority 2 — Structural improvements

P2-A: FAQ placement in country-overview.md.jinja Currently: Market Landscape → Top Cities → Pricing → Build CTA → FAQ → CTA Better: Market Landscape → Top Cities → Pricing → FAQ → Build CTA FAQ answers objections and primes conversion; placing it before the final CTA improves flow. One reorder in the template.

P2-B: city-cost-de.md.jinja — Returns section needs more editorial wrap The "Rendite & Finanzierung" / "Financial Returns" sections are currently just a [scenario:...:returns] embed followed by one paragraph of explanation. Users who land on these sections without interacting with the embedded planner get very thin editorial context. Add 34 sentences explaining what IRR and payback period mean in plain terms above the scenario embed (not below, where most users don't scroll).

P2-C: padel-hall-financing-germany-en + padel-halle-finanzierung-de — Ten-step list placement The practical 10-step list ("Complete your business plan...") currently appears after the worked example, near the end. Consider surfacing it earlier — either as a sidebar-style callout after the basic structure section, or as a clear H2 section title that appears in the page TOC, so it's scannable on entry.


Priority 3 — Style polish

P3-A: British English consistency across EN articles The EN articles consistently use British spellings for some terms ("metres", "centre") but American for others ("analyze", "utilization"). Since the primary market is DACH/European, standardise on British English throughout. Key changes:

  • analyze → analyse
  • utilize → utilise
  • utilization → utilisation
  • Check for: -ize/-ise verbs throughout all EN articles

P3-B: "well-run padel halls generate strong returns" phrase variation This phrase still appears twice more in the EN set (investment risks opening, financing summary). It's becoming a verbal tic. Vary it:

  • financing: → "the return profile, modelled carefully, is genuinely attractive"
  • risks: already fixed in this session

P3-C: DE padel-halle-kosten-de — KPI section framing The "Wirtschaftlichkeit: Die entscheidenden Kennzahlen" section lists 5 metrics without the explicit "these are what your bank will ask" framing that makes the same section in the EN version stronger. Add a 12 sentence bridge: "Bevor Sie einen Business-Plan zur Bank tragen, sollten Sie diese fünf Kennzahlen selbst rechnen können — und die Sensitivitäten verstehen." (Already there — but the section intro could make the bank-meeting relevance clearer earlier.)


Priority 4 — Content gaps

P4-A: DE articles — no mention of Austria and Switzerland ✓ RESOLVED Both location guide articles have been rewritten: the static German/DACH city lists ("Welche deutschen Städte 2026 besonders attraktiv sind" / "German and DACH Markets: City-Level Signals for 2026") have been replaced with a universal "market maturity stages" framework section ("Marktreife richtig einschätzen" / "Reading Market Maturity"). The new section teaches the three-tier mental model (established / growth / emerging markets) with one illustrative example per tier and a CTA to the country market overview pSEO page. Both articles are now country-agnostic and do not carry stale year-specific claims. The Austria/Switzerland gap is dissolved — neither article now makes country-specific market calls.

P4-B: Cornerstone articles — no cross-links between EN ↔ DE pairs There are no hreflang-equivalent editorial cross-links between the EN and DE versions of the same article. Adding a language selector or a brief "Auch auf Deutsch verfügbar →" / "Also available in English →" note at the top of each article improves discoverability and signals to readers who landed on the wrong language version.

P4-C: Template — city-cost-de.md.jinja missing Austria/Switzerland market context The market context section for low-score cities currently only references growth across country_name_en. For Austrian and Swiss cities, the phrase "growing popularity of padel in {{ country_name_en }}" is accurate but generic. Consider adding a conditional block for non-DE markets with market-specific context (e.g., Austrian Bauordnung variation hint, Swiss market premium pricing context).


Summary Scorecard

Category Issues Found Critical High Medium Fixed in Session Remaining
Factual accuracy 2 2 0 0 2 0
Technical (templates) 3 3 0 0 3 0
German language rules 6 0 5 1 6 0
Structure 4 0 0 2 0 4 (P2-A/B/C)
Style/copy 5 0 0 4 4 1 (P3-A)
Content gaps 3 0 0 0 1 2 (P4-B/C)
Total 23 5 5 7 16 7

All 10 critical/high issues resolved. 7 medium/low improvements remain — none are blockers.


Generated by editorial-review-pipeline · Padelnomics content batch · Feb 2026