How results are ordered

Directory results are ordered by a server-owned organic relevance score. On a committed free-text location search, local-eligible profiles preserve server order; if the user chooses to include remote brokers, they appear afterwards and preserve server order within that group. Plans and payment do not affect the organic score or order in ordinary results. Sponsored placements are not on sale yet; when offered, they will be shown separately and labelled.

A broker cannot pay to change their organic score or position in ordinary results. Profile completeness does affect that score, including a valid profile photo. Photo upload is available on every broker plan, including Basic. Sponsored placements are not on sale yet; when offered, they will be separate from ordinary results and labelled “Sponsored”.

1. 1. Licence review state

   A current registration check recorded within the last 90 days adds 1,000 points; an older current check adds 400 points, while an unchecked profile adds none. A latest outcome of failed or not found is excluded from the directory. This records a manual ListHQ check against the register, not an automated ASIC or ABR lookup.

2. 2. Geographic match

   On fixed state and suburb directory pages, a matching base-suburb name adds 500 geographic-match points, a matching listed service-area suburb name adds 300, and a matching base state adds 120. Only the highest applicable geographic score is used. Free-text place searches instead group local-eligible profiles before any remote-only profiles the user chooses to include, preserving server order within each group.

3. 3. Language and loan-type filters

   Selecting a loan type or language excludes profiles that do not list that value. Every remaining profile receives the same points for the selected filter, so this does not change their order relative to one another.

4. 4. Claimed profile

   A profile adds 50 points when it is linked to a broker login or has an approved profile claim. The score does not test whether the broker has recently edited or maintained it.

5. 5. Profile completeness

   Each of these contributes 5 completeness points, up to 30: a valid profile photo, a description or tagline, languages, loan types, a non-null stored phone value, and a valid website or calendar link. The current completeness check does not validate the content of the phone field. Photo upload is available on every broker plan, including Basic.

6. 6. Recency of review

   If a profile has a stored profile-review date, the score is 10 minus one point for each 60 days elapsed, with a floor of zero; the current formula does not cap future-dated records at 10. A profile without that date gets zero. Exact total-score ties are re-keyed using the UTC date and broker slug, then broker ID, so their order may change daily; this is not a guaranteed round-robin rotation.

Sponsored placements are not on sale yet. When offered, they will be rendered and labelled separately from ordinary results and carry the label: “Sponsored”.