How Vendar ranks agencies
Every listing is one question: a service, a city and a buyer intent. Agencies are admitted to a listing by evidence, scored on that exact question from claims that carry a source, and shown with the facts behind every position. This page is the complete rule set. The same rules are served as JSON at /ai/methodology and repeated on every evidence-ranked listing.
Service × city × intent. A company can rank first for local SEO in Los Angeles and be unranked for enterprise SEO in the same city.
Case studies, third-party reviews, service pages and profile fields, each with provenance and a verification status. No claim, no rank.
No paid boost in the organic order and no hidden curation. An override, if one ever exists, is labelled on the page.
The page defines the service, the city and the intent rubric: what counts as evidence for this question.
Service on the profile, market served, at least one claim that supports the intent. Everyone else is listed below the ranking, unranked.
Seven weighted criteria computed from countable facts, minus penalties. Confidence is computed separately.
Each position shows its points per criterion, the claims behind them with sources, and its limits. The machine feed carries the same.
1. Who is eligible for a listing
- 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.
2. The score: seven criteria, one formula
Evidence for this query
30 pointsClaims on file that support the page's exact service and intent, weighted by who made them and whether they were checked.
- 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
Fit to this query
25 pointsHow closely the vendor matches the market, the budget band and the client type the page is about.
- 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
Capability depth
15 pointsHow much of what the vendor does is this service and this intent, as opposed to a side offer.
- 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)
Reliability
10 pointsOperating history and retention where they are documented.
- Years in business from the founding year, full marks at ten years (60%)
- Client retention rate where documented, otherwise a neutral 0.3 (40%)
Transparency
10 pointsHow much decision-relevant information the vendor discloses.
- Any pricing signal disclosed (50%)
- Team size disclosed (25%)
- Workflow, onboarding or reporting cadence documented (25%)
Reputation
5 pointsThird-party review volume and rating.
- Average rating out of five, discounted by review volume (17 reviews count for about 60% of the volume factor, 100 reviews for 100%)
Market credibility
5 pointsRecognition from outside the vendor.
- Awards, certifications, third-party validations and media mentions on file, full marks at four
3. Penalties
| Penalty | Points | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Profile flagged for review | -5 | An editor has flagged the profile; the flag is shown and the score is reduced until it is cleared. |
| Verification older than 18 months | -5 | The profile has not been re-verified for more than 18 months, or has never been verified. |
| No independent source on file | -3 | Every claim comes from the vendor or from Vendar's own profile fields; nothing third-party supports it. |
| Profile below decision-ready status | -2 | The profile has not completed the decision-ready review. |
4. Confidence is separate from the score
Rule
Confidence is shown next to the score and never mixed into it. Profile completeness and source reliability as recorded on the profile.
Labels
- High confidence: confidence score 0.85 and above.
- Moderate confidence: 0.65 to 0.85.
- Lower confidence: below 0.65 or not disclosed.
5. How the order is set
- 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.
6. 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.
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.
7. Intent rubrics in force
An intent page is ranked by this model only when its rubric is published here. The rubric text appears on the page and in the feed word for word.
SEO · Local SEO
rubric 2026.09 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as local-SEO evidence when a source on file names local search work: Google Business Profile or map-pack results, service-area or local landing pages, local citations, multi-location programs, or reviews that describe local rankings. Official case studies and third-party reviews carry the most weight. A Vendar service listing or profile tag is our own label, not a document: it adds a weak signal to a vendor already carrying outside evidence, and on its own it does not earn a rank. A service share an agency sets on its own directory profile, such as a Clutch focus percentage, is the agency's claim about itself and weighs as little as a service listing. Agencies with no outside claim on file are listed below the ranking, not in it.
Terms that qualify a claim: local seo, local search, local pack, map pack, google business profile, google my business, gmb, gbp, google maps, service-area page, service area page, service-area pages, service area pages, local landing page, local landing pages, local citations, near me, multi-location, multi location, local rankings, local visibility, local lead generation. Budget band for fit: up to $6,000/month.
SEO · Technical SEO
rubric 2026.09 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as technical-SEO evidence when a source on file names engineering-side search work: crawl budget and indexation fixes, Core Web Vitals or page-speed results, site architecture and internal linking, canonicalisation, structured data, JavaScript rendering, log-file analysis, or a platform migration that preserved rankings. Client reviews describing an audit that shipped fixes carry the most weight. A Vendar service listing or profile tag is our own label and never earns a rank on its own.
Terms that qualify a claim: technical seo, core web vitals, page speed, pagespeed, crawl budget, crawlability, indexation, indexing issues, site architecture, internal linking, canonical, structured data, schema markup, javascript rendering, log file, site migration, seo migration, robots.txt, xml sitemap, site speed, lighthouse.
SEO · Ecommerce SEO
rubric 2026.09 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as ecommerce-SEO evidence when a source on file names store-side search work: category or product-page optimisation, faceted navigation and parameter handling, product schema, a named commerce platform (Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce), catalogue migrations, or organic revenue and transaction results. Reviews quantifying revenue or transactions carry the most weight. A Vendar service listing or profile tag never earns a rank on its own.
Terms that qualify a claim: ecommerce seo, e-commerce seo, shopify, magento, bigcommerce, woocommerce, product page, product pages, category page, category pages, faceted navigation, product schema, catalog, catalogue, online store, organic revenue, transactions, dtc, direct-to-consumer.
SEO · B2B SaaS SEO
rubric 2026.09 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as B2B SaaS evidence when a source on file names work for a software business: qualified pipeline, demo or trial signups from organic, product-led or bottom-of-funnel content, comparison and alternative pages, integration or use-case pages, or a named SaaS client with a result. Reviews naming pipeline or signups carry the most weight. A Vendar service listing or profile tag never earns a rank on its own.
Terms that qualify a claim: b2b saas, saas seo, b2b seo, demo request, demo requests, free trial, trial signups, pipeline, mqls, sqls, qualified leads, product-led, bottom of funnel, comparison page, alternatives page, integration pages, use case pages, software company.
SEO · AI search visibility
rubric 2026.09 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as AI-search evidence when a source on file names work aimed at generative answers: appearing or being cited in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude answers, answer-engine or generative-engine optimisation, entity and knowledge-graph work, llms.txt and machine-readable feeds, or a measured change in AI citations. Reviews or case studies naming a specific assistant carry the most weight; a service page that merely offers the term does not. A Vendar service listing or profile tag never earns a rank on its own.
Terms that qualify a claim: ai search, ai overview, ai overviews, answer engine, answer-engine optimization, generative engine optimization, geo optimization, llm visibility, llms.txt, chatgpt, perplexity, claude, copilot, ai citations, ai assistant, entity optimization, knowledge graph, ai visibility.
SEO · SEO Audit
rubric 2026.09.1 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as SEO-audit evidence when a source on file describes an audit the agency delivered: a technical, site, content or backlink audit, what it found, and ideally which recommendations were implemented and what changed afterwards. Case studies and reviews in which the audit led to shipped fixes and a measured result carry the most weight. Accessibility and paid-search audits are different services and do not count. A Vendar service listing or profile tag is our own label and never earns a rank on its own.
Terms that qualify a claim: seo audit, seo audits, technical audit, technical audits, technical seo audit, technical seo audits, site audit, site audits, website audit, website audits, content audit, content audits, backlink audit, backlink audits, link audit, audit findings, audit recommendations.
SEO · Small Business
rubric 2026.09 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as small-business evidence when a source on file describes SEO work for a small, owner-led or single-location business: who the client was, what the agency did, and ideally what changed in rankings, calls or leads. Client reviews from small-business owners and case studies with a named small client carry the most weight. A share of small-business clients that an agency sets on its own directory profile is the agency's description of itself and weighs as little as a service listing. A Vendar service listing or profile tag never earns a rank on its own.
Terms that qualify a claim: small business, small businesses, small-business, smb, smbs, family-owned, family owned, owner-operated, owner-led, single-location, single location. Budget band for fit: up to $4,000/month.
SEO · SEO for Startups
rubric 2026.09 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as startup evidence when a source on file describes SEO work for an early-stage company: a seed or Series A–B business, a venture-backed product, or a launch built from little or no organic traffic, and ideally what changed in traffic, signups or pipeline. Case studies and reviews naming the stage or funding of the client carry the most weight. A share of startup clients that an agency sets on its own directory profile is the agency's description of itself and weighs as little as a service listing. A Vendar service listing or profile tag never earns a rank on its own.
Terms that qualify a claim: startup, startups, start-up, early-stage, early stage, seed-stage, seed round, pre-seed, series a, series b, venture-backed, vc-backed, y combinator, techstars. Budget band for fit: up to $7,000/month.
SEO · SEO Consulting
rubric 2026.09 · minimum 1 claimA claim counts as SEO-consulting evidence when a source on file describes advisory work rather than done-for-you execution: consulting or coaching for a client's in-house team, SEO training and workshops, fractional or interim SEO leadership, or a strategy and roadmap the client's own team implemented. Reviews from the people who were advised carry the most weight. A Vendar service listing or profile tag never earns a rank on its own.
Terms that qualify a claim: seo consulting, seo consultant, seo consultants, consulting engagement, seo advisor, seo advisory, advisory engagement, fractional seo, in-house team, in-house seo, seo training, team training, trained our team, trained the team, seo workshop, seo workshops, seo coaching, seo roadmap.
City pages, hubs and intent pages that do not have a published rubric yet. 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.
8. Paid visibility, dates and indexing
Paid visibility
Paid visibility never changes the order of a listing. 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. 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.
Dates
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.
Indexing gate
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.
9. What every ranked position shows
See it applied
The Los Angeles local SEO listing is ranked by this model: the rubric is printed on the page, each agency shows its points per criterion and the claims behind them, and the agencies without local-SEO evidence are listed unranked below the ranking.