How we score Austin landscapers

Austin Landscapers currently scores 461 landscaping businesses across Central Texas, from small crews doing weekly mowing to full design-build outfits. Every score comes from the same published rubric applied to the same kind of public data: Google's business listing and its reviews. Nothing here is submitted by the businesses themselves, and nothing is edited by hand after the fact.

The five signals, and how they're weighted

Each business gets a composite score from 0 to 100, built from five measured signals. They're listed here from heaviest to lightest weight:

• Sentiment, 28%: a synthesis of what recent reviews actually say, weighing praise against recurring complaints.
• Rating, 26%: the business's aggregate star rating on Google.
• Volume, 20%: how many reviews the business has, log-scaled so that five reviews don't carry the same weight as five hundred.
• Recency, 12%: how recently customers have actually left reviews.
• Completeness, 14%: whether basic listing information, phone, website, hours, address, is filled in and accurate.

Why sentiment carries the most weight

Star ratings alone don't tell you enough. Two landscaping companies can both sit at 4.5 stars, but one earns it from consistently happy customers and the other earns it despite a cluster of recent reviews all describing the same problem, a crew that no-shows, a design quote that ballooned, irrigation work that had to be redone. Averages smooth that pattern out. Reading what people actually wrote is the only way to catch it, which is why sentiment is weighted higher than the star average itself. We synthesize the themes across recent reviews rather than republishing anyone's words, and every listing links back to the source on Google so you can read the originals yourself.

Why the other signals matter

Rating still matters because it's the fastest signal of general satisfaction, even if it needs context. Volume matters because a handful of five-star reviews from friends and family looks different from hundreds of reviews built up over years of real jobs; log-scaling keeps a business with 6 reviews from outscoring one with 400 just because both happen to average the same stars. Recency matters because a landscaping company that was great in 2019 under different ownership or crew leadership may not be the same company today. Completeness matters in a practical way: a business that lists a working phone number, a real address, hours, and a website is simply easier and safer to hire, and that basic transparency is worth something in the score.

The honest limits

A composite score is only as good as the data behind it. Businesses with few recent reviews don't have enough signal to score with confidence, and we label those listings as low-confidence rather than pretend the number means the same thing it would for a business with a deep, current review history. We don't inflate thin data to make a tidier list.

Paid placement and editorial picks are always disclosed

Scores are earned strictly from this rubric and the underlying data. They are never edited by hand, and they cannot be purchased. Where paid placement exists anywhere on this site, it is labelled clearly and it never changes a business's score. Separately, any curated list, like our best landscape design and install picks, where the picks or their order involved editorial judgment, says so plainly on that page.

Who publishes this and who's behind it

Austin Landscapers is published by Bluebonnet Local Guides. The site was started by Rachel Delgado, who spent nine years estimating jobs and running crews for a landscaping company in Round Rock before moving into publishing. That background is why the rubric focuses on the details that actually predict a good or bad hire, like recurring complaints and stale listings, rather than just a star count. Rachel Delgado, Managing Editor, maintains the rankings and oversees the site's editorial standards.

Data behind every score is refreshed monthly, and each listing carries a "last verified" stamp so you can see it's actively maintained rather than scored once and forgotten. Questions, corrections, or concerns about a listing can go to [email protected]. You can also start from the Austin Landscapers home page to browse the full directory.