Website owner guidelines

Confirming your site's ownership, you become part of a huge community of site owners. Below you will find information about what rules should be observed here.

Be aware of blacklists. In addition to user ratings, WOT uses several trusted sources when calculating a site's reputation. You can see if your site appears on a blacklist by going to your scorecard and looking under "Information from third-party sources". To remove your site from a blacklist, you need to deal with it directly with the list in question.

Familiarize yourself with how WOT works. We are occasionally contacted by site owners who believe that competitors are slandering their reputation, or that the system is otherwise manipulated. Almost always those claims are false. Before making any claims, please study how the system works. Read comments left on your website's scorecard and think about what the real reasons behind your site's reputation could be. If you have any questions, start by reading our FAQ where some of them may already be answered.

A good reputation has to be earned, it cannot be bought. Never compensate anyone for improving your site’s reputation. Moreover, if you receive an offer to improve your site's reputation, don’t trust it, it's a scam and please report it to us.

Do not use WOT to promote your website. Do not use promotional material of any kind on WOT. We reserve the right to reject any material used for promotional purposes.

Zero tolerance for manipulation. WOT’s algorithm can detect any unusual behavior and act accordingly. We recommend not requesting positive ratings with other site owners as this can hurt your site. We also remind you that trading positive ratings is a form of compensation and is strictly forbidden.

Ownership verification. We do recommend verifying the ownership of your website in order to get all the site owner’s privileges. If you own an http site, there are two ways to verify ownership - through “My sites” tab in your profile or by going to your site’s scorecard and follow the “Click here if you own this site” link under the site’s description. However if you own an https site please contact us directly for personalized guidelines.

Best Practices

• Treat your site's reputation rating as customer feedback

• Your site’s reputation can provide valuable feedback. Apply customer service practices to reward praise and find opportunities to win back your critics. Even if the user doesn't change his/her mind, a proactive and positive approach to your site’s reputation makes a public statement about the kind of business you're running. *It is advisable to check up on your site's reputation from time to time.

• Act professional & keep replies simple

• Resist the urge to write angry or emotional responses to negative comments. This kind of response can harm your reputation. Ideal responses are polite, professional and straight to the point. Tailor your response to the exact problem that the reviewer is writing about and explain how you plan to work on it. By doing so, you can reassure them that your business values feedback and cares about improving the user's experience.

• Work together with the community

• If you are concerned with your website’s reputation, read the instructions on what you can do at the support center. Be active and respond to any questions.

• Ensure you have privacy policy in place