How we rank
Last updated 2026-10-05
Every guide on Get That Best compares real Singapore businesses on criteria we publish here. We check the evidence ourselves and log where each fact came from and when.
What we score
We score what adds real, measurable value for the customer: what a business guarantees, what other customers say, what results it can show, and what it gives you before you pay. Price is shown on each card but is not scored, because a low price says nothing about what you get for it. How long a business has existed is not scored either: an older company is not a better one.
Guarantee and risk reversal weighs most. A business that owes you something when it misses is carrying part of your risk. A business that promises and owes you nothing if it misses is asking you to carry all of it.
| Criterion | Weight | Where we check it |
|---|---|---|
| Guarantee and risk reversal | 5x (6x for agencies) | The guarantee, trial and contract terms the business publishes, including its terms of service |
| Google reviews | 3x | The business's Google profile: rating and number of reviews, with the date we looked |
| Free extras | 3x (2x for agencies) | What the business's own website says you get at no charge |
| Licences and credentials | 1x | The issuing body's own public register or directory |
Guides to marketing and SEO agencies score two more things that matter when you hire one:
| Criterion | Weight | Where we check it |
|---|---|---|
| Results it can show | 4x | Case studies on the agency's own website that name the client and give numbers |
| Tracking and reporting | 3x | What the agency says its clients can see: a dashboard, its own software, leads and revenue |
Addresses are confirmed against OpenStreetMap and the business's own website.
Each business gets a score from 0 to 5 on each criterion. The ranking is the weighted total, worked out the same way for every business on the page.
How each score is worked out
Google reviews. We read the rating and the number of reviews on the business's Google profile and show the date. Volume counts as much as the average. Where a business has more than one Google listing, such as one for each branch, we use the listing with the most reviews and name it.
- 5: rated 4.8 or higher, from 150 reviews or more
- 4: rated 4.5 or higher, from 50 reviews or more
- 3: rated 4.0 or higher, from 10 reviews or more
- 2: fewer than 10 reviews, or rated below 4.0
- 1: no Google profile with reviews that we could find
Guarantee and risk reversal. We read what the business puts in writing on its own website, including its terms of service. What counts most is the remedy: what the business owes you if it misses.
- 5: a measurable result, a deadline, and a remedy that costs the business if it misses (a refund, free work until the result is reached, or free months)
- 4: a remedy that costs the business, but the result or the deadline is not pinned down, or the conditions are not stated
- 3: no remedy, but you can limit your own risk: a free trial, no lock-in or cancel anytime, or sessions you miss can be replaced or moved for any reason
- 2: a promise with nothing owed if it is missed (a target, a deadline or the word guarantee on its own), or only a little protection: a paid trial, or replacements only in set cases such as bad weather or a medical certificate
- 1: nothing found, a minimum contract with no guarantee, or terms that allow no replacements and no refunds
A guarantee usually has conditions. Where the business publishes them, the card shows them.
Where a business has different terms for different services, we score the terms for the service the guide is about. On a general guide we score the service it mainly sells. The evidence line says which.
Free extras. We read what the business says you get at no charge. A free quote does not count, because every business gives one. Neither does a fee that is waived or not charged, a discount, or a reward for referring someone, because those are about price.
- 5: two or more free extras with real value, such as a free trial, audit, strategy session or equipment, or work or lessons included without a fee
- 3: one such extra
- 1: none found
Results it can show (agencies). We read the case studies on the agency's own website. We record what is published. We cannot audit a client's books, so a case study counts for more when it names the client, because a named client can be asked.
- 5: three or more case studies that name the client and give lead, sales or revenue figures
- 4: one or two such case studies
- 3: case studies with figures, but only for rankings or traffic, or without naming the client
- 2: client names or testimonials only, with no figures
- 1: nothing published
Tracking and reporting (agencies). We read what the agency says its clients can see.
- 5: a live client dashboard or the agency's own software, and leads, sales or revenue are tracked
- 4: leads, sales or revenue are tracked and reported to the client, but no live dashboard is described
- 3: a dashboard or regular reports that cover rankings, traffic or campaign progress only
- 2: the agency says it measures results, but describes no report or dashboard for the client
- 1: nothing described
Tracking what a campaign earns counts for more than having a dashboard. A dashboard that shows only rankings does not tell you whether the work paid for itself.
Licences and credentials. Where the law requires a licence, we look for it on the regulator's own register: 5 if it is current. If we cannot find a required licence, the business is not listed until it is confirmed. Where no licence is required, every business starts at 3, and gets 4 for one accreditation or 5 for two or more that we could verify on the issuer's own public page. A badge on the business's own website does not count until we have seen it on the issuer's page. A membership of an association is not an accreditation.
Registered and trading: a check, not a score. We look every business up on ACRA's public register and show what we find. A business that ACRA shows as struck off or ceased is removed once a second check confirms it is the same business. If we cannot match a business to a live record, the guide says so.
Price. We show the prices a business publishes, because you need them to compare. We do not score them. Where a package promises a number of backlinks, we show what that works out to per link, so you can judge what kind of link it can be.
When a website will not load for us. Some websites block automated visitors, and we do not try to get around that. We read the Internet Archive's most recent public copy instead and show its date beside the fact. If there is no copy from the last 12 months, or the website is behind a password, we do not rank the business this time. The guide names it under "Not ranked this time" with the reason, and that is not a verdict on the business.
When a check is not finished. We only count a criterion in a guide once every business in that guide has been checked on it. Until then the guide lists it as being re-checked and leaves it out of every score, so no business is ranked on figures we have not verified.
Ties. When two businesses have the same score, the one with more reviews comes first, and otherwise they are listed alphabetically.
Who sets these criteria
The criteria and their weights are set by our editor-in-chief, Jim Ng, who founded our publisher. Our publisher owns some of the businesses on our guides, and he owns or part-owns others himself, and those businesses do well on the criterion we weight most, because they publish guarantees with a remedy. We would rather say that plainly than leave you to work it out. Each of their cards says who owns them, every score on every card shows the evidence behind it, and the scales above are applied to every business in the same way. If you would weigh things differently, the scores for each criterion are on each card so you can.
Sponsored places
The first places on a guide can be sponsored. There are two kinds, and both are labelled on the card and in a notice at the top of the guide.
- Connected to us. Our publisher owns Best Marketing Agency and Best SEO. Our editor-in-chief, Jim Ng, owns Singapore Florist himself. He is also a shareholder in JustSwim Singapore and its head of marketing, and JustSwim Singapore owns SwimHub. He also part-owns JustSwim Indonesia, where he is managing partner. On a guide about their own field we list these businesses first, and each card says which of these it is.
- Sponsored. A business that pays for a sponsored place is listed next, after any business connected to us.
A sponsored place is our decision, not a score. Sponsored businesses are still scored on the same criteria as every other business, from the same sources, and their scores are shown on the page. Every place after the sponsored ones is decided by the scores alone, and those places cannot be bought.
Guides we are still re-reviewing
We are re-checking older guides against these criteria. Until a guide has been re-reviewed, it says so in its "How we ranked these" box, and any business that paid for placement is still labelled Sponsored.
Spotted something wrong?
Tell us on our contact page. We correct factual errors and note the correction on the page.