Recommendation guidelines

Recommend a professional or service only if you personally used them. Second-hand recommendations, speculation or general praise without experience weaken the network and may be removed.

Include the service category, location and what made the experience helpful. Do not invent details, exaggerate or write on behalf of someone else.

If you received a discount, referral fee or any other benefit for recommending someone, tell us. Undisclosed incentives can mislead other users and break the law.

• Recommendations that cannot be verified or appear fake.
• Hate speech, harassment or personal attacks.
• Contact details used to bypass our safety checks.
• Attempts to promote a business you own without identifying yourself as the owner.

You cannot recommend a business you own. If you tell us the business is your own, the recommendation stops there and is not stored as community evidence. Claim the profile instead: that is the honest way to appear on the network, and it lets you keep your own details up to date.

If you are connected in another way — you work there, you are a business partner, or it is family — say so when we ask. We publish the recommendation only after a person has reviewed it. We also compare phone numbers, email addresses and web domains between a recommended business and any profile you own or have asked to claim, and we look again if you later claim a profile you previously recommended. In every one of those cases the recommendation is held for review, never deleted without a person looking.