How we rank contractors

By Steve Henderson, Editor · Last updated 2026-09-01

We rank 3,827 contractors across 358 city and trade pages in Dallas–Fort Worth. Nobody can buy a position in a ranked list. This page is the whole formula, so you can check our work.

The score

Every business gets one number:

score = rating × ln(reviews + 1)

The natural log matters. A 5.0 rating from 3 reviews scores 6.9; a 4.9 from 200 scores 26.0. A near-perfect score from a handful of customers is weaker evidence than a strong score sustained over hundreds, but the log keeps a very large company from burying a good small one outright.

Who is eligible

• Based in the city. Its Google Business Profile address is in the city the page is about — not a crew driving in.
• At least 1 review and a real rating. An unrated business is listed but never given a number.
• The trade is its primary category. A landscaper that also lists fencing appears under "also offer", not inside "best fence companies".
• A contractor you can hire. Supply yards, manufacturers and showrooms are excluded entirely.
• Open. Anything Google marks permanently closed is removed.

When we publish a page

Only when a city has at least 3 qualifying specialists. Lists cap at 10. We would rather have no page for a city than a "1 Best" page padded to look useful.

Paid placement

Businesses can pay to be Featured. Featured listings appear in a separate, labelled block above the ranking and are never mixed into the numbered list. Paying changes nothing about the editorial order. Featured placement applies only to the cities a business has bought.

Where the data comes from

Ratings, review counts and hours come from public Google Business Profiles and are refreshed monthly. They are Google's numbers, not ours — we display them with attribution and do not present them as our own review data. Where Google's hours data is self-contradictory we drop those entries rather than publish something wrong.

Corrections

If something here is wrong about your business, claim your listing or email hello@dfwoutdoorpros.com. Corrections are free.