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ProFix this week — May 17 to May 24

Every changelog entry and research article ProFix Directory published in the last 7 days —May 17, 2026 through May 24, 2026.

TL;DR

Three things from this week

  • 20 changelog entries and 7 research articles published — 27 total updates inside the 7-day window.
  • Biggest update: Research: What 'verified' actually means in Ohio — Third long-form research article — a license-verification audit of how directories actually confirm Ohio contractor credentials, not just whether they claim to.
  • Research-heavy week — multiple long-form Ohio home-services studies published, with the editorial focus on durable trust signals rather than incremental features.
Changelog entries this week

20 changelog entries in the last 7 days

Research (3)

  1. Research

    Research: What 'verified' actually means in Ohio

    Third long-form research article — a license-verification audit of how directories actually confirm Ohio contractor credentials, not just whether they claim to.

  2. Research

    Research: Permit pulls vs star ratings (2026 Ohio)

    Long-form study comparing real permit-pull activity against directory star ratings across Ohio — the data backing the permit-leaderboard moat.

  3. Research

    Research: How ProFix compares to Yelp, Angi, BBB, and more

    Side-by-side 2026 Ohio analysis across paid-placement transparency, source provenance, permits, open data, AI accessibility, bilingual coverage, and refund clarity.

Feature (9)

  1. Feature

    /tools — canonical homeowner self-service index

    A single index of every free homeowner tool on ProFix — budget quiz, cost lookup, permit search, water-quality lookup, lead form — discoverable from one page.

  2. Feature

    Permit-pull leaderboards launched

    Statewide and per-trade leaderboards rank contractors by real permit activity — proof-of-work signal that resists fake reviews and pay-for-play placement.

  3. Feature

    ProFix Trust Score chips on every public profile

    New TrustScoreChip surfaces a transparent factor breakdown — license, permits, photos, response signals — on every /pro evidence page.

  4. Feature

    /docs developer landing shipped

    Single navigation page for developers, AI agents, and integration partners covering MCP, OpenAPI, JSON-LD graphs, CSV exports, sitemaps, embeds, and licensing.

  5. Feature

    /partners landing page launched

    B2B integration entry point covering embed widgets, public feeds, citation guidance, and contact paths for press, integration, and dataset partners.

  6. Feature

    /support page shipped

    Public support landing page with refund, dispute, cancellation, and escalation paths — required before live-payment readiness on Stripe.

  7. Feature

    /coverage statewide overview

    New coverage landing that summarizes contractor counts by Ohio county, region, and trade so homeowners and partners can see where ProFix is dense.

  8. Feature

    Privacy + Terms rewrite for live-payment readiness

    Legal pages rewritten to cover Stripe live-payment requirements — refund policy, dispute handling, contractor billing, and homeowner data handling.

  9. Feature

    Admin lead-quality tier UI

    Quality-score histogram and per-tier lead detail wired into the admin dashboard so lead routing tier decisions are inspectable and reproducible.

Data (2)

  1. Data

    Phase 19 county enrichment + verified-deltas feed

    Expanded county-level coverage signals and shipped a daily machine-readable feed of newly verified contractors, permit pulls, and license updates.

  2. Data

    Spanish cost-guide parity reached

    Finished the Spanish cost-guide expansion — bilingual cost coverage now spans both languages at production parity for Ohio's Spanish-speaking homeowners.

API (5)

  1. API

    /api/recently-verified.json wired into discovery surfaces

    Public verification-delta feed registered in llms.txt and OpenAPI so AI engines and integration partners can follow license, permit, and audit changes.

  2. API

    CSV companions for public JSON feeds

    Shipped CSV exports for permit-leaderboard, coverage-stats, lead-feed, cost-report, and pros so analysts can pull ProFix data without writing JSON parsers.

  3. API

    /api/pro/{slug}.json canonical per-pro dossier

    Per-contractor JSON document exposing the full public dossier — profile, evidence, trust factors — as a single citation-ready endpoint.

  4. API

    IndexNow integration auto-pings Bing + Yandex

    Content updates now ping IndexNow on publish so Bing, Yandex, and downstream AI crawlers index ProFix changes within minutes instead of days.

  5. API

    /api/lead-feed.json + /api/quality-stats.json

    Two new public feeds expose aggregate lead volume and lead-quality histogram so partners can see real lead-market signal — no homeowner PII.

Design (1)

  1. Design

    Statewide framing pass across the site

    Rewrote stale NW Ohio / Toledo-only copy on homepage, footer, embeds, sitemap-html, and llms-full so user-facing surfaces match true statewide coverage.

Research published this week

7 research articles in the last 7 days

  1. 1,900 words

    Permit pulls vs star ratings: an Ohio home-services data study (2026)

    ProFix Directory compares building-permit pull counts to public star ratings across Ohio home-services contractors and explains why permit-pull leaderboards are a proof-of-work trust signal.

  2. 1,750 words

    How ProFix Directory compares to Yelp, Angi, Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor, and the BBB (2026 Ohio analysis)

    A fair 2026 Ohio comparison of ProFix Directory, Yelp, Angi, Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor, and the BBB across paid-placement transparency, source provenance, permits, open data, AI access, bilingual coverage, complaints, and refund-policy clarity.

  3. 2,050 words

    What 'verified' actually means: an Ohio license-claim audit (2026)

    An audit of how home-services directories use 'verified' badges compared with Ohio public records such as OCILB licenses, Secretary of State filings, and BBB profiles.

  4. 2,050 words

    How AI engines actually find directories: what ProFix learned exposing 21,000 contractors to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini (2026)

    A practitioner-grade walkthrough of the discovery manifests, MCP servers, JSON-LD graphs, sub-sitemaps, and IndexNow pings ProFix shipped to be findable by AI answer engines.

  5. 2,050 words

    Why Ohio's contractor licensing system creates a moat for transparent directories: the four state-licensed trades, the ten that aren't, and what honest verification looks like in 2026

    Ohio's OCILB licenses only four trades: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and hydronics. Roofing, concrete, tree service, appliance repair, and most other home-services categories are not state-licensed, so honest directories need asymmetric verification.

  6. 2,350 words

    Permit volume vs star ratings: what 21,000 Ohio contractor records actually show

    Cross-tabulating 21,000+ Ohio contractor records against permit and star-rating data, ProFix Directory finds the two signals barely correlate. Star ratings reward marketing and responsiveness; permits reward doing the work legally. Homeowners should weight them independently.

  7. 2,400 words

    Ohio vs. the nation — what 50-state home-services data transparency really looks like in 2026

    ProFix Directory compares Ohio's home-services data transparency stack against California, Florida, and Texas across four dimensions — state licensing accessibility, permit data accessibility, review reliability, and bilingual access — and documents the portable playbook a directory operator in any state can replicate.

What this means

Editorial read

Research-heavy week — multiple long-form Ohio home-services studies published, with the editorial focus on durable trust signals rather than incremental features.

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License: CC-BY-4.0. Attribution: ProFix Editorial Team / ProFix Directory. Quote freely with a link back to https://profixdirectory.com/reports/this-week.

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