How we list and check businesses
Every business on Local Times OKC is listed for free, marks each fact we checked ourselves with the date we checked it (and says “Not checked yet” where we have not), and appears in a published order that no one can pay to change. This page explains the checks, the order and how the site makes money.
Who gets listed
- Real businesses that serve the Oklahoma City metro. A new listing needs its own working website or business page plus at least one more public record.
- Listings carried over from the old Local Times OKC site stay listed while we check them. Until an item is checked, the listing says “Not checked yet” for it. Some carried-over listings have no confirmed fact or website yet, and we have not yet checked any phone numbers by calling them.
- No other directories, lead networks posing as local companies, or copies of search results.
- Businesses whose website and phone both stop working are hidden until they are confirmed again. The record is kept, never deleted.
What we check
| Check | How we do it | How long it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Website | The listed website answers and shows the business's name or listed phone number. | 6 months |
| Service area | The towns the business names on its own website. | 6 months |
| Still operating | A dated post or update on the business's own website. | 6 months |
| Emergency or 24/7 service | Shown only when the business's own website says so. We do not test response times. | 6 months |
| State license | The official state lookup (for plumbers, the Construction Industries Board license search). Until we have checked, the listing says so and links the lookup. | 1 year, never past the printed expiry |
We never show star ratings or reviews from Google, Yelp or BBB. Phone numbers and home towns on listings carried over from the old site come from its older records and are marked as not checked yet until we confirm them. We link to a business's BBB search result so you can look it up yourself. Business websites we link to carry a nofollow label; we only pass search credit to official sources such as state and city pages.
Why lists are in the order they are
Businesses with more kinds of checked facts come first, then A to Z. Payment never changes the order. Locations of one company that share a website are shown together.
How Local Times OKC makes money
- Our phone lines ring the Local Times OKC answering line. When you call, we connect you with one local business we work with, and that business may pay us for the referral.
- Businesses may later add an optional chat assistant to their own listing page for a monthly fee. It does not move them up any list.
- Local Times OKC shares an owner with OKC SEO, a marketing agency (our sister company), and with freecalculator.website, which hosts the cost calculators we link.
How the pages are written
Guide sections are researched and drafted with help from AI writing tools, then checked against the official sources linked on each page before they go up. Listing facts come from our own checks, not from AI.
Corrections and claiming a listing
Business owners: how to get listed, fix or claim a listing.
To send a correction or claim a listing, use the contact page.
Page updated October 23, 2026. See the OKC metro plumbers page for the checks in use.