A composite 0–100 score for every provider listed on VouchedPros. It blends public-record signals, customer-review signals, and an editorial assessment so visitors can compare providers on the same scale, even when one platform has more reviews than another.
Each provider's score is a weighted blend of the signals below. Weights sum to 100% across all signals; when a signal is missing for a provider (e.g. no Yelp profile), its weight is redistributed proportionally to the signals we do have, so providers aren't penalized for absences they can't control.
| Signal | Weight | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial assessment A reviewer reads each provider profile (services, hours, contact, web presence) and assigns a 1–100 quality rating that anchors the rest of the blend. | 40% | Internal review |
| Google rating Average of Google customer reviews, normalized so a 4.5★ provider scores higher than a 4.0★ one without rewarding fractional differences below 2.0★. | 15% | Google Maps Places API |
| Google review volume Logarithmic count of total Google reviews — saturates at ~5,000, so a 4,000-review provider scores similarly to a 5,000-review one. | 8% | Google Maps Places API |
| Google search position Where the provider ranks in the area-specific Google Maps result for the category, gives a market-validation signal beyond rating alone. | 8% | Google Maps Places API |
| Review recency How fresh the most recent reviews are. A long-dormant profile scores lower than one with reviews from the past few months. | 5% | Google Maps Places API |
| Review sentiment Aggregate sentiment derived from review text — captures themes (response times, professionalism, pricing transparency) the star rating alone misses. | 13% | Customer review text |
| Years in business Operational tenure in years. Established providers score higher; newer providers can still rank well via other signals. | 4% | Public records / website |
| Yelp rating Independent rating from Yelp's review base, used as a cross-check on Google's. | 3% | Yelp business profile |
| BBB record Better Business Bureau letter rating and accreditation status. Complaint counts factor in when published. | 3% | BBB business profile |
| Owner response rate How often the business responds to reviews — a proxy for active customer-service investment. Often unavailable, weight redistributed when so. | 2% | Google Maps Places API |
If we have no Yelp profile for a provider, no BBB record, or no website to scrape for credentials, those signals are simply absent from the calculation — the remaining weights are renormalized to total 100%. This means a smaller, newer provider with strong Google reviews and verified credentials can score competitively with an older provider with deeper public records.
We only display a Vouched Score when at least three independent public-record signals exist for a provider. If we have only a single source (say, Google reviews and nothing else), we keep the provider listed for SEO completeness but don't show a score and don't index the page in search. This avoids implying confidence we don't have.
Specifically, a provider needs three or more of:
Provider data is re-pulled and the score is recomputed when a city's listings are republished — typically when ranking content is refreshed. Each provider page shows a "Profile last updated" date in its footer. The schema's dateModified field reflects the same timestamp.
If a provider believes their score doesn't reflect current performance — e.g. they've added new credentials, resolved a BBB complaint, or had a Yelp profile change — we accept correction requests. Email vouchedpros@gmail.com with the provider name, city, and what should be updated.