A transparent ranking system built to match the right customers with the right local businesses.
Every person looking for a local business has different needs. A homeowner with an emergency furnace failure at midnight needs a different HVAC company than someone planning a system upgrade next summer. A nervous first-time dental patient needs a different practice than someone looking for cosmetic work.
Lantern exists to match the right customers to the right local businesses. The Lantern Score is the foundation — a measure of overall quality and trustworthiness that determines how businesses are ranked. But matching you to the right business takes more than a single number, which is why every listing also includes detailed information about who each business serves best.
The Lantern Score is a composite rating that reflects how well a business serves its customers and how completely it presents itself to people searching for help. It's calculated from several factors:
Customer reputation — Review ratings and volume across platforms like Google, weighted toward recency and consistency. A business with hundreds of reviews averaging 4.8 stars tells a different story than one with a handful of perfect scores.
Business completeness — Does the business have accurate contact information, current hours, a working website, and a clear description of what they do? Businesses that invest in being findable and transparent tend to deliver better experiences.
Local relevance — Is this business genuinely serving the community it appears in? Our directories are built around specific locales, and the businesses in them should be ones that local residents can actually hire.
Verification status — Has the business recently confirmed that its information is current? Verified businesses give you more confidence that what you see is what you get.
The Lantern Score determines ranking order, but we know a single number can't capture everything that matters to you. That's why every listing includes structured information designed to help you find the business that fits your specific situation:
Best-for tags tell you what each business specializes in — emergencies, preventive maintenance, families, specific conditions or needs — so you can quickly filter to the businesses most relevant to your situation.
Ideal client descriptions spell out who each business serves best, in plain language. A business might be perfect for budget-conscious homeowners but not the right fit for a large commercial project.
Differentiators explain what actually makes each business unique — not generic claims like “great service,” but specific details like years of experience, specialized certifications, proprietary methods, or community roots.
We structure our data this way so that whether you're browsing our directory yourself, or an AI assistant is helping you find the right local business, the recommendation you get is specific to what you actually need — not just whoever has the most reviews.
Lantern does not accept advertising or payment for placement. Businesses cannot buy a higher Lantern Score. Rankings are entirely editorial, determined by the factors described above. This is a core principle, not a policy we revisit.
Lantern Scores are recalculated regularly as new reviews, business information, and verification data become available. Each listing shows its most recent update date so you know how current the information is.
If you own or manage a business listed on Lantern, you can claim your listing to review and update your information. Claiming your listing doesn't affect your Lantern Score — but having complete, accurate information helps customers find and choose you. Contact us to get started.