Nobody can pay to come out on top.

Independent means the business is not part of a chain or a big group. We look up who owns and runs it. We use official records such as Companies House and the Food Standards Agency’s register, and the business’s own website.

A person on our team writes down what they found, why they decided, and when to check again. Only a business we have confirmed as independent is shown.

What happens to a business

• Confirmed independent Shown on ByLocals
• Looks independent, but not confirmed yet Not shown yet
• We are not sure Not shown until a person has taken a second look
• Not independent, for example part of a chain Not shown
• The owner has asked us to look again Not shown while we look
• Checked before, now due a fresh check Not shown until it is checked again

A business page is made of small facts, such as opening hours, an address, a phone number or what it sells. We keep each fact on its own. A page can have an opening time we checked this week next to a detail we know nothing about.

Every fact carries four things. Where it came from. How sure we are. When we last checked it. And whether anyone says it is wrong. If we are not sure, we say so, or we leave the fact out. We never make it sound surer than it is.

Where a fact can come from

• An official record For example Companies House or the Food Standards Agency.
• The owner told us The owner has confirmed it with us.
• The business itself It is on the business’s own website or social page.
• A local told us It was reported by someone in the community.
• Our best guess We worked it out from other facts, and we say so.
• We do not know We say so instead of guessing.

The other three things we keep with it

Time makes a fact less up to date. It never changes where the fact came from or how sure we were. Anything that is a guess, unknown, weakly sourced, out of date or reported as wrong is shown with a warning or held back.

When you search or ask, the first question is whether a business really matches. We compare its kind of business and its current facts with your words. If it does not match, it is out. Nothing below can bring it back.

Among the businesses that match, three small things change the order.

• Opening hours

  If we know the hours and you asked about a time, a business that is open then comes a little higher. If we do not know the hours, we do not treat it as closed.

• Distance

  Only if you tell us where you are, and only a little.

• Vouches

  Only vouches that still count are used. A vouch counts for 12 months. We group them into four steps: None, Low, Medium, High. A newer page is not held back for having had less time to collect vouches.

What the order can see

Only five things reach the order. Anything else is turned away.

• Which business it is
• Whether it passed the independence check
• Which area it is in
• The facts we hold about it
• Its vouch step: none, low, medium or high

Money, offers, adverts and pictures never reach it. A fact’s source, how sure we are, how recent it is and any report against it travel with the fact. They are never turned into a reputation score or a boost.

Ask is the box where you type a question, such as “a café that is open now near me”. It uses an AI writing tool. The tool is given a short list of independent businesses and the facts we hold about them. It cannot use the rest of the internet, private records or its own memory.

Every sentence it writes has to point to one of our facts. If a sentence cannot, we remove it. If nothing is left, Ask says it cannot help instead of guessing.

1. You ask
2. We find the facts
3. Ask writes
4. We keep only what we can back up

Ask also says no to unsafe questions and to questions it should not answer. If something breaks, it tells you it broke. It does not pretend nothing matched. If we have saved and published an answer, you can report it in the same way as a business page.

Anyone can report something that is wrong, misleading or unsafe. A report starts a check. It does not change a page by itself. If the report is backed by evidence, the fact is changed the same way as any other fact.

When a business is taken off ByLocals, one step is not enough. We keep the case open until we have checked it is gone from every place it could still show up.

1. Its business page

2. Search results

3. Ask answers

4. Lists and feeds we send out

5. Saved copies

6. Our “do not bring it back” list

   So it cannot return later.