Methodology
Scoring weights
Five factors make up a business’s score, each weighted below. The percentages add up to 100.
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Google rating | 35% | The business’s average Google Business Profile star rating, out of 5. |
| Review volume | 25% | How many Google reviews the business has, on a diminishing-returns scale, so a business with 3,000 reviews cannot bury one with 300 good ones. |
| Owner responsiveness | 15% | Whether the owner responds to reviews on Google. We use this today as a stand-in for review recency until we track exact response times. We are still collecting this data, so today every business receives the same neutral score on this factor; it will begin separating businesses once that collection is in place. |
| Years in business | 15% | How long the business has operated, capped at 25 years so a 10-year-old shop is not penalized against one that opened 40 years ago. When we have not verified a business’s years in operation, it receives a default of 3 years on this factor rather than a zero, so missing that one data point does not sink an otherwise strong business. |
| License verification | 10% | Whether we personally confirmed an active license or registration for trades that require one, checked against whichever Florida agency regulates that trade: DBPR for contractors, cosmetology salons, and real estate agents; FDACS for pest control and auto repair; the Florida Bar for attorneys; the Department of Health for dentists. Businesses in a field with no license requirement, and businesses in a licensed field whose state registry we could not search, receive the same partial credit: they are not treated as unlicensed, but they cannot match a business whose active license we confirmed. |
Where the data comes from
We do not buy or accept business data from a directory feed. Every business listed is checked directly, three ways:
- Live Google Business Profile checks. Rating and review count are pulled from the business’s own live GBP listing, not an old snapshot.
- Florida state license lookups. For trades that require a state license or registration, we look up the number directly in the state registry that governs that trade: the Department of Business and Professional Regulation for contractors, cosmetology salons, and real estate agents; the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for pest control and auto repair; the Florida Bar for attorneys; the Department of Health for dentists. Where the registry is publicly searchable, we record whether it is active. When a registry defeats a genuine search attempt, we do not guess: that business gets the same partial credit as an unlicensed-field business.
- Site and listing checks. Address, phone number, and website are checked against the business’s own site and listing so the details on our page match reality.
Re-verification schedule
We re-check every category roughly once a quarter. The “last verified” date on each category page reflects when we most recently re-verified that category’s data, not when the page was first published.
Reporting an error
Own this business, or spot something wrong? Email data@delandlocal.com with the correction and we will look into it and update the listing once we’ve confirmed it.
No business can pay to change its ranking. Ever.
The same rule covers the Verified DeLand Local badge: it is free to every listed business, and displaying it never affects a ranking.