Help & FAQs

BusinessNetwork (BN) is a UK B2B directory built around two things: getting your business found by AI search engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Overviews) through structured data, and giving you dofollow links to your website that Google's traditional algorithm counts. We're a community of UK businesses reviewing each other and growing visibility together.

If you're a UK Ltd or LLP, your basic listing is already in our directory (pulled from Companies House). Search for your company by name or company number, click your listing, then "Activate Profile" and verify ownership. Sole traders and partnerships register directly with their business name. The whole process takes a couple of minutes — you're not gated by needing a CH number.

Yes. BN is a business network, not a company network. Sole traders, partnerships, and non-UK businesses register with their business name on the standard Register form. We don't gate registration or any core feature behind having a Companies House number.

Yes. Standard is free, no time limit, no credit card. Includes your structured profile (the AI-ingestible bit), unlimited reviews you can write and receive, unlimited posts to your Feed, invitations, and incoming B2B messages. Pro (£12/mo inc VAT) adds outbound tools — review-request emails, the List Builder, B2C consumer reviews, trust badge, post widget, analytics — but doesn't add AI visibility you can't already get on Standard.

Increasingly, customers don't open Google — they ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Google AI Overviews "who's a good X near me?". AI engines build a confidence score for each business from structured signals across the web. Your BusinessNetwork profile publishes those signals (in a format AI engines understand) automatically. The more reviews and posts you have, the more material AI has to recommend you with.

It's a behind-the-scenes machine-readable format that AI engines and search engines use to understand businesses. You don't need to know the technical detail — your BN profile emits it automatically. It includes your name, address, phone, website, opening hours, aggregate rating, and individual reviews. This is exactly what ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overviews ingest when answering questions about UK businesses. See /ai-visibility for the deeper explanation.

A dofollow link is one search engines follow and count towards your domain authority. When you write a review of another business on BN, your company name on their profile is a dofollow link to your website. Google sees and counts it. The honest size of the SEO bump from any one backlink is modest — domain authority compounds slowly. The bigger win in 2026 is AI visibility. We don't oversell either side.

AI engines paraphrase actual sentences. Star ratings tell an AI "4.5/5", which is barely usable. A review saying "hired them for a commercial rewire, finished a day early, comms via WhatsApp was great" gives AI specific words to quote when someone asks "is X any good?". That's why our review form has three guided fields rather than one big essay — specifics help everyone, including you.

Search the directory for the business, open their profile, scroll to the Reviews tab and use the form there. You'll need to be signed in (it's free). The form has three short prompts: what you hired them for, what went well, what could have been better. Reviews are moderated before going live.

From your Dashboard → Invite Businesses, pick them from Companies House — we'll auto-create their pre-filled listing. Leave a review there straight away. Once your review is approved, an invitation email goes out to them inviting them to claim their listing and reply. They get a pre-built listing, you get a dofollow link + AI citation, the network grows.

On Pro, use "Review Requests" from your dashboard — enter customer emails and we send a branded link inviting them to leave a review. On Standard, you can manually share your profile URL with customers and ask them to register and review. Either way, every review goes through moderation.

We moderate to keep reviews honest and to prevent spam, fake reviews, and personal attacks. We aim to review submissions within 24 hours, usually much faster. If a review is rejected, we'll email the reviewer with the reason.

Yes. From your dashboard's Reviews page, click "Respond" on any approved review. Your response appears under the review on your public profile. The response is also picked up by AI engines (it's included in the structured data), so AI sees both sides of the conversation.

Standard (free forever) gives you full participation in the AI-visibility loop: structured profile, write/receive reviews, unlimited Feed posts, invitations, incoming messages. Pro (£12/mo inc VAT) adds outbound business-growth tools: List Builder, branded review-request emails, B2C consumer reviews, enhanced profile media, unlimited send/receive messaging, embeddable trust badge & post widget, analytics dashboard. See /pricing.

An embeddable widget you put on your own website. Shows visitors you're rated and verified on BusinessNetwork, with a click-through to your full profile. Available on Pro. We renamed it from "SEO Badge" because it's primarily a trust signal, not an SEO tool — it links from your site, so the SEO benefit accrues to BN, not your site. Honest framing.

Yes. Upgrade or downgrade any time. When upgrading you'll be charged the prorated difference. Downgrades take effect at the end of your billing period. There's no contract — month-to-month or annual (annual saves about 17%).

Your listing reverts to Standard and stays live, including the structured citation AI engines ingest, all your reviews, posts, and your dofollow links. Pro-only features (List Builder, B2C reviews, review-request emails, trust badge widget, analytics) are disabled until you re-upgrade.

Yes. All prices include VAT at 20%. Pro is £12/month (£10 + VAT) or £120/year on annual billing.

Your registered company details (name, address, registered office) are public information — sourced from Companies House. Your personal contact email is private and only used by us to communicate with you. We don't sell or share data with third parties. See our /privacy page for the legal version.

Email us at the contact link below or use the Settings page in your dashboard (Account → Delete Account). We'll permanently delete your user account and detach your business listing. The listing itself reverts to an unclaimed state (since the underlying Companies House data is public) but loses all the content you added.

Use the "Report a bug" link at the top of this page (it goes to a feedback form). Or email us directly. Include the page you were on, what you tried to do, and what happened. Screenshots help. We read every report.

Same form — "Report a bug or send a suggestion". We read everything, prioritise based on what helps the most members, and reply when something's actioned. Some of the recent improvements (the guided review composer, the strapline, the Trust Badge reframe) came directly from member suggestions.