Yelp vs Google reviews for contractors (and what both miss)

How each one filters reviews

Sources: Yelp 10-K FY2025 and 2025 Trust & Safety report; Google's Maps content policy, Maps blog posts (Feb 2022, Apr 2025) and Local Services help; Angi 10-K FY2024.

Yelp: a filter you can see

Yelp's recommendation software sorts every review. The 10-K says reviews may be not recommended when they are written by "less active users, whom we don't know enough about to recommend", when they look suspicious (many reviews from one IP address), or when they are "less useful". So a genuine review from a first-time Yelp user can end up on the secondary page.

That is the root of a long-running complaint: businesses have alleged Yelp hides good reviews from firms that do not advertise. In Levitt v. Yelp the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of those claims in 2014 (EFF case page). Yelp's 10-K says the software "applies the same objective standards to each review, regardless of whether the business being reviewed advertises on Yelp."

Yelp's 2025 Trust & Safety report says it rejected more than 50,700 potential new US and Canadian business pages for spammy behaviour, up 29%, which it put down to tighter moderation in high-risk categories including plumbing, garage door repair and locksmiths; it also removed more than 1,340 pages linked to "deceitful lead generators".

What you can do with this: on any Yelp contractor page, scroll to the bottom and open "reviews that are not currently recommended". A long list of five-star first posts there is a pattern the headline rating hides.

Google: a filter you cannot see

Google checks each review when it is posted and keeps checking afterwards, looking at the review text, the account's history and "uncharacteristic activity" at the place (Google blog, Feb 2022). Its content policy bans reviews "paid for, directly or in kind", incentives such as discounts in exchange for any review, reviews based on a conflict of interest including "current or former employment", and businesses that "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers".

Google's pages describe no equivalent of Yelp's not-recommended page, so you cannot see what its filter took out. Google's license check also belongs to its paid ads: the Local Services screening page describes owner background checks and license validation for advertisers, not for every business with a map listing.

The FTC rule both sit under

The FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465) took effect on 21 October 2024 (Federal Register). It bans fake or false reviews and testimonials, buying positive or negative reviews, undisclosed insider reviews, company-controlled "independent" review sites, review suppression, and fake social-media indicators, and lets the FTC seek civil penalties against knowing violators (FTC, Aug 2024). One gap: the FTC's own Q&A says the rule "does not contain a specific prohibition" on asking only happy customers for reviews, though the practice "could violate the FTC Act". Google's policy bans it outright.

What a 4.8 means, and what it doesn't

A 4.8 is the average of the reviews that survived that site's filter, written by customers who chose to write one. On Thumbtack, 4.8 is the minimum rating for the Top Pro badge (Thumbtack Pro Center, c. 2018).

It does not tell you whether the roof passed final inspection, whether the permit was pulled at all, or whether the license is active today. Those three are in public records, and none of the three review sites shows them.

What the permit file adds

Here is the roofing record in three cities, the same trade on each review site above.

The useful rows are the spread and the license count. In San Francisco, 20 roofers with ten or more permits finished fewer than 70% of them. In Minneapolis, 171 firms that pulled roofing permits now match a Minnesota license that is not active. The file cannot say which of them closed and which are still taking jobs.

The limits, once: a permit that is not finished is not proof of bad work (the owner may have stopped the job, or the inspection may be booked), the file shows only permitted work, and we join licenses by business name, so a firm can go unmatched. Minneapolis has the most unmatched roofing firms of the three, 12.5%.

A five-minute check on a well-reviewed roofer

1. On Yelp, open the not-recommended reviews at the bottom of the page and read the oldest and newest.
2. Look up the license on the state board: CSLB Check a License in California, Minnesota DLI lookup in Minnesota. Status must be active today.
3. Find the firm on our roofing compare page for your city. Compare its finished share with the city row in the table above, and count how many of its permits are still open.

See every San Francisco roofer by their permit record →