How ranking works

The order of every list on AEC Integrations comes from fixed rules, applied the same way to every listing. This page names the things that decide the order and says, in words, how much each one counts. It does not publish a formula or any weights.

Search has a Products tab and a Vendors tab. Results start in the order called Relevance. Relevance works in two steps.

First, how well a listing matches what you typed. This counts most. A listing ranks higher when it matches more of your words, with fewer typos, and with the words closer together. Where the match is found matters too.

• For a product, a match in its name counts most. Then come its vendor's name, then its categories, audiences, phases and trades, then its description. Common alternative names for a trade also match, so a search in everyday words can still find the right products.
• For a vendor, a match in the company name counts most. Then come its description, then its headquarters.

Second, when listings match about equally well, completeness decides. A complete listing tells a buyer enough to judge it.

• A product listing counts as complete when it has a description, a website, a logo and at least one category.
• A vendor listing counts as complete when it has a description, headquarters, a website and a logo.

Complete listings come first. Listings with a description that are missing some of the rest come next. Listings with no description, or missing most of the rest, come last.

For products only, one more thing breaks a tie after completeness: the number of published reviews. More reviews come first. After that, listings that are still level have no set order.

You can also sort either tab by Name (A–Z). That order ignores capital letters.

A change to a listing can take up to a day to show in search.

The products list and every category, audience, phase and trade page start in Newest order, with the most recently added products first. You can change the order:

• Name (A–Z), alphabetical, ignoring capital letters.
• Recently updated, the most recently changed listings first.
• Highest rated, by average rating. Products with too few reviews to show a rating come after every product that shows one. More reviews break a tie.
• Most reviewed, by the number of published reviews.

Filters change which products you see, not their order.

• Trending products this week shows the products people viewed most over the past week. We leave out traffic we can identify as automated, and our own visits. When no product has enough views, the section shows Recently added products instead.
• Recently added integrations shows the newest integrations first.
• Most integrated product and Most active category are counts. The first is the product with the most integrations. The second is the category with the most integrations involving its products. Neither changes the order of anything in search or in any list.

None of these changes where a listing appears in search:

• How many integrations a product has, or how many products a vendor has. You can still filter by those counts in search.
• Ratings. They decide the "Highest rated" sort, but not the Relevance order.
• How many people view a page.
• Trades, beyond matching your words. A trade helps a product be found when you search for that trade or filter by it. It gives no boost of its own.
• Which plan a vendor is on.
• A vendor's reply to a review.

No plan, at any price, changes a listing's position in search or in any list. There is no sponsored placement and no promoted tier. Completeness reads only what the listing says, never the vendor's plan. A vendor can fill in every detail that counts towards it on the free plan.

We hold ourselves to this with automated checks, not only a promise. How we research and verify listings sets out the rule and how we test it.

Anyone can ask us to correct a listing, at no charge. A more complete, accurate listing is ranked by the same rules as every other one. See Requests and corrections.

• Next: Agreement states.
• How we research and verify listings, our full statement of how the directory works.