How we calculate the ranking
What goes into a firm’s place, where we get the data and how to correct it.
What we count
A firm’s place in its city depends only on its Google rating and its number of Google reviews. Places are counted separately for each city; there is no shared place across cities.
We always show the real Google rating. The formula only sets the order of the list: it keeps a firm with five stars and a few reviews from standing above a firm with hundreds of reviews and almost the same rating.
Filters and sorting hide or reorder rows, but they never change a firm’s place.
The formula
score = (v / (v + m)) × R + (m / (v + m)) × C
R: the firm’s Google rating. v: its number of Google reviews. C = 4.5: the common baseline for all cities. m = 25: the weight of the baseline. We set it so that at 25 reviews the firm’s own rating and the baseline weigh the same; the more reviews, the closer the score gets to the firm’s real rating.
Example: a firm rated 5.0 with 16 reviews scores 4.70, and a firm rated 4.9 with 1,508 reviews scores 4.89. The second score is higher, so the second firm stands higher.
A firm without a Google profile, or whose profile lacks a link, a rating or a review count, is not part of the common order: it stands at the end of the city’s list, marked “no Google rating”, without a place.
Where the data comes from
Only Google goes into the formula: the rating and review count from the firm’s profile. We show ratings from Facebook and other sources but leave them out of the formula, because their scales cannot be compared.
We do not copy review texts: we show only the rating, the review count, a link to the source and the date of the check. A source without a link is not shown on the site.
How often we update
We recheck the data by hand. The date on the ranking page is the date of the last check. The place is recalculated whenever the data changes.
How to correct the data
A firm can ask us to correct facts: the address, phone number, opening hours or website. Ratings and places do not change on a firm’s request, because they come from outside sources and are calculated by the formula.
LegalizeHub clients
The place does not depend on whether a firm uses LegalizeHub. The formula has no such input, and firms that accept requests online are calculated exactly like all the others.