How Top10Easy ranks local businesses
Businesses cannot pay Top10Easy to improve their Rank. Rankings come from public evidence Top10Easy observes independently, using a published methodology for each category.
Independent public evidence
Top10Easy observes publicly available evidence about each business itself. Nothing in a ranking comes from a business telling Top10Easy how good it is, and a business does not need to claim its profile, or even know it is listed, to be ranked. The same evidence is gathered the same way for every business in a category, regardless of size, location or whether it has claimed its profile.
A published methodology
Every ranking is calculated from a published methodology, so anyone can see what is being measured. A business’s Top10Easy Score is built from the independently observed signals described on that category’s methodology page, and its Rank is its position among the businesses in the same place and category with enough evidence to be ranked.
Rank is never for sale
Businesses cannot pay for a better score or Rank. Claiming a profile, paying for an enhanced listing, and how complete a business’s profile is never influence Rank. Only the real, independently observed evidence in each category’s methodology does.
Ties stay ties
When two or more businesses have identical evidence, Top10Easy shows them as tied rather than inventing an order between them. Top10Easy never uses a business’s ID, its listing on other data sources, how much evidence has been gathered about it, random chance, or whether it has claimed its profile or paid for anything to break a tie. If the observed evidence doesn’t show a difference, Top10Easy doesn’t show one either.
Listed is not the same as ranked
Being included in the directory and being eligible for a Rank are two separate things. A business can be listed, found, and claimed without yet having a Rank. It becomes rank-eligible only once Top10Easy has independently observed enough about it to compute a reliable score. Until then it is marked Not Yet Ranked, which is a statement about the evidence gathered so far and not a penalty.
No ranking without evidence
Top10Easy does not manufacture a ranking when sufficient evidence isn’t available. If too few businesses in a place have enough independently observed evidence, that place shows no Top 10 rather than a list built on guesses.
Category methodologies
The principles above apply to every category. The evidence a category is scored on, and exactly how its rankings are presented, are described on that category’s own methodology page, which is what the “How ranking works” link on each ranking and business profile opens. Choose a category to read how it is scored.