besttrades.wales is an independent directory. We don't take referral fees from tradespeople, and we don't artificially boost any listing in exchange for payment. Every listing on the site exists because we sourced it from a public record. Here is how that process works, in full.
1. Where the businesses come from
Two sources, both public:
- Companies House, the UK government registry of every limited company. We pull active companies registered to a Welsh postcode whose SIC codes match the trades we cover.
- Google Business Profile, public-facing business information that the business owner has chosen to publish themselves. We use Google's Places API to find verified-by-Google entries in Welsh towns.
We do not buy lists. We do not scrape competitor directories. Every business has a verifiable public record before we list it.
2. The publishing gate
Not every record we find gets published. A business only goes live on the directory if it passes our quality score check:
- Welsh postcode, postcode must match a CF / SA / NP / LL / SY / LD outward code.
- Companies House match, or a Google record strong enough to stand alone, we look every business name up on Companies House. Many Welsh tradespeople are sole traders with no limited company, so a listing with no Companies House match is only published if its Google Business Profile carries the weight instead: a 4.0+ rating, at least five reviews, and a website that responds.
- Activity score, at least 40, or at least 30 where we do have a Companies House number. The score combines indicators like presence of phone number, address, opening hours, Google review count, recency of public activity, and whether the postcode matches the registered office.
Records that fail these checks are kept in our database but stay hidden from public pages. Empty city × trade pages get a noindex tag so Google doesn't waste crawl budget on thin content.
What the gate does not check: trade-body membership. We do not query the Gas Safe Register, NICEIC, NAPIT, TrustMark, FMB, FENSA or NFRC, and we hold no accreditation number for any listing. If a credential matters for your job, ask the business for its registration number and check it on the issuing body's own register, every one of them is free to search. Our accreditations guide explains what each credential covers and where to look it up.
3. The claim process
When a business owner claims their listing, we verify they are who they say they are using a layered scoring system. The claim is auto-approved only if the score is high enough; otherwise it goes into a manual review queue.
- Email match (+50 points), the address that received the magic-link matches the email on the public Google Business Profile.
- Domain match (+30 points), the claimant's email domain matches the business's website domain. Free-email providers (gmail, hotmail, etc.) don't qualify here.
- Companies House officer surname match (+30 points), the claimant's email contains the surname of a currently-active officer on the Companies House filing.
- Officer full name match (+40 points), surname plus first name both present.
Threshold for auto-approval is 50. Claims scoring lower are held for human review.
4. What changes when a business is claimed
- Phone and email become visible on the public profile (hidden by default for unclaimed listings).
- Photos, full description, opening hours, and service area can be edited.
- Homeowner enquiry leads from the directory are routed to the business by email (and SMS if they upgrade to a paid Premium tier).
The embeddable badge
A claimed business can show a small "Verified on besttrades.wales" badge on its own website. It links to the business's listing here, where anyone can see what we checked, including its Companies House record where it has one. It says two things: the listing has been claimed by the business, and it passes the publishing gate in section 2.
It does not say the business holds any trade-body accreditation. We do not check any. The badge is a live image served by us, so it turns blank by itself if the listing stops being claimed or stops passing the gate.
5. Reviews policy
Every review is submitted through a single-use invite link, there is no open review form on the site. Invites reach a customer one of two ways. If the job started with an enquiry through our form, we email the business 7–8 days later and ask it to record the outcome; only a lead the business itself marks as won triggers an invite to the homeowner, sent on day 14 with a single reminder on day 21. Separately, a claimed or Premium business can invite its own past customers from its dashboard, up to 25 per request; those invites aren't tied to an enquiry, so the business is the only party vouching that the job happened. Either way the review lands as pending and is published only after we moderate it; spam is removed, and Premium businesses can post a public response.
6. Removal requests
Any business listed can ask to be removed at any time by replying STOP to any email from us, or by emailing remove@besttrades.wales. Removal happens within 24 hours.
7. Editorial process
Guides and trade-specific content (cost estimates, hiring tips, regulation summaries) are produced by the besttrades.wales editorial team, then reviewed against the publicly-available official sources, UK Government building regulations, Welsh Government planning rules, individual trade body certification standards. We aim to refresh each guide at least annually; the "Last updated" date on each guide reflects its most recent review.
If you spot something incorrect, please email editor@besttrades.wales.
8. Independence
besttrades.wales doesn't accept advertising. The site is funded entirely by Premium subscriptions paid by businesses that opt in. Premium status is clearly labelled with a Premium badge. It buys a Premium business better placement in the listing order and instant SMS lead alerts, but it does not change anything about the editorial content, the publishing gate, or the claim approval process for any business.
Questions or corrections? Email editor@besttrades.wales.