How Ranked works for businesses

Ranked builds independent rankings of local businesses and services, one site per field. Every business in a covered field is listed for free, every list is open to read, and no place in a ranking is for sale. This is what that means from the other side of the counter.

One score, one order

Each list is ordered by a single number, the Ranked Score, and by nothing else. The score is built from three components with fixed, published weights:

• Upvotes from customers. One person, one vote per listing, no account and no comment required. Open on every listing.
• Verified reviews. Ratings written by customers, moderated before publication, and blended with a prior so that a single review cannot outweigh a long track record. Receiving reviews is a Ranked Pro feature — see what Ranked Pro includes.
• Profile completeness. Whether the listing actually answers the questions a customer has before contacting you.

Every site publishes its live weights on its own "how we rank" page. The same formula runs on every vertical, computed in the database, applied identically to every listing.

What a business controls

Three things, and they are the same three for everyone.

Your profile. Completeness is a fifth of the score, it is free, and it is immediate. A listing with a description, opening hours, an address, contact details and the fields you work in scores better than one without — and, more to the point, gets contacted more.

Your customers. Asking the people who already value you to leave an upvote is legitimate and effective. Buying signals is not, and bought signals are removed when we find them.

Your accuracy. Out-of-date information costs a business enquiries long before it costs it score. Anything wrong on a listing can be corrected, by the owner or by anyone who spots it.

What no business controls

Its position, directly. Nobody can pay to enter a list, to move up one, or to have a competitor pushed down. There is no editorial override, no featured position inside the ranking, and no negotiation about the order.

Advertising exists — sponsor slots on home pages, city hubs and lists — and it sits outside the ranked order and is labelled as advertising wherever it appears. That separation is the product. A ranking that can be bought is an advertisement, and readers work that out quickly.

Free listings and Ranked Pro

Every business is listed free, and a free listing is ranked on upvotes and completeness. Ranked Pro is the paid listing: it adds verified reviews and the ability to respond to them, statistics, a Pro badge, a booking or contact link of your own, and a profile page kept clear of competing listings.

Both appear in the same list, in the same order, computed the same way. Pro adds signals a business can earn; it never adds a multiplier.

Ranked Pro is live, and it starts with 14 days free and no card. What Ranked Pro costs lists the price for every site. Listing itself stays free, with no time limit and no card at any point.

Getting started

Find the site for your field on the home page, check whether you are already listed — most businesses are, because lists are built from public sources before anyone claims them — and either correct what is wrong or add your business. Get listed in five minutes walks through it.

Ranked is operated by an independent studio, not by any of the businesses it ranks. If something on a list looks like paid placement to you, it is a bug, and we want to hear about it — every consumer site has a report link in its footer.