Review sites rank whoever collects the most ratings, or whoever pays to be introduced. That is a different job from "is this firm allowed to do the work, and have they done it here."
What a review can tell you
Someone who chose to post was happy, unhappy, or in between, on the day they wrote it. That is real information about communication, cleanup, and whether the last customer would hire them again. It is worth reading after the public record checks out.
What a review cannot tell you
It cannot tell you the license class. It cannot tell you the license is still Active. It cannot tell you whether a disciplinary case exists. It cannot tell you how much permitted work the firm has done in your city. It cannot tell you about the customers who never posted.
A large review footprint is also easy to advertise and easy to transfer onto a new entity. A license number is not.
What we rank on instead
Active, unexpired license. The class that covers the job. Job-relevant permit history in the city, or city permit volume where the feed does not label the trade. Then recency, a clean disciplinary file where the board publishes one, and longevity.
Those facts come from the board and the city. They are the same for a guest, a subscriber, and a crawler. They do not change because a firm ran a review campaign.
The method is on every ranked page and in how the ranking works. It is not a workmanship guarantee. It is the part of the hire you can check tonight without asking anyone for a favor.