At Yahoo, we have a long, storied history of working with local businesses. To be precise, we first launched Yahoo Local in the early 2000s as a localized component of our search engine. Local has since evolved, many times, during the past two decades, and in recent years, it's been our portal for businesses to create and foster dynamic business profiles and interact with their customers. For context, we've been doing local search since before the concept of checking Google, Yelp or Reddit to seek information on restaurants or other small businesses in your city was even a thing. (Yeah, we're old, but in the best possible way; in this case, age = experience and trustworthiness.)
Now, in 2026, Yahoo Local has evolved into the single best source of trusted advice and recommendations related to local services available. Whether it's moving companies, roofers, plumbers, painters, exterminators, locksmiths, or any other type of local organization you may want (or need) to patronize, our goal is to put in the work necessary to fairly evaluate and compare services in your city, to save you time and money, and match you with the service provider that best fits your needs.
That all sounds great … but why should you trust us?
We ensure every piece of advice from our researchers and reporters is accurate and vetted. We created a proprietary rating system incorporating thousands (sometimes tens of thousands ) of user ratings from our competitors in all the categories we cover, including familiar names such as Google , Facebook and Angi , and also other smaller sources, such as Trustpilot and Thumbtack . We built in additional factors, such as Better Business Bureau (BBB) accreditation, to influence scores, among other considerations. We won't share ALL the ingredients of our secret sauce for ratings — that's what makes it secret — but we account for, quantify, weight and incorporate thousands of user ratings from these sites for every single recommendation, and we're always evolving our methodology to stay ahead of the curve and ensure our advice is the most authoritative available. We take pride in understanding why businesses have good or bad ratings in specific market segments … but not others. And we never hesitate to disqualify a provider from our recommendations if they don't meet our standards, regardless of how highly competitors rank them. Sometimes, a single poor customer experience with one of our reporters is enough to disqualify an otherwise highly-rated provider.
We reach out to and aim to interview representatives from every company we spotlight and recommend. If we have a bad customer experience, we share it, with context. We take the time to learn the nuances and quirks of the categories we cover. Our team of Yahoo Local researchers diligently digs into all business licensing requirements in the U.S. states we focus on to understand the differences, which are often many and different from federal regulations. We speak with people in the trenches of each service area to understand exactly what sets a good company apart from a great one (mandatory background checks for all staff or an intimate knowledge of a service area and its people, for example).
Where possible, we gather feedback from actual customers to identify each organization's strengths and potential weaknesses, and we share information from real-world experiences, good, bad, and everything in between. No company is perfect, and we take the time to spot potentially problematic trends in their services and offerings that customers need to be aware of. We also know there are a lot of fake and biased "customer" reviews, which is why we never rely on one reviewer or source. We aim to make sense of all reviews, the good, the bad and everything in between. And we do a damn good job of it.
We occasionally write standalone reviews or worthy providers, such as BLVD Moving , our No. 1 overall pick for a U.S. long-distance mover, to provide even more useful details. And in some cases, we research and write independent business profiles of the companies (and people behind them) that rank highest on our lists, because we believe it's worth the time to connect to the people who know their organizations best, to tell their stories. A flash of local color can be the decision maker when other differentiators aren't obvious. Does the granddaughter of its founder own your local moving company? Does a friendly feline greet customers at your neighborhood plumber's office? Is your local roofing company owned by first-generation immigrants who took a bet on your community when they opened their first business in your area? Did that local locksmith grow up right around the corner from their storefront? We want to know all these things! And we know you do too.
Perhaps most importantly, we fact-check each of our best lists before publishing, because we care about the details, big and small, and we take your trust seriously. We're so proud of our best-in-the-industry ranking system that we built an awards system (for Best in the U.S. movers and Best in the U.S. roofers ) to spotlight the No. 1 providers in the myriad U.S. cities we cover, and we deliver them quarterly.
We crunch complex data and deliver a simple score
The beauty Yahoo Local’s rankings and recommendations is how our rating system allows us to take a frankly frightening amount of information, analyze it effectively by weighing key considerations differently than less relevant ones, and then deliver a simple, easy-to-understand score, along with the appropriate context to assess its value and specific relevancy to you. A business with piles of reviews on Google may simply have been around longer than a similar one with a fraction of its customer testimonials, so we account for that. An organization with an A+ BBB rating may have racked up many more complaints than rivals with lower overall scores during a long time period (check out our guide to BBB accreditation and complaints for details), and our rankings reflect that. Our system constantly evolves as we learn about the most important factors in each service area, as do our recommendations.
'Truly local' businesses, truly trustworthy advice
While we always aim to find the very best "truly local" businesses that service your particular area, based in your area, our true north is creating and maintaining the best recommendations for you and your needs, regardless of where a business is located. A large, franchised moving company based 50 miles away may be best suited for your long-distance move, and if so, you need to know. For this reason, we always rank the best of the best national providers (see our best national movers and best national roofers , for example) and include one such recommendation in all city-specific provider rankings. However, we always strive to feature and focus on local businesses that understand your city, town or state and provide the knowledge and custom touches to set them apart. These are the businesses we'd want to patronize, and we believe they're the ones that deserve your support, as well.
Not satisfied? Let us know!
If ever you find Yahoo Local advice to be lacking, we want to hear about it. I want to hear from you personally, and you can reach me directly via email . We strive for perfection in all things Local, but like your city's businesses, we know that's not always possible. What is possible is to communicate with our audience and improve on potential shortcomings.
As the director of the Yahoo Local Services team, you have my guarantee that I will read, heed, and respond to any thoughtful communications related to our recommendations, and if we get something wrong, we'll fix it and make it right.
– Al Sacco, Yahoo Local Director
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