Methodology
Where listings come from
- Nevada State Contractors Board. Business name, license number, classification, limitation, status, expiration date, mailing city and ZIP code, from the board’s public listing of active licensees.
- Nevada State Contractors Board license detail. For each active, matched license: the date the license was first issued, the monetary limit, and the number and latest date of disciplinary or board actions the board lists for the last five years. Fetched politely (no more than one request every two seconds). Phone numbers, owner and qualifier names and bond details on that page are not stored.
- OpenStreetMap. Businesses tagged with a matching craft or shop type inside the Las Vegas valley. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL).
Records from both sources are matched on business name and street address. A business found in both shows both sources.
What “Licensed” means here
A listing is labeled Licensed only when it is matched to a Nevada State Contractors Board license with status Active. Each licensed row shows the license number, classification, any limitation the board records (for example “limited to radon gas mitigation”), and the expiry date. Licenses expiring within 90 days of the board data are flagged. OpenStreetMap businesses that are not matched to a license are listed separately under “Other listings (license not matched)”. Always verify a license with the board before hiring. See How to check a Nevada contractor license.
How listings are grouped by place
- Las Vegas pages cover the whole Las Vegas valley, because searchers use “Las Vegas” for the valley. They show a breakdown by mailing city and ZIP code.
- Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City pages list businesses whose board mailing address is in that city. An address is the business’s office, not its service area. Boulder City pages exist only for trades with at least 10 active licenses.
- ZIP code pages list businesses with a mailing address in that ZIP code. They are navigation aids and are not indexed. ZIP demand was not measured, so these pages stay out of the index.
- Summerlin, Spring Valley, Paradise and Enterprise use “Las Vegas” mailing addresses, so they need geocoding before they get pages. Mesquite is outside the collected area and is not covered.
A trade page is published only when at least 10 businesses in that place hold an active, matched license. Smaller groups stay on the Las Vegas valley page.
How we rank: Standing Score v1
Licensed businesses on each trade page are ranked by the Standing Score, version v1, a number from 0 to 100 that we compute from public license records and OpenStreetMap. It answers one question: how established and in good standing is this license? It does not measure quality of work.
| Signal | Source | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Years licensed: time since the license was first issued, on a logarithmic curve, capped at 20 years | Board license detail (first-issue date) | 0 to 35 |
| Full classification: the license carries no limitation | Board listing (limitation) | 20 |
| Not expiring soon: expiry more than 90 days after the board data date | Board listing (expiration date) | 10 |
| No board discipline in the last 5 years | Board license detail (disciplinary and board actions) | 15 |
| Monetary limit: the license’s job-size limit, on a logarithmic curve from $5,000 (0) to $5,000,000 or unlimited (10) | Board license detail (monetary limit) | 0 to 10 |
| Contact details on OpenStreetMap: website 4, phone 3, opening hours 3 | OpenStreetMap entry matched to the license | 0 to 10 |
- Total: the sum, rounded to a whole number, out of 100.
- Ties: the longer-licensed business ranks first, then alphabetical by name.
- Missing signals score 0 and are shown as “not available”. Years licensed, discipline and monetary limit are used for a trade only once the board detail is collected for every licensed business in that trade, so every row on a page is scored on the same signals. Until then they score 0 for every row and the page says so.
- Only licensed rows are ranked. Businesses from OpenStreetMap that are not matched to an active license are listed after the ranked rows, alphabetically, and are not ranked.
- What is not used: Google ratings, reviews of any kind, and payments. No business can pay to be listed or to change its position.
- Versioning: the weights live in one configuration file. Any change gets a new version number and is noted on this page.
The score is our own calculation from public records. A license record is a starting point, not an endorsement: always confirm a license with the Nevada State Contractors Board before hiring, and ask for proof of insurance and a written estimate.
Order and pages
Ranked licensed businesses come first, then other listings alphabetically. Long lists are split into pages of 25, and the rank continues across pages.
Quote requests
Trade pages include a free quote-request form. How our quote requests work: you choose up to three named licensed businesses, and you must give consent. A request is shared only with the businesses you selected. The form is not currently accepting requests; it stays disabled until a lead endpoint is configured, and the page says online quote requests are not open yet. There is no option to send one request to any licensed pro. See the privacy policy for what is collected and how long it is kept.
Google ratings
The top three cards on a trade page can show a live star rating from Google Maps, loaded in your browser from Google’s Places UI Kit when the cards come into view, with Google’s attribution. Ratings are shown for reference only: they are never stored or cached by this site, never marked up as this site’s own ratings, and never used in the Standing Score or the order. A business without a matched Google place shows no rating.
How we're different from other directories
Many directory sites are built differently from this one. ReviewsByCity orders licensed businesses with the published Standing Score v1, and that position cannot be bought. Licensed rows are matched to the Nevada State Contractors Board and include a Verify link. We never store Google ratings; where shown, they load live from Google. They are not shown today. Quote requests are not currently being accepted. The Las Vegas valley page for a published trade lists the active licensees collected for that trade, not about 20 names from one search.
The comparison is written out at How ReviewsByCity Compares to Other Local Review Directories.
Current data
- Score version: Standing Score v1.
- Board listing data: 2026-10-16.
- Board license detail: retrieved 2026-10-17 to 2026-10-17.
- Trades scored with years licensed, discipline and monetary limit: HVAC Contractors.
- Trades still waiting for license detail (those signals score 0 for every row): Plumbers, Electricians, Roofers, Painters, Landscapers, General Contractors, Flooring Contractors, Concrete Contractors.