Editorial Guidelines

These guidelines govern every guide, city page, and policy page published on Directory of Plumbers. They exist so a reader can tell, for any claim on this site, what kind of claim it is and what stands behind it. They bind our own team first. If a page on this site breaches them, the page is wrong, and the correction process at the end of this document is the remedy.

Rule 1: Specific, Verifiable Statements Only

Our content makes specific, checkable statements or it does not make the statement. A license check names the issuing authority. A verification claim names the document checked and the date basis of the check, as set out on How We Verify. A ranking claim follows the published formula on How Rankings Work. We do not publish vague trust language: no business here is described as trusted, top-rated, or the best in its city on our say-so, and no superlative appears in editorial copy unless a named source and a stated method support it. Where a business's own description uses such language, it is the business's claim, presented as its profile content, not as our editorial judgment.

Rule 2: Numbers Carry a Method or They Do Not Appear

Every count printed on this site is derived from the directory's own listing data at the time the page was built, and city pages state the source of their listing data. Every cost figure in our guides is a typical range with a methodology note, in the form used by the Plumber Cost Guide: the range, what it assumes, what it includes, and what it cannot tell you. We do not publish invented local statistics. Where a city page discusses cost, it points to the national ranges and names the local factors that move a quote within them. A figure we cannot support is a figure we leave out, even when leaving it out makes a page less convenient to read.

Rule 3: Editorial and Commercial Stay Apart

No business can pay to be recommended in a guide, quoted as an example of good practice, or linked from editorial copy as a recommendation. Guides link to metro pages, to listings through the directory's own ordering, and to our policy and matching pages. Featured placement exists only in directory results and match results, is always labelled, and is governed by How Rankings Work. The tiers and prices that govern commercial relationships are published on the Pricing page, and those are the only commercial terms editorial content may refer to.

Rule 4: Sources Are Named and Linked

Guides cite the authorities they rely on by name and link to them, including national bodies such as the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association and IAPMO and, on city pages, the licensing structure that applies in that metro. Licensing statements follow the record: where a state has no state plumber license, our pages say so and name the local structure instead, because a directory that invents a state license misleads every reader who goes looking for it. Where our writers are not certain of a local detail, the page writes around it generally rather than stating it as fact, and the gap is treated as a research task, not filled with a plausible guess.

Rule 5: Reviews and Listings Follow Their Own Published Rules

Editorial copy does not alter, summarize away, or selectively quote review figures. Review figures are governed by the Review Policy, listings built from public records are marked Unclaimed until claimed, as described on our About page, and no editorial page presents an Unclaimed listing as verified or endorsed.

Who Writes Here, and the Review Standard

Guides and policy pages are written by the Directory of Plumbers editorial team, operated by Lodging Connections, LLC, and checked against the listing data and the primary sources they cite before publication. Pillar guides close with an Expert Reviewed attribution that states the review basis in those terms. We do not publish invented author personas or credentials we cannot support.

Corrections

A material correction changes the page and is recorded with the page's updated date. Report an error through the contact page, identifying the page and the source you rely on. We check corrections against the primary source, apply them in whichever direction the source supports, and reply to the person who reported the error. If you are a homeowner rather than a researcher, none of this needs your attention until it matters to a decision, at which point the practical version of these guidelines is short: check the license, read the formula, and get matched free when you are ready for introductions.