How We Calculate the BMR Score
Six independently verifiable signals. 0–100 scale. No paid placements. Every point is earned.
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See the exact requirements for every signal.
Score Overview
What you can actually score depends on whether AI verification has run. Many signals require AI to check — LinkedIn followers, actual review ratings, and Maps listing confirmation cannot be determined without it.
Review platform points at this stage are for having confirmed URLs — not actual ratings. LinkedIn gets 3 pts for a valid URL but follower counts require AI.
Capped at 90. Premium ($50) raises the cap to 100 and adds a +10 bonus.
How Verification Works
Every listing passes through up to three layers, each adding more data confidence.
Technical Check — runs at submission (seconds)
- Website HTTPS and liveness confirmed by direct HTTP check
- Domain age looked up via RDAP — the public domain registration authority. No AI, no guesswork.
- Review platform URLs validated against known platform domains
- LinkedIn and Maps URLs checked for format and reachability
- Business address earns presence points even without a verified Maps listing
Every data point is stamped with source ("technical" or "rdap") and timestamp. Nothing is assumed.
Scrape Pass — runs weekly for all active listings
- Trustpilot, G2, DesignRush: scraped via JSON-LD structured data in the page
- Clutch: scraped via the widget API using the stored company ID
- Google Maps: rating and review count extracted from structured data
- Failed scrapes never overwrite previously known good data — only confirmed new data is written
A scraper failure means "we couldn't check this week" — not "the data changed." Previous values are preserved.
AI Verification — runs when a profile is claimed
- LinkedIn follower counts for company page and founder profile
- Confirms Maps listing belongs to the right business (not just that a listing exists)
- Red flag search: sanctions, fraud reports, regulatory actions
- Generates personalised improvement suggestions and a strengths summary
- All findings stored with source "ai" and timestamp
AI fills the gaps that direct scraping cannot — interpretation, context, and signals in unstructured text.
Signal Breakdown
External Reviews
We scrape Trustpilot, Clutch, G2, and DesignRush directly and compute a weighted average across whichever platforms qualify. Each platform requires a minimum review count before it affects the score — this prevents a single review from inflating the result.
Platforms below the minimum still appear on the profile but do not affect the score. Weighting is by review count — more reviews means stronger signal from that platform.
Belkin Marketing Reviews
Community reviews on Belkin Marketing earn up to 30 points across three tiers. Reviews are tied to verified accounts and moderated by our team.
All three tiers stack. A business with 10 reviews averaging 4.6 earns: 10 (first) + 7 (volume) + 8 (quality) = 25 pts.
LinkedIn Presence
We check combined follower count across the company page and founder profile. A large LinkedIn audience is harder to fabricate than most signals and indicates sustained professional credibility. Follower counts are checked by AI — they are not available via public scraping.
Web Presence & Domain Age
Domain age is checked via RDAP — the official public registry used by domain registrars globally. This is the same source your registrar consults. It is authoritative, not estimated. A business that has kept a domain alive for 10+ years has demonstrated staying power that cannot be faked retroactively.
Example: active HTTPS site (4) + 8-year-old domain (6) = 10/12. A new HTTPS site scores 4/12 — not penalised, just less history to verify.
Physical Presence
A verified Maps listing is the strongest physical presence signal, but it is not the only one. Many legitimate businesses — remote companies, home-based operations, and businesses using registered agent addresses — cannot get a verified Maps listing for their registered address. Providing that address still earns points for transparency.
Apple Maps and Bing Places are accepted as alternatives to Google Maps and scored identically. Remote businesses and those using law office or registered-agent addresses are explicitly supported.
Profile Completeness
Proportional to how many of the 8 core fields are filled. Fields: business name, website, description (50+ words), founder name, email, LinkedIn URL, Maps or address, one review platform URL.
8 fields filled = 7 pts. 6 fields = 5 pts. 4 fields = 3 pts. The formula is linear: (fields filled ÷ 8) × 7, rounded.
Data Confidence Labels
Each profile shows a label reflecting how much of its data has been independently confirmed — separate from the numeric score.
Human-reviewed Premium account. Every data point checked by a Belkin Marketing team member.
Full AI verification completed. LinkedIn, Maps, domain age, and red flags confirmed.
Website, domain age (RDAP), and review platform URLs confirmed by direct technical checks.
Information provided by the submitter. Some signals confirmed, most not yet independently checked.
Most signals could not be verified. Treat this listing with caution until more data is available.
Claim Tiers
Claiming your profile raises the score cap and upgrades your verification level.
- Technical check at submission
- Formula score in seconds
- Domain age via RDAP
- Review platform URL validation
- Full AI verification
- LinkedIn follower counts
- Maps listing confirmed
- Score cap rises to 90
- Verified badge
- +10 point bonus applied
- Human audit by team member
- Every AI data point checked
- Crown badge
- Score cap 100
Score Improvement
Every AI-verified profile includes a personalised assessment — what the business is doing well and specific steps to raise the score. These appear on the company profile for the owner after claiming.
Suggestions are specific and point-denominated — for example: “Reach 5 Trustpilot reviews to qualify for the external review score (up to 20 pts)” or “A verified Google Maps listing would add up to 8 pts.” The goal is to help good businesses improve, not just assign a number.
Red Flags & Disqualification
Regardless of other scores, these signals trigger mandatory human review:
Flagged businesses are held in pending status until a team member reviews. One-sided blog posts or anonymous claims do not trigger a flag — only credible, independent, documented sources.
Score Labels
When Scores Update
- At submission — technical check and formula score assigned in seconds
- First approved community review — 10 points unlock immediately
- Standard claim — full AI verification, score cap rises to 90
- Premium claim — AI + human audit, +10 bonus, cap rises to 100
- Weekly automated scrape — external platform scores refreshed for all active listings (failed scrapes never overwrite existing data)
- Admin re-score — can be triggered on any listing at any time
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