How the RankSpire Score works
Most directories rank companies by review count. On a directory where most listings have few or no reviews, that answers the wrong question. The RankSpire Score answers the question a visitor is actually asking: can I believe what this company says about itself?
The score is always a pair
Every listing shows a score from 0 to 100 and a confidence tier. The tier says how much verified data backs the number:
- Verified: most of the picture has been checked.
- Moderate: partly checked.
- Provisional: little verifiable data yet; the score largely reflects the directory average, not this company's own evidence.
A company with sparse data is treated as unproven, never as bad: missing information pulls its score toward the directory's typical value instead of toward zero.
Five pillars
| Pillar | Weight | How |
|---|---|---|
| Market Validation | 35% | Reviews, adjusted so a handful of ratings cannot outweigh a track record (Bayesian prior of 10 reviews). |
| Claim Verification | 25% | Profile claims (team size, years, services...) checked against the company's own website. |
| Transparency | 20% | Does the company name clients, quantify outcomes, describe its process, name its people? |
| Digital Presence | 10% | Working website, HTTPS, real pages, social presence. |
| Verified Credentials | 10% | Certifications and partnerships, counted only with a source we can cite. |
Every point is backed by a quote
Where AI reads a company's website to verify claims, it is allowed to answer only with a status and a verbatim quote. Software then checks, mechanically, that the quote actually appears on the fetched page. A quote that fails that check awards nothing. That is the guarantee: no point on RankSpire exists without evidence you can read at its source.
If a company's own website contradicts two or more of its profile claims, the score is capped at 59 and the profile is flagged until re-verification.
What is deliberately not scored
- Price. Hourly rate is a fit filter, not a quality signal. Cheap is not worse; expensive is not better.
- 24/7 Support, Free Consultation. These are marketing claims, not credentials. They remain available as search filters, but earn no points.
- Minority Owned. Ownership identity is a search facet for visitors who want it. Scoring it, in either direction, would be indefensible. This exclusion is enforced in code.
No pay-to-play
There is no monetisation input anywhere in the formula: no paid placement, no sponsored boost, no way to buy a point. This is structural, not a policy promise, and this page is the published commitment to keep it that way.
For listed companies
Every deduction is traceable: your profile shows exactly which checks passed and failed, with the quotes involved. If your score says a claim could not be verified, adding the fact to your own website and requesting re-verification is usually all it takes.