The short version. Verification confirms a contractor’s license and insurance are real and current. The Digital Trust Index is a 0–100 advisory score about how easy a business is to find online. They are different things and we never combine them into one number.

Independence

TrustLight is a directory that also sells optional services. Those two sides are kept separate on purpose:

Verification outcomes are not influenced by whether a business buys anything from us.
There is no paid placement. No business can pay to rank higher, appear first, or be featured.
A business can pass verification, pay the annual fee, buy nothing else, and remain listed indefinitely.
The Digital Trust Index does not award points for using TrustLight services, or deduct points for not using them.

Buying services from us has no effect on verification either way. If something lapses, a paying customer is treated exactly the same as anyone else.

The nine safety checks

Here is everything we confirm. We do all of it ourselves — you do not need to send us anything.

License in good standing — We confirm the license is active and clear with the board that issued it.
License confirmed — We confirm it with the board in the issuing state, so you never have to dig out paperwork.
Insurance confirmation — We call the insurer. General liability and workers' comp, both current.
Business filing — Active and in good standing with the Secretary of State.
Physical address — Real, verified, matches state registration. No P.O. boxes.
Years in business — Confirmed through state records, not self-reported.
Contact verification — Phone and email confirmed active and answered.
Reviews — We look at whether the reviews on a business are genuine.
Renewed each year — We re-confirm everything annually, so your badge stays current.

The Digital Trust Index

Scored 0–100 from what we can actually measure about a business online. This score is advisory. It says how easily you will be able to find a business, not whether that business is honest. A business we have not been able to check is left blank rather than scored zero — a blank means we did not look, never that we looked and found nothing.

A website that works

We check that the site loads, and how long the domain has been registered. A domain registered the week a crew arrived in town is worth knowing about.

Readable by search engines and AI

Whether the site publishes its details in a form a search engine or an AI assistant can read back correctly.

A way to get in touch

Whether there is a way to reach them beyond a phone number — online booking, a chat window, a contact form.

Signs it is still looked after

Whether the site shows evidence of ongoing upkeep rather than having been built once and left.

What the Index does not measure

Craftsmanship. Honesty. Whether the crew shows up on time. A contractor with a twelve-year-old website and no social media can be the best contractor in the area, and will score poorly here. Use the verification record to decide who is safe to hire. Use the Index to set expectations about communication.

Corrections and disputes

Any business can request its score be re-run, and any business can request a correction to its listing. Errors are fixed openly. If we get something wrong, we say so.

Where we operate

Verification began on the Gulf Coast and is not limited to it. We verify contractors licensed in any U.S. state — each license is confirmed with the board that issued it, and each business filing with the Secretary of State where it is registered. The public directory currently lists the areas where we have verified contractors, and grows as more complete verification.

Re-verification

We re-confirm everything each year. If a license or policy has lapsed we will tell you and give you time to sort it out. Badges carry the year they were issued so a homeowner can always see how current the check is.