PAID PLACEMENTS, CLEARLY EXPLAINED

Know what’s
sponsored.

Sponsorship helps support the guide. It buys a clearly labeled placement, with limits on what we can measure and promise.

Look for the Sponsored label.

Paid placements carry a visible “Sponsored” label beside the content. They are separate from organic directory results, and paid outbound links are identified as sponsored for search engines. Payment is not an endorsement of a business’s quality, credentials, or suitability for your needs.

Payment never improves organic ranking.

Sponsorship and agency services do not change a business’s position in organic search results or bypass listing review. Businesses can be listed, claim their profile, and request factual corrections without buying an ad. Read how the guide works for our listing criteria and search order.

What counts as an impression or a click?

When measurement is enabled, a sponsored impression is eligible to be recorded after at least half of the unit is visible for at least one continuous second while the browser tab is visible. We count each unit at most once per page visit; returning or reloading can produce another impression. This is our measurement definition, not a claim of independent auditing or industry certification.

Clicks record observed interactions with the sponsored link. Reports use aggregate event counts for the stated reporting period, not unique visitors or a count of distinct people. The same person can contribute multiple impressions and clicks.

Measurement has limits.

We limit rapid duplicate events and filter recognizable automated traffic, but those safeguards cannot identify every bot or every repeat visit. Privacy choices, browser blocking, connection failures, and collection limits can also reduce the events we observe. We do not use a persistent visitor identifier to deduplicate people across visits. See our privacy notice for more about data handling.

An impression does not prove someone read an ad. A click does not prove a completed phone call, inquiry, booking, or sale. We report observed delivery and do not guarantee traffic, conversions, or customers.

Talk through a placement.