Editorial Methodology
How directories are selected, described, scored and related to one another in this dataset.
Selection
Directories are included on editorial merit, not on request. Nothing is sold, sponsored or accepted in exchange for payment, and there is no submission route for a directory to add itself.
Quality is prioritised over count throughout. The dataset is smaller than it could be because unverifiable candidates are rejected rather than published with gaps.
Writing
- Descriptions are original and written from what the official source stated.
- No superlatives, no marketing language, no copied text. A build-time check rejects promotional wording.
- Weaknesses are recorded as plainly as strengths. Where a directory has a reputational problem, it is stated.
Country and scope
Country records editorial coverage, not company headquarters. A directory is national when its coverage is tied to one jurisdiction, and global when a business anywhere uses it identically.
This is why several US-registered platforms are filed under Global. Filing them under the United States would mislead every reader outside it.
Editorial relationships
Relationships between directories — alternatives, similar, often used together, competitors — are curated by a reviewer. None is generated by a similarity heuristic. The validator checks that every relationship points at a real record and never at itself.
Third-party metrics
Domain Rating is recorded on 6 of 64 records, each value carrying the provider that produced it and the date it was measured. No measurement source has been consulted for Authority Score, estimated traffic and referring-domain counts, so they are null across the dataset. None of them is a PetroHrys measurement, and ranking never uses them. A recorded metric is always labelled as third-party rather than presented as a PetroHrys figure.
Frequently asked questions
Can a directory pay to be included?
No. There is no paid inclusion and no submission route for directories.
Why are so many fields Unknown?
Because the alternative is inventing them. A field is populated only when an official source stated it.