How advertising works here
What we sell and what we refuse to sell
We sell promotion and visibility. Space on a page, a bigger profile and printed recognition items. We do not sell leads, calls, bookings or customers, in any category, at any price. That decision is permanent and it is the reason the report an advertiser gets counts views and clicks rather than pretending to count customers.
The digital badge a ranked business shows is free forever and is not part of any package. The rate card is published and so are the eligibility rules.
What money cannot buy
- A place in a ranked list that the score did not earn.
- A higher position than the score earns.
- Any change to a score, a check, an editorial note or a published finding.
- Removal of a correction, a response or a disciplinary record.
- Any influence on a guide or on the original research.
How paid units are labeled
Every paid unit carries the word Advertisement or Paid placement in plain text, visible on a phone without expanding anything, and its links carry rel="sponsored". Product names are for the rate card, not the reader. A paid unit is styled so it cannot be mistaken for a ranked card.
Who may advertise
- An active license in the right class from the profession's regulator.
- No final disciplinary action in the last five years. Pending matters do not disqualify and are disclosed on the profile.
- A SWFR Score of at least 60 out of 100.
- No upheld manipulation finding.
A business that stops meeting the floor is refunded pro rata and its units come off at the next build, within 24 hours.
Where the profession's own rules apply
Advertising is open to every eligible category with two exceptions that come from the professions themselves rather than from us.
- Lawyers and legal categories. Nothing is sold, and no badge is issued, until Florida advertising counsel has cleared the Bar's rules on citing an award and on qualifying providers. A new site is unlikely to qualify at launch and we would rather say so.
- Health categories. Promotion at a flat monthly fee only. No price per patient or per booking, no offers or coupons, and the wording on any health placement waits for the advertising specification counsel signs.
The owner of this site
Southwest Florida Reviews is published by Aurawave Inc., which shares an owner with Spearleaf, a marketing agency. Spearleaf sells marketing services to businesses in some of these categories. Every Spearleaf client that appears anywhere on the site is named in the conflict register, the disclosure prints on its cards and profile, and no Spearleaf client can hold a place in a top ten on this site, whatever it scores. Buying an advertisement has never moved a ranking and being a client cannot get one either.