Who maintains these rankings?

Elena Haddad, Editorial Lead, maintains the scoring rubric and how it's applied across the 96 businesses in the directory.

Why does sentiment count more than star rating?

A star average can hide patterns. Two businesses can share the same rating while one has repeated recent complaints about the same issue. Reading what reviews actually say catches problems the number alone won't show.

Does paid placement affect a business's score?

No. Where paid placement exists, it's always labeled, and it never changes a business's score or its ranking. Scores come only from the rubric and the underlying data.

What does a low-confidence score mean?

It means the business has few recent reviews, so there's less data behind the number. We label these scores as low-confidence rather than presenting them with the same certainty as businesses with a longer, more recent review history.

How we score Spartanburg landscapers

The Spartanburg SC Landscaper Guide currently scores 96 landscaping businesses on a 0-100 scale. The score is built entirely from measured signals tied to each business's public review record and listing data. Nothing here is paid for and nothing is hand-adjusted after the fact. Elena Haddad, Editorial Lead, maintains the rubric and reviews how it's applied across the directory, but the number itself comes from the data, not from a personal opinion of any one crew or company.

The five signals, heaviest first

Each business gets a composite score from five weighted signals. We list them here in order of how much they count, because that order tells you what we think matters most when you're actually hiring someone to touch your yard.

Sentiment: 28%

This is the single biggest piece of the score, and it's the one most directories skip. We synthesize what recent reviews actually say, not just the star they left. A 4.4-star average can hide a pattern of complaints about no-shows, sloppy edging, or surprise charges that never show up in the number itself. Two landscapers can carry the exact same rating while one has a string of recent reviews describing the same specific problem. Reading the content of recent reviews is the only way to catch that, so it carries the most weight in our scoring.

Rating: 26%

The Google aggregate star rating still matters. It's a fast, honest summary of how customers feel on average, and it's the number most people check first. We weight it heavily, just slightly behind sentiment, because a rating without context can flatten real differences in service quality.

Volume: 20%

A business with 4 reviews and a business with 400 are not equally proven. We log-scale review volume so that a handful of reviews doesn't get treated as equivalent to hundreds, but we also don't let sheer count drown out everything else. This signal rewards businesses that have been tested by a real customer base over time.

Recency: 12%

Landscaping crews change, ownership changes, and service quality shifts. A great reputation from three years ago doesn't tell you much about who shows up at your house next week. We factor in how recently customers have posted reviews so the score reflects the business as it operates now, not as it operated in the past.

Completeness: 14%

Does the listing show a phone number, a website, hours, and an address? Basic contact completeness is a practical signal of professionalism and makes it easier for you to actually reach the business. It's a smaller slice of the score, but it's not nothing.

Where the score has limits

Any business with few recent reviews gets a low-confidence score, and we label it that way on its listing. A thin review history simply doesn't support the same certainty as a business with hundreds of recent, detailed reviews, and we'd rather flag that than paper over it. We also don't republish reviews verbatim. We synthesize themes across recent reviews and link out to Google so you can read the original source yourself and judge it firsthand.

What never changes the score

Scores are earned strictly from this rubric and the underlying data. They are never edited by hand. Where paid placement exists anywhere on this site, it is always labeled clearly and it never changes a business's score or its position in the rankings. Separately, if any curated list on this site involved editorial judgment in choosing or ordering picks, that involvement is disclosed on the page itself. Our best lawn care and maintenance list works alongside this scoring system, and you can always return to the homepage to browse the full directory.

FAQ

Who maintains these rankings?: Elena Haddad, Editorial Lead, maintains the scoring rubric and how it's applied across the 96 businesses in the directory.
Why does sentiment count more than star rating?: A star average can hide patterns. Two businesses can share the same rating while one has repeated recent complaints about the same issue. Reading what reviews actually say catches problems the number alone won't show.
Does paid placement affect a business's score?: No. Where paid placement exists, it's always labeled, and it never changes a business's score or its ranking. Scores come only from the rubric and the underlying data.
What does a low-confidence score mean?: It means the business has few recent reviews, so there's less data behind the number. We label these scores as low-confidence rather than presenting them with the same certainty as businesses with a longer, more recent review history.