BestLocal

Review guidelines

BestLocal reviews are written by real customers about their own experience. Every review is checked against these guidelines before it posts, first automatically and by AI, then by a person when needed.

Reviews can't include

Spam and fake reviews
Reviews must describe your own real experience. No copied text, reviews posted in bulk, or reviews written in exchange for money, discounts, gifts or other rewards.
Conflicts of interest
Don't review your own business, a business you work for or are closely connected to, or a competitor.
Off-topic content
Keep it about your experience with this business. No political or social commentary, personal rants, or reviews of a different business.
Personal information
Don't include phone numbers, email or street addresses, full names of private people, or anyone else's health or account details. Staff first names are fine.
Hate, harassment and threats
No hate speech, harassment, bullying or threats, and no attacks on people for who they are.
Sexual content and profanity
No sexually explicit content, obscenity or profanity.
Illegal or dangerous content
No content that promotes illegal or dangerous activities.
Impersonation
Don't pretend to be someone else or misrepresent who you are.
Advertising and links
No ads, promotions, promo codes, links or requests to contact someone else.
Gibberish
Reviews must be readable and meaningful.

Always allowed

  • Negative reviews. We never remove a review for being critical or giving a low rating.
  • Your honest opinion of the service, price, timing, quality or communication.
  • Mentioning a staff member by first name.
  • Describing what you paid and what you got.

How reviews are checked

  1. You confirm your email with a one-time code. Your email is never shown.
  2. Our system checks the review against these guidelines, using AI (Claude, by Anthropic). It only decides whether a guideline is broken, never whether the review is positive or negative.
  3. If it follows the guidelines, it posts right away. If it clearly breaks one, we tell you which and you can edit it. If the check isn't sure, a person on our team decides, usually within 2 business days.
  4. If your review isn't posted, you can ask a person to look at it. Business owners can reply to reviews and report them, but they can't delete them.
  5. Businesses can't pay to remove reviews, and paying or rewarding people for reviews isn't allowed.

Businesses may not offer anything in exchange for a review. If you were offered a reward, please don't post the review, and tell us at the contact page.