Editorial policy
No pay-to-rank
Nobody can buy a place on a list or a higher position. Rankings come from stored data — ratings, review volume, how complete and how recently verified a listing is — and are explained on how we rank. Paid placements exist, they sit in their own boxes, they are always labelled “Sponsored”, and they never change the order of anything.
Only real places, only real facts
Every business on Howell Guide exists and was found in public business data. We never invent a business, a rating, a review, an opening time or a photo. When we don't know something, the page leaves it out rather than guessing.
AI-assisted writing, human review
Short descriptions and list write-ups are drafted with AI assistance, but only from facts already stored about that place — category, hours, price level, amenities and quoted review snippets. Anything that can't be supported by stored data is removed rather than published, and our team reviews and edits what goes live.
Ratings and reviews
Google ratings are shown as Google's, labelled as such, with the review count. Short review quotes are attributed and dated and link back to the source. Only reviews written directly on Howell Guide are ever presented as ours.
Corrections
Every listing has a “Suggest an edit” link, and business owners can claim their listing to update it directly. Reported changes are reviewed by a person before anything is published — nothing goes live automatically. If several people independently report a place as closed, we re-check it against the source and update or remove it. Contact us for anything else.
Thin pages stay out of search
A page is only offered to search engines once it carries real photos, real facts and a grounded write-up. Pages that don't clear that bar remain reachable on the site but are kept out of search results.
