This statement explains how DataStoa decides the order of listings and providers. We publish it so buyers can trust the results and providers know how to improve.
Search results
When you search or filter, listings are ranked by these factors, in order of importance:
- Match to your search and filters. Words in the title, summary, description and categories, weighted in that order.
- Category and coverage match. Listings assigned to the category and covering the country you chose.
- Listing completeness. A score from 0 to 100 for documentation: data dictionary, sample, published price, coverage detail, history, update frequency, licence link and use cases.
- Verification. Whether the provider has passed DataStoa's verification checks.
- Buyer engagement. Inquiries and saves relative to views, normalised so that new listings are not buried.
- Freshness. How recently the provider confirmed the listing is current.
Without a search term, the default order is completeness, verification and engagement. You can also sort by newest or by price.
What never affects ranking
- The provider's plan or anything they pay DataStoa. Plans change limits and commission only.
- Whether a provider is connected to DataStoa's owners. If an operator-affiliated provider ever lists, it is labelled and ranked by the same rules.
Paid placement
There is no paid placement on DataStoa. If we ever introduce it, sponsored results will be labelled "Sponsored", limited in number and kept apart from organic results.
Featured content
Editors may feature listings on the home page or in guides because they are well documented or relevant to a topic. Featuring is editorial, never sold, and gives a small boost only on pages where the feature is shown.
Provider directory
Providers are listed by verification, number of published listings and relevance to your search. Alternatives pages rank providers by how many categories they share, then by catalog size.
Data requests
When a buyer's request is approved, we notify providers with at least one published listing in the request's category that covers a requested country. A provider's plan affects only the largest request budget they may answer and how many proposals they can send each month.
Demo content
Before launch some listings are examples, marked "Demo listing". They follow the same ranking rules and are hidden once real content is live.
Questions
Write to [email protected] if you think a result is wrong or unfair.