How the Trust factor works

The Trust factor runs from 0 to 100. It is the sum of seven parts that add up to 100. Red flags are then subtracted and caps applied. A confidence label is shown beside every score. Distance affects ranking, not trust.

Today's scores are a preview

• Measured now: Florida licenses (DBPR) and, for health providers, the license number in the federal NPI registry; years in business (first license, website registration or the website's first copy in the Internet Archive); whether map directories and the business's own website show the same details; Florida construction board orders since 2021; and the federal health care exclusion list (HHS-OIG).
• Also measured: where the business can be found (website, Google, Instagram, Yelp, BBB, booking pages and more), and star ratings it shows on its own website. A self-published rating is labeled as such and counts as at most 20 reviews.
• Not collected yet: independent customer reviews, replies to customers, posting activity and authenticity. Until they are, those parts count at half their points, and Customers without any rating uses the formula's starting value (70% positive, no volume).
• That keeps today's scores between about 35 and 65. They will spread out as reviews and activity are added.
• Every business shows low confidence until customer reviews are collected.
• A license we couldn't find is not treated as missing: "Not licensed" is only shown when we found the business's own license and it is inactive.
• Distance is measured from the center of the ZIP code you search.

Verified · 20

• Active state license, where the service requires one: 12
• Active registered business or fictitious name: 5
• Same name, phone and address across website, Google and social profiles: 3

Experience · 15

• Years operating, counted from the earliest license date, company registration or first public post
• 15 × min(years, 5) / 5

Customers · 30

• AI keeps only genuine customer comments and reviews from Google, Yelp, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, removing friend hype, emoji-only comments and bots
• Adjusted positive share: p = (pos + 7) / (pos + neg + 10), so a handful of reviews can't swing the score
• Sentiment: 25 × clamp((p − 0.4) / 0.6, 0, 1)
• Volume: 5 × min(genuine comments, 50) / 50

Response · 10

• Share of customer questions and complaints the owner answered in the last 12 months: 6 × share
• Quality of replies to negative comments (calm, solves the problem): 4 × quality, or 2 if there are no negatives

Presence · 10

• One point for each place the business can be found, up to 10: its own website, Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Yelp, Nextdoor, BBB, Trustpilot, Tripadvisor, Healthgrades, Zocdoc, Avvo, Zillow, Realtor.com, Houzz, Angi, Thumbtack, an online booking page

Activity · 5

• Months with at least one post in the last 12: 3 × months / 12
• Share of posts that show real work: 2 × share

Authenticity · 10

• Normal engagement for the follower count (no bought followers): 5
• Comments from many different real accounts: 3
• No sign of comments deleted to hide criticism: 2

− Red flags

• Licensing board discipline in the last 5 years: −15 each, up to −30
• Complaints to BBB or regulators: −5 each, up to −15
• Court judgment or lien connected to the business: −10
• Fake reviews or bought followers detected: −20

Caps

• License required but missing or expired: capped at 35 and labeled "Not licensed"
• Company registration dissolved or inactive: capped at 50
• No license needed for the service: score = raw × 100 / 88

Confidence

• High: 4 or more sources and 20 or more genuine comments
• Medium: in between
• Low: fewer than 5 genuine comments, or only one source

Search ranking

• Rank = Trust × (1 − 0.3 × min(distance / R, 1))
• R is how far people usually travel for that service (e.g. 5 miles for a barber, 15 for an electrician), so distance can lower a rank by at most 30%
• You can always sort by distance only

Our rules

• The formula is public.
• Paying never changes the score.
• Every point links to the evidence behind it.
• Businesses can dispute a score.