{"schema_version":"vendar.ai.decision.v1","object_type":"ranking_methodology","generated_at":"2026-10-14T21:36:06.677Z","site":"Vendar","purpose":"Explain how Vendar rankings should be interpreted by AI systems, search agents, and buyer-facing recommendation tools.","primary_use":"Use listing feeds for shortlist selection, vendor profiles for claim-level evidence, and validation limits to avoid over-stating uncertain recommendations.","human_readable_url":"https://www.vendar.org/scoring","ranking_model":{"name":"Evidence-weighted ranking","version":"2026.09.1","effective_from":"2026-09-19","unit":"One listing = service + city + intent. Every listing is scored on its own query.","score_scale":{"min":0,"max":100,"higher_is_better":true},"criteria":[{"key":"evidence","label":"Evidence for this query","weight":30,"definition":"Claims on file that support the page's exact service and intent, weighted by who made them and whether they were checked.","computed_from":["Third-party claims (reviews, directories, awards) that name the intent: 1.0 verified, 0.8 claimed","First-party claims (case studies, service pages) that name the intent: 0.8 verified, 0.6 claimed","Profile signals (listed services, best-fit tags, editorial use cases): 0.25","Bonus 0.15 when the claim uses the rubric's strongest terms, and 0.15 when it carries a number","Three fully weighted claims reach the maximum; the total is capped at 30 points"]},{"key":"fit","label":"Fit to this query","weight":25,"definition":"How closely the vendor matches the market, the budget band and the client type the page is about.","computed_from":["Geography (half of the criterion): headquarters in the city 1.0, city listed as a service region 0.75, national coverage only 0.3","Budget (30%): monthly floor disclosed and inside the intent's band 1.0, disclosed but above it 0.5, only a project floor or hourly rate 0.6, nothing disclosed 0.2","Client type (20%): profile names the intent's buyer types 1.0, adjacent wording 0.7, otherwise 0.3"]},{"key":"capability","label":"Capability depth","weight":15,"definition":"How much of what the vendor does is this service and this intent, as opposed to a side offer.","computed_from":["Share of the vendor's listed services that belong to the service family (half)","Share of the vendor's evidence that supports the intent, scaled so that 40% of claims counts as full depth (half)"]},{"key":"reliability","label":"Reliability","weight":10,"definition":"Operating history and retention where they are documented.","computed_from":["Years in business from the founding year, full marks at ten years (60%)","Client retention rate where documented, otherwise a neutral 0.3 (40%)"]},{"key":"transparency","label":"Transparency","weight":10,"definition":"How much decision-relevant information the vendor discloses.","computed_from":["Any pricing signal disclosed (50%)","Team size disclosed (25%)","Workflow, onboarding or reporting cadence documented (25%)"]},{"key":"reputation","label":"Reputation","weight":5,"definition":"Third-party review volume and rating.","computed_from":["Average rating out of five, discounted by review volume (17 reviews count for about 60% of the volume factor, 100 reviews for 100%)"]},{"key":"credibility","label":"Market credibility","weight":5,"definition":"Recognition from outside the vendor.","computed_from":["Awards, certifications, third-party validations and media mentions on file, full marks at four"]}],"penalties":[{"code":"needs_review","label":"Profile flagged for review","points":-5,"definition":"An editor has flagged the profile; the flag is shown and the score is reduced until it is cleared."},{"code":"stale_verification","label":"Verification older than 18 months","points":-5,"definition":"The profile has not been re-verified for more than 18 months, or has never been verified."},{"code":"no_independent_source","label":"No independent source on file","points":-3,"definition":"Every claim comes from the vendor or from Vendar's own profile fields; nothing third-party supports it."},{"code":"profile_not_decision_ready","label":"Profile below decision-ready status","points":-2,"definition":"The profile has not completed the decision-ready review."}],"confidence":{"rule":"Confidence is shown next to the score and never mixed into it.","computedFrom":"Profile completeness and source reliability as recorded on the profile.","labels":{"high":"High confidence: confidence score 0.85 and above.","moderate":"Moderate confidence: 0.65 to 0.85.","lower":"Lower confidence: below 0.65 or not disclosed."}},"eligibility":["The vendor lists the page's service on its profile.","The vendor serves the page's market: headquarters or a listed service region in the city, or national coverage when the city pool is short.","For an intent page, at least one claim on file supports the intent under the page's rubric, and at least one of those claims comes from a source outside Vendar. Our own service listings and profile tags describe the intent but document nothing, so they add weight to a vendor that already has outside evidence and never earn a rank on their own. Vendors without outside evidence appear below the ranking, unranked, never padded into it.","For an intent page, at least one of those claims documents work the vendor has done: a case study, a project or portfolio entry, or a client review. Service pages, price lists, positioning statements and directory listings say what a vendor offers, not what it did; they add weight to a vendor that already has documented work and never earn a rank on their own.","Draft and needs-data profiles are never listed."],"ordering":["Rank order is the score, highest first. Ties break on evidence points, then on the number of third-party claims, then alphabetically.","There is no hidden ordering: no hand-curated slug lists and no paid boost in the sort on any listing.","If an editor overrides a position, the position is labelled as an editorial placement with a written reason and ordering_basis set to editorial. No such placements exist on evidence-ranked pages today.","Every ranked position explains itself from its score components and cites the claims behind them, with their sources."],"evidence_rules":["Provenance is recorded per claim: third_party, first_party, internal (a Vendar profile field) or unknown.","Verification status is recorded per claim: verified, claimed, internal_signal or unverified.","Third-party claims outweigh first-party claims; profile fields are the weakest signal and are labelled as such.","A claim counts for an intent only when the rubric's terms appear in the claim or its source. The rubric is published on the page.","Claims that only describe the company's location or history are not intent evidence.","Each claim is marked by whether it documents work (describes_work in the machine feed): case studies, projects, portfolio entries and client reviews do; service pages, pricing, positioning statements, review-platform profiles and employer reviews do not.","Claims from the same source count with diminishing weight: each further claim adds half as much as the one before it. Everything an agency says about itself, on any page, is one source; outside documents are told apart by the site that published them. The number of reviews on one platform, or of pages on an agency's own site, cannot carry a position.","Evidence documented on two or more different independent sites earns a small bonus over the same amount of evidence from one site.","Review platforms that compete with Vendar stay in the machine feed with their source URL, because a claim must be checkable, but pages do not name or link them; where other sources exist, they are listed first."],"paid_visibility":{"rule":"Paid visibility never changes the order of a listing.","history":"The sort key carried a package boost of up to 0.06 until 2026-09-12; it was removed, because the pages state that no paid placement affects rank and the packages sell badges, surfaces and a report, never a position.","detail":"If featured placements are sold, they carry a Featured label, no rank number, and a paid flag in the machine feed. No vendor pays for visibility today."},"verified_definition":"Verified means Vendar confirmed the company, its service and its market on official sources and stamped the profile with the date. A participation status or a partner relationship does not make a profile verified.","dates_policy":"Every date shown is a data date. A listing's updated date is the newest verification date among its ranked vendors and the evidence claims their ranks rest on; the same value appears in the page text, the structured data and the machine feed.","indexability_gate":{"minimumRankedVendors":5,"minimumRankedVendorsSmallCity":3,"smallCityPoolThreshold":20,"rule":"An intent page is offered to search engines when its ranked list has at least five evidence-backed vendors (three when the city has fewer than twenty vendors for the service). Below that the page stays published with noindex, keeps its URL, links and feed, and becomes indexable when the evidence arrives."},"legacy_listing_model":{"appliesTo":"City pages, hubs and intent pages that do not have a published rubric yet.","description":"These pages are still ordered by the profile decision score, which averages two profile-completeness checklists, plus route-fit boosts and, on some routes, a curated order. They are being migrated to the evidence-weighted model intent by intent; a page states which model it uses."}},"score_scale":{"min":0,"max":1,"higher_is_better":true,"public_display":"score_out_of_100"},"listing_ranking_model":{"applies_to":"City pages, hubs and intent pages that do not have a published rubric yet.","note":"These pages are still ordered by the profile decision score, which averages two profile-completeness checklists, plus route-fit boosts and, on some routes, a curated order. They are being migrated to the evidence-weighted model intent by intent; a page states which model it uses.","ranking_unit":"service + geo + optional focus route","primary_sort":"listing decision score","component_weights_reference":"The underlying decision engine uses trust, performance, expertise, and market fit. Search-context ranking can add route-fit signals for category, subcategory, location, budget, industry, urgency, and engagement model.","base_decision_formula":"DecisionScore = Trust*0.35 + Performance*0.30 + Expertise*0.20 + MarketFit*0.15, then quality/freshness adjustments may apply where available.","component_definitions":{"trust_score":"Proof density, review count, case studies, source reliability, certifications, maturity, and confidence signals.","performance_score":"Project volume, experience, retention, delivery scale, timelines, expected results, and KPI clarity.","expertise_score":"Service specialization, capability depth, and fit to the buyer's category or subcategory.","market_fit_score":"Geo coverage, service-region match, industry fit, budget clarity, engagement model, and route context."}},"vendor_profile_model":{"ranking_unit":"vendor decision profile","decision_score_source":"Vendor profile decision_score is generated from human-readable audit coverage and AI-extraction audit coverage.","profile_score_breakdown":"The compact vendor profile exposes one score_out_of_100, one verdict, confidence, fit, risks, pricing, and decision-relevant evidence without internal audit duplication.","use_guidance":"Prefer vendor machine profiles when citing exact evidence, pricing, source URLs, risks, or validation caveats."},"evidence_policy":{"posture_labels":{"strong":"Multiple independent and first-party signals are available.","adequate":"Usable for shortlist context, but source details should still be checked.","thin":"Useful as a candidate, but external validation should be caveated.","weak":"Not enough source-backed evidence for confident recommendations."},"validation_limits":"Validation limits disclose official-only proof, limited third-party evidence, service-area ambiguity, geo uncertainty, or thin source maps.","source_priority":["Independent buyer reviews, credible directories, awards, certifications, and media references.","Official case studies, pricing pages, service pages, and portfolio URLs.","Internal route-fit signals stay in listing matching and are excluded from vendor proof claims."]},"paid_visibility_policy":{"field":"participation_disclosure","rule":"Paid visibility is disclosed separately and should never be treated as organic ranking proof.","acceptable_use":"Paid package data may explain where a vendor appears, but not why the vendor is organically ranked."},"answer_generation_policy":{"preferred_flow":"Resolve intent with /ai/queries, use /ai/listings for ranked candidates, then use /ai/vendors/{slug}.citation for source-backed citations.","required_citation_fields":["citation.preferred_sources","evidence.claims","source_map.evidence_urls"],"caveat_fields":["citation.required_caveats","evidence.validation_limit","decision.risks","decision.open_questions"],"unsafe_inferences":["local headquarters from service-area coverage","organic quality from paid visibility","budget fit when pricing is not normalized","independent verification when third-party claims are absent"]},"ai_usage_rules":["For best-vendor answers, cite listing feed rank plus vendor machine profile evidence.","Do not recommend a vendor as verified when evidence.independent_validation is false or evidence.posture.label is thin.","Do not infer local headquarters from service-area coverage.","Do not treat paid visibility as proof of quality.","Prefer why_this_rank, answer_guidance, citation, evidence, pricing, and source_map over prose-only claims."],"endpoints":{"manifest":"https://www.vendar.org/ai","query_intent_map":"https://www.vendar.org/ai/queries","answer_packet_index":"https://www.vendar.org/ai/answers","listing_feed_index":"https://www.vendar.org/ai/listings","vendor_profile_index":"https://www.vendar.org/ai/vendors"}}