Plumber Near MeHow we rank plumbers
Every list on this site is ordered by one published formula. No plumber can pay to move up it. Paid placement exists, it sits above the list, and it is always labelled.
Where the listings come from
We did not ask anyone to be here. Every one of the 3 651 businesses on this site was already publishing a Google Business Profile as a plumber in South Africa.
Listings, none of them paid for
Collected from public Google Business Profiles. Businesses are included because they present themselves as plumbers, not because they bought a place.
Websites we read
We fetched every listed website to compare what a business tells Google against what it tells its own customers. 2 065 have no website and 488 have one that does not load.
Paid featured listings
None yet. When they exist they will carry a Featured label and sit above the ordered list, never inside it.
The formula
A star rating on its own is close to meaningless: one review at five stars is not evidence, and treating it as though it were is how most directories end up with a brand-new business above one with three hundred happy customers.
score = ( R / (R + 12) ) × rating + ( 12 / (R + 12) ) × 4.442R is the number of Google reviews. 4.442 is the average rating across every plumber on this site that has at least one review. 12 is how many reviews it takes before a business’s own rating outweighs that average.
In plain terms: we start every business at the national average and let its own rating pull it away from there, gently when it rests on a handful of reviews and almost completely when it rests on hundreds. A five star average earned over 300 jobs is treated as real. The same five stars from one review is treated as one review.
These are run through the same function the database uses, so this table cannot drift away from the formula above it. Note the last two rows: at the same rating, more reviews always ranks higher. Below the 4.442 average it runs the other way, because more reviews is more confidence a business is genuinely poor.
What the badges mean
Beyond the ordering, we read each business’s own website and compare it against its Google profile. We never assert a fact of our own. We report who says what, and whether two independent sources agree.
Two sources agree
Google hours run round the clock and the business’s own website advertises after-hours work. It still does not mean somebody answers at 3am. We did not phone to find out.
One source, uncorroborated
Tells Google it never closes, then never mentions after-hours anywhere on its own website. We show this rather than hide it, because it is the difference between a claim and a habit.
Profile is behind
Advertises 24/7 on its website while its Google hours say otherwise. Usually an out-of-date profile rather than a false claim.
The other things we mark
Where a listing appears
A plumber shows on a town page because their Google Business Profile puts them there. Nothing else moves them.
Many plumbers list the suburbs they cover on their own website, and where those are close enough to be credible we show them on the card as “also covers”. That is a note, not a listing right. It has never once put a business on a page it was not already on, which is deliberate: the moment a claimed service area can win you a page, every firm in the country claims every suburb in the country.
What we do not do
We do not vet anyone
We have not inspected anybody’s workmanship, insurance, tax affairs or qualifications. A high position here means a business has a strong public review record, nothing more. Check registration numbers yourself with PIRB or IOPSA before work starts.
We do not verify claims, we compare them
When we say a 24-hour claim is confirmed, we mean two sources say the same thing. We have not phoned anyone at 3am. Treat every badge on this site as a report of what a business says about itself.
Nobody can pay to move up the list
Featured placement is sold, appears above the ordered list, and is always labelled Featured. It does not reorder anything below it. There is no arrangement under which a payment changes a score, and links to plumber websites carry nofollow, with paid ones additionally marked sponsored.
We do not remove unflattering information for money
A business cannot pay to drop its “Google only” badge, hide the number of service areas it claims, or have a low rating taken down. The only way to change any of those is to change what the business publishes.
We will be wrong sometimes
Listings are scraped, websites are read by machine, and both go stale. If something about your business is wrong, claim your listing and tell us. Corrections are free and are not conditional on buying anything.