How we verify businesses

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 number present — confirms the business is legally registered.
• Activity score ≥ 40 — 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.

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).
• The business owner can add their real accreditations, which we verify against the issuing trade body where possible (Gas Safe Register, NICEIC, FMB, MLA, etc.).
• 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).

5. Reviews policy

Reviews come from real customers who have completed a job with a listed business. We send a review request only after a homeowner who used our enquiry form has confirmed the work is done. Reviews are moderated before publication and can be challenged by the business; spam reviews are removed. We do not publish reviews from people who haven't hired the business through our enquiry flow.

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, accreditation verification, or claim approval process for any business.