How we check every guide

There are 248 guides on this site. Each one rests on the platform's own documentation and announcements, not on other blogs. The one exception is Bing, whose help pages are thin: there we also cite answers posted by Microsoft staff and Bing Places support on Microsoft Q&A, and name them as such on the page.

Sources

• Google: the Business Profile Help Center, Google's Maps content policies and Google's own product announcements.
• Apple: the Apple Business user guide (formerly Apple Business Connect) and Apple's announcements.
• Bing: Bing Places for Business help, the Bing blog, and answers from Microsoft staff and Bing Places support on Microsoft Q&A (never other users' answers).
• Yelp: Yelp for Business support pages and Yelp's trust and safety publications.

Every guide lists the pages it was checked against and the date of the check. Each guide also keeps one to three specific claims tied to a source, which a second reader re-checks against that source before the page is published.

Keeping it current

Platforms change their tools and wording often. Every week we compare the source pages behind our guides with their previous versions; when a page changes, the guides that depend on it are re-checked and the change goes into the What changed log with its date. Every guide is re-read against its sources at least once a month, and the "checked" date moves only when it has been.

When the platform doesn't say

Help pages leave gaps: how long a review takes, why a verification method isn't offered. Where the platform doesn't say, our guides say so instead of guessing, and where two of the platform's own pages disagree, we show both.

What we leave out

No advice on buying, gating or faking reviews, no legal advice, and no screenshots or logos of the platforms' apps. The maps on this site are drawn by us.