Approval Criteria
We strive to provide our viewers with the best information and experience. Every site submitted for inclusion is reviewed by both our own algorithmic programming and human editors in an effort to ensure it meets the following criteria:
Legitimacy
The most common reasons we disallow a listing is due to our editors either not being able to verify that you are the actual provider of the products and services, or we are unable to determine if your company has the expertise to provide the products, services and information being offered. This criteria is particularly important for companies that do not have an actual store front or corporate office that buyers can visit.
As an example, a website cannot state they are in the limousine business by showing a picture of a limousine with a request form. A website cannot state they are locksmiths by showing pictures of locks or keys with a phone number to call.
To help viewers (and our editors) recognize that your company is the actual provider of the products and services and possess the appropriate expertise we have the following suggestions. Please ensure that your website incorporates at least one or more of the following:
i. Don't hide behind the web page. We want our viewers to see and know about your professional expertise and the expertise of your staff. You should readily show the same information a viewer could obtain if they called or visited you. Your "About Us" should not just be about "what we do" or "we are a family owned operation". Your site should tell viewers about the expertise and specific people who own, manage or work within the company.
ii. If you were submitting a site for "XYZ Electricians", do not just say 'we do electrical work'. Show and tell your viewers about the people who are behind the 'we'. For example, show who you are, who works for you, your expertise, your employees expertise, credentials, certifications or licenses, etc.
iii. If you were submitting a site for "John Smith Plumbing", do not just say we do plumbing. We want our viewers to know about John Smith. What is his professional expertise? Its also helpful when we can see a picture(s) on your website that clearly lets viewers know it was you or your company doing the plumbing. Showing a picture(s) of a remodeled bathroom is not fully sufficient unless we can clearly see it was your company working on the project.
iv. If you were submitting a site for "ABC Business Attorneys", do not just say we do corporate law. Show viewers your attorneys, their names, pictures, education, areas of expertise, etc.
v. If you are a company that needs to be licensed in order to provide your services, state the type of license and license number(s) on your website.
vi. We strongly suggest your website display active links (not just images) to verifiable sources that help confirm your company is established, qualified and responsible for all aspects of the sale, labor, products or services. These include the BBB, prominent review sites, state or other government issued license numbers, active association or industry memberships, etc. Please note: any links must directly go to the page that references your company and show the same information of the company being submitted. This includes personal names, corporate name, physical address, website URL address, etc.
Other Criteria
Your website must provide a product or service for sale. Websites that are primarily a blog or resource of free information will not be approved.
Your website cannot be under construction. It must be fully functional with good navigation to internal pages.
Your website must be in the English language. If your site does not default in English, you must offer an English translated version. The link to offer an English translation must be available on all pages within your website. Your membership submission must also be in the English language.
Your website should provide plentiful, clear and professionally displayed information about what you are selling and where you are located. If you provide services to local areas only (plumbers, electricians, general contractors, etc.), it is helpful to enter the local areas that you do service when prompted.
The domain name cannot be an extension or part of a domain that was registered by another party and is also being shared with other parties that have different sub-domains, affiliate IDs or extensions to the primary domain name. Only the domain name as it was registered with your domain registrar is eligible for membership.
The URL submitted for membership cannot redirect to a different URL or be part of a differently registered website or platform.
The information on your website and the information submitted for membership must be accurate, truthful and match other publicly verifiable resources and registrations.
Your website cannot primarily derive its revenue, or even appear to derive its revenue through the use of affiliate relationships, forms to acquire sales leads or placing links to other websites for referral commissions.
Submission of multiple websites providing similar products or services and whereby those websites have the same administrative relationship, ownership, maintenance or platform will be viewed as spam. Such action will warrant the removal of all submitted websites with no appeal. As an example, a 'locksmith' cannot submit a different website for each town they service. A computer re-seller cannot submit a different website for each computer brand they offer. A web developer cannot design one type of site for 'HVAC companies' and submit the same site on behalf of all its 'HVAC' clients.
Your website cannot appear to have participated in a link-building strategy that created numerous and/or irrelevant links associated to your listing within b2bYellowpages.com.
The website cannot contain the following content or display links to the following content: Sites that require a person to be over the age of 18 to enter; enabling, facilitating or displaying of pornographic or any adult related products or services; gambling or casino sites; violent, racially oriented, hate, ethnical, offensive or inappropriate site; get rich schemes; sites offering products with medical claims unsupported by federal government sources, multi level marketing (MLM), file sharing or peer to peer sites; the offering of products, services or information that regardless of location may be deemed illegal under any applicable local, state, federal or country law, statute, ordinance or regulation; infringe upon someone's property or rights.
When you list your site:
Categories selected must clearly be representative of the products and services offered by your company.
Descriptions should describe your products and services without self-promotion or unsupported #1 claims. They should refrain from stating we are "the largest", "the cheapest", etc.
Keywords cannot be general in nature. They must be specific to your products or services. For example, a furniture manufacturer may submit the keyword "furniture manufacturer", but cannot submit just the keyword "furniture".
About our Criteria: While our criteria has been formulated and based upon reviewing tens of thousands of websites, the preceding is only a summary of the editorial criteria used when selecting web sites for inclusion in our directory. The criteria we state and utilize in our approval process are not to be considered all-inclusive. The criteria stated only serves to provide a summary of the general criteria utilized. b2bYellowpages.com in its sole discretion reserves the right to include or exclude listing any site, categories, keywords or descriptions for reasons that may not be stated and such determinations will be final and binding.
