How we rank

The short version

Google rating, weighted by how many reviews a business has. That is the whole
formula. We do not add a score of our own.

Why the weighting

A perfect five stars from thirty customers is not better evidence than a 4.9
from four hundred and fifty. So each business gets pulled toward the category
average in proportion to how little evidence it has. A business needs about
fifty reviews before its own rating carries most of the weight, and needs at
least five to be ranked at all.

What we will never do

Sell a ranking. Take a business down because it ranks badly. Rank a business
that has paid us above one that has not. If that ever changes, this page changes
first and says so.

Placement is not for sale, and that is permanent

No business can buy a higher position on this site. Not for any price, not as a favor, and not as part of any other arrangement. That is a permanent commitment rather than a current preference, and if it ever changes, this page changes first and says so before a single listing moves.

One thing is allowed, and it is worth naming now rather than letting you find it later. About Barrow may sell sponsorship that sits outside the rankings, for example a sponsor of an awards feature or of the newsletter. Anything like that will be labeled as sponsorship right where you see it, and it will never touch the order of a ranked list. A sponsor does not move up, and a business that declines to sponsor does not move down.

What we might get wrong

Google’s data is not perfect. Businesses close, phone numbers change, and
some categories are messier than others. If something here is wrong about your
business, tell us and we will fix it the same week.

Who runs this, and what else I do