How we rank these businesses

Businesses are ranked by their Google rating, adjusted for how many reviews that rating is based on.

A raw star average is misleading in a small market. A business with two five-star reviews is not better than one with four hundred reviews averaging 4.8, but a simple sort by stars would put it first. We correct for this using a Wilson score interval, a standard statistical method. In plain terms: we rank by the rating we can be 95 percent confident a business is at least, given how many people have actually reviewed it.

The practical effect is that a strong rating earned over many reviews beats a perfect rating earned over a handful, and a business cannot reach the top of a list on three reviews.

• Ratings and review counts are retrieved from Google. Every listing shows the date its figures were collected.
• Service details, availability claims and descriptions are taken from each business’s own website. We quote what they publish about themselves.
• We do not write reviews, solicit reviews, edit reviews, or calculate a rating of our own.

These play no part in any ranking:

• Paid placement. Advertising appears in units labeled Sponsored, outside the ranked list. It does not move a business up, down, into or out of a ranking.
• Search position. Where a business ranks on Google measures marketing, not service.
• Advertising spend, directory memberships and awards.

• The business must operate in Rockford, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Belvidere or Roscoe, Illinois, or serve those towns directly.
• It must be a business that does the work. Lead brokers, referral networks and national directories are excluded.
• National franchises with a local branch are included, and are sorted below independent local businesses with comparable ratings.
• It must have a working phone number or website, so a reader can actually reach it.
• Permanently closed businesses are removed.

A business with very few reviews cannot be fairly compared to one with hundreds, so it is not buried at the bottom of a ranking. Businesses rated 4.5 or higher with fewer than 15 reviews appear in a separate New & Notable section, which is not ranked.

Businesses can buy the placement units on each category page. Each one is labeled Sponsored on the unit itself.

Placement does not change the ranked list, and does not remove or reorder any competitor. If a sponsored business also appears in the ranked list, it earned that position by the method above. Placement rates.

If your listing is wrong, or you do not want to be listed, email hello@n5studio.com and we will update or remove it at no charge.

This method was published in September 2026. Material changes to it will be noted here with the date they took effect.