Questions and answers
The short answers to what people ask most.
- What is Trusted by Locals?
- A free count of the local people who would recommend someone, each one confirmed by email. The person who did the work gets a link and a badge showing their number. See how it works.
- Is it free?
- Yes, to recommend and to be recommended. Nobody can pay to be listed or to rank higher.
- What does a recommendation actually mean?
- One person has said they'd recommend someone, and confirmed it from their own email address. We confirm the address, not that they were a customer, so we show when recommendations arrived and keep each one simple. More on how we keep it honest.
- Do I need an account to recommend someone?
- No. You add your email address and tap the link we send you. There's no password.
- Why do you need my email address?
- To make sure each recommendation comes from a real inbox, and that one person can't count twice. We keep a one-way fingerprint of it, not the address, and the confirmation email is cleared from our system once it's sent. We never show who recommended someone.
- Can someone leave a bad recommendation?
- No. There's no negative option and no free text, so nobody can write anything about a business except the business itself. If someone has no number, or a small one, that's the signal.
- Can people fake their way to the top?
- We make it hard (confirmed email, one recommendation per person, common disposable addresses blocked, rate limits) and we make it visible: every page shows when its recommendations arrived. We can't promise it's impossible, and we don't claim it is.
- How do I get listed in the directory?
- By being recommended. Pages for a place appear once enough local people have been recommended there. If you'd rather not be in search and directory pages, there's a switch in your dashboard, and your own page and link still work.
- I don't have a website. Can I still use this?
- Yes. Your link works anywhere: in a text, on Facebook, on an invoice. For a van, a stall or a flyer there's a printable QR code. Your badge in an email signature works too.
- How does the badge work?
- You get one the moment you sign up. At first it invites people to recommend you, then it shows your number as it grows, and it turns gold for the people locals can't stop recommending. If you put it on your website or in your email signature, it updates itself.
- Can I delete my profile, or withdraw a recommendation?
- Yes to both. You can delete your profile from your dashboard at any time, which removes it and the email address we hold for you. To withdraw a recommendation, use the link in the email we sent you when you made it, or the button on the page that follows.
- Someone is listed who shouldn't be, or the details are wrong.
- Use the "Request removal" link at the bottom of their page. We confirm your email address and then look at it ourselves.
- Do you sell my data, or show adverts?
- No. There are no adverts and we don't sell data. The privacy page says exactly what we hold and for how long.
- Does it work outside the UK?
- Your page, link and badge work anywhere in the world, from day one. Our directory is UK-first: we open a country's directory as enough local people have been recommended there, and everyone who has signed up there is in it.
- Is a recommendation a safety check?
- No. It isn't a licence, insurance, a qualification or a background check. For work that needs one of those, ask to see it.
- I do good work locally. How do I get started?
- Claim your link, then follow the steps in your dashboard. There's also a guide: how to get recommended.