Advertisers often ask why one listing appears above another, and it's a fair
question — a directory that hides its own placement logic isn't being straight with
the people paying to be listed. Here's exactly how it works.
Two things decide where you appear
Placement comes down to two factors, and only two: your current promotion tier,
and how recently your listing was published or bumped within that tier.
There is no hidden scoring system based on profile completeness, response rate, or
anything else you can't see or control directly. If you know your tier and your last
publish or bump time, you know where you sit relative to everyone else in that tier.
The tiers, in order
Listings are grouped into tiers, and every listing in a higher tier appears above
every listing in a lower one, no exceptions:
- Diamond — the top tier.
- VIP — appears above everything except Diamond.
- Boost — a shorter-term placement lift, above the standard tier.
- Standard — every active listing that isn't currently on a paid placement.
A listing's tier is entirely time-based. VIP and Boost each run for a set period
you choose when you buy them; the moment that period ends, the listing drops back to
whichever tier it would otherwise be in — there's no manual step and nothing to
remember to renew on a specific day.
Inside a tier, it's about freshness
Two listings in the same tier are ordered by whichever was published or bumped more
recently. This is the part advertisers underestimate: a Standard listing published
this morning sits above a Standard listing published last week, even though neither
is paying for placement.
That's also why a listing left completely untouched drifts down over time — not
because anything about it got worse, but because other listings in the same tier keep
publishing and bumping past it. It's a purely relative effect: your listing hasn't
changed, the position of everyone around it has.
The free bump
Every active listing gets one free bump every 24 hours, from your advertiser dashboard.
A bump does one specific thing: it resets your freshness within your current tier, so
you move back to the front of your own group. It does not move you into a higher
tier — a bumped Standard listing still sits below every Boost, VIP, and Diamond
listing, no matter how recently it was bumped.
This is intentional. The free bump gives every advertiser a reason to check in daily
and a way to stay visible within their tier without spending anything, while still
keeping paid placement meaningful. If a free action could push you above a paid one,
paying for Boost or VIP would stop making sense.
What doesn't affect placement
To be equally direct about what has no effect: the number of photos on a listing, how
long the description is, how many enquiries you've had, and how long you've been
advertising overall are not placement factors. None of them move you up or down the
results. They matter for a completely different reason — whether someone who sees
your listing actually gets in touch — which is a separate question from whether they
see it in the first place.
Making the two work together
Placement gets you seen. Whether being seen converts to an enquiry depends on your
photos and description doing their job once someone clicks through. Paying for Boost
or VIP without a listing that holds attention once opened wastes the placement; a
strong listing sitting deep in the Standard tier limits how many people find it at
all. The two problems have different fixes, and it's worth being clear with yourself
about which one you actually have before spending on either.
If you're deciding whether Boost or VIP makes sense for your situation, the pricing
page lists current plans and durations. If you're setting up a listing for
the first time, the advertising process guide covers what
happens between submitting a listing and it going live and eligible for any of this
in the first place.
This describes how placement works mechanically on this directory specifically — it
is not general advice about other platforms, and it isn't a guarantee of enquiries.
Placement affects visibility only.