How rankings work
Unpaid order is calculated without looking at the plan a business is on. Two inputs are used. First, whether the listing matches the category and the town in the search. Second, how complete the profile is: a substantial description, a phone number, a website, hours, a short list of services, and an address. If those scores tie, listings are sorted A to Z by name.
Featured buys a visible Featured label and a place on the Featured rail. Sponsored is the Town Hero slot: one place per category per town, with a visible Sponsored label and a place on the Sponsored rail. Inside each rail the order is alphabetical. There is no auction. A business on either rail also remains in the unpaid list at the position the rules above give it. Payment is not an input to that unpaid order.
Paying does not hide a poor profile, does not remove a review, and does not fill an empty category. Reviews are not a ranking signal while a listing has none. If reviews are used as a signal later, that change will be written on this page before it affects order, and payment still will not be an input.
A worked example
These Exeter plumbers are fictional. The scores are the ones the directory actually uses. Red Sand Heating is Sponsored and is not first in the unpaid list, because Quay Valve Plumbing is free and more complete.
| Listing | Plan | Completeness |
|---|
No listings yet
Nothing is published for this search. A free listing can be claimed or added, and it will appear in the unpaid order. Paying for Featured or Sponsored cannot create a result on an empty page.