How we calculate scores and rankings

The average on a business profile

Business profiles and business cards show an average on a scale of 1 to 5. If a Google rating is available, this is a combined average. We weight the Google rating by the number of Google ratings and add the published reviews on trustmark.site.

The result is rounded to one decimal place. For example: 100 Google ratings averaging 4.5 and 100 own reviews averaging 4.0 give (450 + 400) ÷ 200 = 4.25, rounded to 4.3.

• Without a Google rating, the average is based only on own reviews.
• The own trustmark.site average is always shown separately.
• A profile shows at most the 200 most recent own reviews.
• The Google rating shows its source and measurement date. Google reviews that are fetched separately can be more recent than that measurement.
• If there are no reviews yet, it says ‘No reviews yet’ instead of a figure.

If an average is 2.5 or lower, we show a prominent notice about the low rating, with its source. The notice concerns the published score. It is not a judgement about ownership or safety.

Business response activity

On a business profile, we show how the business replies to reviews. Only published visitor reviews on trustmark.site count, not Google or example reviews.

• Reviews answered: the share of reviews with a public reply, rounded to whole percentages.
• Typical response time: the median time between a review being submitted and the business’s first reply, including the time before publication. Only replies with a recorded time count towards this.
• Reviews without a reply: the number, and how long ago the oldest of them was submitted.

The colour follows these thresholds:

• Green: up to 24 hours
• Yellow: up to 3 days
• Orange: less than 7 days
• Red: 7 days or more

The colour follows the longer of the typical response time and the age of the oldest unanswered review. New unanswered reviews stay neutral for the first 24 hours. No reviews means no judgement. A missing public reply says nothing about any personal contact.

The Top 100 by industry

The rankings compare real businesses within the same industry. There are three separate rankings: by own reviews, by Google ratings and a combined ranking. For each industry we show at most 100 businesses with a score.

Step 1 · Adjusted average

One perfect review should not beat hundreds of good ones. That is why we calculate as if every business starts with 20 ratings of 4 stars.

Step 2 · Own score

If there are no reviews from the last 90 days, that part uses the quality of all own reviews. A quiet period therefore does not count as a bad experience.

Step 3 · Google score and combined score

A Google measurement only counts if it has been approved, has a real measurement date and is no more than 45 days old. If one source is missing, the available source counts for 100% and the score is marked provisional. Without a source there is no score and no position.

Order and movement

• We do not round before ranking.
• If scores are equal, the business with the most reviews from that source goes first. After that, a fixed alphabetical order of the profile address decides.
• A website, paid plan or trustmark status gives no priority.
• An arrow compares with the previous stored monthly measurement. Without a stored month, we show an initial calculation without arrows. A missed month is not filled in afterwards.
• A Google position is a rank based on ratings, not a position in Google search results.

What does not count

• Reviews that are awaiting review, rejected or withdrawn.
• Fictional example profiles and example reviews. They are labelled and do not appear in the rankings.
• Review texts from Google. We only use the Google rating and the count.
• Plans, payments, profile claims and trustmark statuses. They are not part of the calculation.

How a review gets onto the platform and when it is published is explained on the review checks page.

Is something wrong?

Do you see a score that does not match this explanation, or an error in a source? Let us know with a link to the business profile and we will look into it.