How the ranking works
Most local directories work backwards from a sign-up form: a business finds the directory, pays a fee or fills in a listing, and that's how they get on the page. This one is built the other way round. It starts with what's already being said in Coast Facebook groups, plus recommendations I trust from my own experience or a friend's, and works from there.
Method last updated 1 October 2026. This page changes when the process does.
Locals recommend
Every week someone asks a Coast Facebook group for the best trades, cafes or services, and the thread fills with names. Nobody has to submit anything for this step to happen. It's already happening, every day, without us. A recommendation from me or a friend, based on real use, counts the same way.
We log it
We track who gets named, how often, and what people specifically praise them for. A single mention starts a tally. A business named across several threads, by different people, builds a stronger one. Only mentions from the last 24 months count, so the tally reflects who locals are naming now. We also check the business is still trading before anything is published.
It becomes a page
The tally becomes a searchable entry, carrying the "Named in local groups" badge and the count behind it. It gets a page of its own once the mentions justify it. There's no fixed number: it depends on how often, and how specifically, locals praise the business. The recommendation doesn't disappear in three days like the thread did.
Only this
- A business named in a Coast Facebook group thread, by a resident, unprompted by us.
- A personal recommendation from me, or from a friend whose judgement I trust, based on real use, not a request from the business.
- Being named again, in a separate thread or by a different person, within the last 24 months.
- Specific praise attached to the mention, not just a name dropped with no context.
Not this
- Paying for a Sponsored page. It gets a business a listing, never a higher tally.
- A business emailing us to ask, or nominating itself with no corroboration in the groups.
- Our own "My pick" visits. Those are our opinion, kept in a separate badge, never blended into the community count.
- Mentions older than 24 months. They drop off the tally so old praise doesn't outweigh what locals are saying now.
Every name is checked against the actual threads, or against a recommendation we already trust, before a page is published. Then we confirm the business is still trading: we check its Google Business Profile, website and socials, and call or visit if anything is unclear. Nothing goes up on a hunch.
It's a small site run by one person, so the list is updated as often as the groups keep talking, not on a fixed schedule. If a business closes, its listing comes down once the closure is confirmed. If it moves or changes its services, the listing is updated. A business owner can ask for a correction or a removal at any time, and either gets actioned. A listing, paid or not, can also be removed if a serious complaint about the business is verified.
Coverage is limited to what the Coast Facebook groups we track actually talk about. If a business hasn't come up there, it isn't ranked here, no matter how good it is.
This is a positive space, on purpose
This site only ever aggregates the good. There's no "worst of" list, no negative tally, and never will be. That's not a policy footnote, it's the whole point: the Coast already has plenty of places to complain. This is the one place built to help good businesses get found by the people looking for them.
The same care applies to how a mention is used. A recommendation gets aggregated, never quoted word for word, and the person who wrote it never gets named. We never link back to the original thread either. The tally itself is the record, so nobody who posted a kind word in a group ends up dragged into the spotlight for it.
The tally decides, not the postcode
Eligibility is about being recommended, not about where a business is registered. If the Coast keeps naming a Sydney specialist or an online retailer, they qualify like anyone else, because the recommendation is real. A business that has never been named doesn't qualify, wherever it's based.
Online counts here too. When you're a mum juggling everything else, ordering online is often the thing that actually gets it done, and the Coast talks about those businesses just as much as the ones with a shopfront. A business that delivers to the Central Coast and matters to Central Coast people qualifies the same way: it needs to come up in what locals recommend. Enough of those and it's worth its own online category.
Want to know what each badge on a listing actually means, or who's behind this site? See what the badges mean or who runs this.