Short answer
Every business is checked the same five ways: independent corroboration, review history, whether the website responds, whether the listed phone number matches the business's own site, and whether an ABN can be confirmed on the national register. Coverage is published for each — 95%, 70.8%, 44.3% and 12.9% respectively — including the low ones.
Most directories tell you what they check. Very few tell you how often the check actually succeeds, which is the part that determines whether the first number means anything.
The five checks
| Check | What it means | How often it succeeds |
|---|---|---|
| Independent corroboration | Two or more sources that do not depend on each other describe the same business the same way | 95% |
| Website responds | The site loaded when we last requested it | 70.8% |
| Phone matches | The listed number appears on the business's own website | 44.3% |
| ABN confirmed | An ABN published by the business, confirmed against the national register | 12.9% |
| Review history | Volume and rating, weighted toward volume | every listing |
The last two columns are the point. A directory that tells you it checks ABNs, without telling you it can only do so for one business in eight, has told you about its marketing rather than its data.
Three states, never two
Every business page shows a check as passed, failed, or never run. Those are different facts and collapsing them is the most common dishonesty in this category: a business with no ABN published is marked as not checked, not as failed.
What this method cannot see
- When reviews arrived. We hold counts and averages, not individual timestamps, so forty reviews over six years and forty in a fortnight score identically here. The second is far more likely to have been bought.
- Licence status. There is no national register to check against, so a licence is something you verify yourself with your state regulator.
- Whether the work is any good. No amount of documentary evidence establishes that.
Common questions
- How does WhoToHire rank businesses?
- A score out of 100 from five weighted components: independent corroboration, review history, website reachability, whether the listed phone matches the business's own site, and whether an ABN is confirmed on the national register.
- Can a business pay to rank higher?
- No. There is no advertising product and no sponsored placement. Correcting or claiming a listing does not affect position.
- What can't WhoToHire tell me?
- When a business's reviews arrived, whether its licence is current, and whether the work is any good. The first is a data limitation we publish rather than hide; the second requires your state regulator; the third no directory can measure.
Read next
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- Only 12.9% of Australian trade businesses publish a checkable ABNWe checked 20,703 Australian trade businesses. 12.9% publish an ABN that can be confirmed against the national register …