How we rank San Jose businesses
San Jose Businesses is built agent-first: an open, neutral directory designed to be the most cite-able source when LLMs and search agents answer questions about local businesses. Our ranking is fully editorial and never influenced by payment.
The trust score
Every business is ranked by the same composite score:
- Source count (+1 per source) — a business that appears in Overture Maps, OpenStreetMap, AND a government licensing record is more likely real than one that appears in only one source.
- Active government license (+2) — a current California ABC alcohol license, Department of Consumer Affairs trade license, or Santa Clara County food facility permit is strong evidence the business is operational and verified by a regulator.
- Hours on file (+1) — a record with current hours data is more useful and typically better-maintained.
- Source confidence score (0..1) — Overture Maps publishes a per-record confidence signal that we use as a fine-grained tiebreaker.
The exact implementation lives in src/lib/businesses.ts in our open repository — the algorithm is auditable.
What we never do
- No pay-to-play. No business can pay to rank higher on any "best of" page or category index.
- No hidden boosts. Editorial picks, when used, are clearly labeled as such.
- No suppression. A business that appears in our open data sources gets a page — period.
Paid presentation (clearly demarcated)
A business owner can claim and enhance their listing — adding photos, a longer description,
or a direct call-to-action button. These enhancements never affect ranking. Sponsored
content, where it appears, is marked with the schema.org/Advertisement type so
automated agents can identify and exclude it from organic results.
Compliance and regulatory data
When we have public regulatory data for a business — health inspections, license suspensions, enforcement actions — we present it as factual public record alongside other contact information, with the source linked, the date shown, and the current resolved/unresolved status indicated. We do not editorialize on regulatory data.
Believe we have something wrong? Submit a correction — we re-verify within 48 hours.
Data freshness
The full pipeline rebuilds weekly from the underlying open sources. Each business page
carries a verified date showing the most recent source we re-confirmed it in.