Trust

How to read Business.co.za

What every badge means, how rankings are made, what a partner is, where our data comes from, and how to correct anything.

Badges

Verified: We have checked that the business exists and that the people managing the listing speak for it.
Unclaimed: Built from public information; nobody from the business manages it yet. The owner can claim it to correct it.
Partner: Appointed by Business.co.za to handle a module — tax, CIPC, payroll, a trade — on behalf of our users, after checks on registration, reviews and conduct. Partners never get a better place in any ranking, and are always labelled.
Industry expert: One business per industry that answers, writes and reviews for that industry's page.
Contributor · Trusted voice · Leading voice: Clout earned in Ask a pro and groups: 2 points an answer, 5 for each helpful mark from someone else, 15 when the asker accepts it. 10, 50 and 150 points.
Best rated for …: What customers rated the business for, service by service — weighted so one five-star review cannot top a list. Shown with the number of ratings.
Archive: An article written more than three years ago. Rules, rates and prices may have changed.
Built from public information: Details compiled from public business directories and the company's own website, with the date we compiled them.

How rankings are made

Customer ratings count most, through an honest score that needs several ratings before it can lead.
Then clout from answering questions, then a verified, complete profile, then how focused the business is on that trade.
Nobody can pay to rank. Partners and advertising are shown in their own labelled places, never inside a ranked list.
Where nobody has been rated yet, the page says so — the order is then a profile order, not a verdict on quality.

Get it done

When you ask for a job to be quoted, you see exactly which businesses (at most three) will receive it, and agree before it is sent. It goes once. Nobody follows up on your behalf, and the businesses may use your details only for that request.

Following and notifications

Following something puts it in your feed — nothing more. You are only notified if you switch on the bell beside it, and you can switch it off any time. Manage what you follow.

Where the data comes from

Listings: entered by business owners, or compiled from public business directories and websites (and labelled so).
News: headlines and teasers from each publisher’s RSS feed, credited, with a link to the original.
Economic figures: the South African Reserve Bank, Statistics South Africa, the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources and ExchangeRate-API — named on every figure.
Reports and open data are counts of the above. Download them.

Correct or remove a listing

Owners can claim their listing to correct it. Anyone can ask for personal information to be corrected or removed at help@business.co.za — we act on it under POPIA. Security issues: security.txt.