Home / Methodology

How NearbyTraders Listings Are Compiled

Transparency matters. Here is exactly how we source, check, and maintain the listings on this site.

1. Data sources

Listings on NearbyTraders are compiled from publicly available business information, primarily:

Google Business Profiles — the primary source for business names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, ratings, and review counts
Public trade directories — cross-referenced for coverage where Google data is incomplete
Trader submissions — businesses can claim and update their own listing via our contact form

We do not scrape private databases, purchase lead lists, or fabricate listings. Every entry corresponds to a real, publicly findable business.

2. Quality checks

Before a listing goes live, it passes through these checks:

Trade relevance — the business must genuinely offer the trade category it appears under
Service area match — the business must serve or be located near the town it is listed in
Profile completeness — listings must have at minimum a business name and at least one contact method (phone or website)
Deduplication — we check for duplicate entries of the same business across different data sources
Name quality — generic or placeholder names (e.g., single characters) are flagged and hidden

Listings that fail quality checks — for example, those with no address, no rating, and no verifiable contact details — are hidden from public view until data can be enriched.

3. Ratings and reviews

Star ratings displayed on NearbyTraders are sourced directly from Google Business Profiles. We do not generate, edit, or influence these ratings in any way.

Ratings are shown as-is from Google (e.g., "4.8 stars")
Where a business has no Google rating, we display "No rating" rather than hiding the listing
Our "Best of" pages use a minimum 4.5-star threshold — only businesses rated 4.5 or above appear on curated best-of lists

We do not operate our own review system. All review data is third-party and publicly verifiable.

4. Certifications and accreditations

Where publicly available, we display trade certifications and scheme memberships including:

NICEIC — electrical competency scheme
Gas Safe Register — legal requirement for gas work
Checkatrade — trade vetting platform membership
NAPIT — electrical and building compliance
TrustMark — government-endorsed quality scheme

Certification badges are sourced from public records and trader-submitted information. We recommend homeowners verify certifications directly with the issuing body before hiring.

5. Update cadence

Full data refresh — listings are refreshed periodically using updated Google Business Profile data
Trader-submitted updates — processed within 48 hours of receipt
Dead business removal — permanently closed businesses identified via Google status are removed
Address and contact enrichment — ongoing, with new data sources integrated as they become available

Each listing page displays a "Last updated" date so homeowners can see how recently the data was checked.

6. Listing order

Listings on trade+location pages are ordered by a combination of data completeness and rating, with the most complete and highest-rated profiles appearing first. Listing order is not influenced by payment. No business can pay to appear higher in the default listing order.

7. What we do not do

We do not visit premises or inspect work quality
We do not verify insurance policies or financial standing
We do not guarantee the accuracy of any individual listing
We do not vet tradespeople in the way that accreditation bodies do

NearbyTraders is a directory, not a vetting service. We surface publicly available information in a useful format. Homeowners should always carry out their own due diligence — get multiple quotes, verify credentials, check insurance, and ask for references before hiring any tradesperson.

Questions or corrections

If you spot an error, an outdated listing, or a business that should not be included, please contact us. We aim to respond to data corrections within 48 hours.