OurMate
Public methodology

How we rank, verify, and disclose.

We publish how we rank, who pays us, and where each listing comes from. We rank by suitability. Sponsorship can boost a fit, never invent one. This page is the contract.

Four principles

  1. 1. Suitability decides the order. Payment never does.

    Listings rank by how well they match what you searched for and where you are looking. Sponsorship can boost a real fit. It cannot fabricate one. Featured-tier listings get a visible badge and a richer photo gallery, not a higher slot.

  2. 2. Listings come from official registers wherever one exists.

    The Aged Care Service List for aged care services. The NDIS Commission for registered NDIS providers. The ACNC Charity Register for charities. ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register for financial advisers. State retirement village registers where they exist. Most clubs and community groups have no register, so those come from their own networks or other public sources. Each listing names its source, and links to its register record where it has one.

  3. 3. Editorial and listings never cross the line.

    Editorial articles are visually distinct from listings, never in the ranked results, and any commercial relationship is disclosed clearly at the top of the piece in line with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's guidance.

  4. 4. We earn from owners, never from outcomes.

    We charge owners a flat monthly fee to upgrade the presentation of their listing. We do not take per-enquiry fees, per-call fees, or commission on placements. There is no incentive for us to nudge you towards a particular provider.

How ranking actually works

What changes order

  • Text relevance to the search query, scored across the listing's name, alternate names, suburb, and category.
  • Distance from the place you are looking at, or the centre of a category page (suburb, council area, state).
  • Whether the listing is in the category you asked for, or a sub-category beneath it.

What does NOT change order

  • Whether the listing is on a paid tier. Featured listings get presentation upgrades (badge, more photos) but sit in their natural ranked position.
  • Whether an ad has been bought for that category or area. Ads are separate, labelled, and never inside the ranked list.
  • Whether the listing has paid an enquiry fee. We do not take enquiry fees, so this never enters the model.

How verification works

Each listing names the source its details came from, at the foot of the page, and links to its register record where it has one. Listing pages do not yet show the date each listing was last checked. Honest current state:

  • Aged Care Service List and star ratings

    Aged care services come from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s Aged Care Service List. Residential homes show their star ratings from the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, labelled with the ratings release they come from. Ratings are not yet updated automatically, so check a home’s My Aged Care page for the latest release.

  • NDIS Commission

    Registered NDIS providers come from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s published provider data. Providers who are not registered can also list themselves, so confirm a provider’s registration on the Commission’s public register.

  • Australian Business Register (ABR)

    When an owner claims a listing, we check the business’s ABN against the Australian Business Register as part of the claim.

  • Clubs and community groups

    Probus clubs come from Probus South Pacific, with permission. Men’s Sheds and U3A groups were imported from their national and state networks’ directories. Other clubs and groups come from council open data and OpenStreetMap.

Where a register lapses or stops publishing data, we mark affected listings as “verification pending” rather than silently presenting stale data as current. When automated re-sync ships, we will update this page with the new cadence and the corresponding maximum staleness window.

How we make money (and what it does not buy)

We have three revenue lines. All three are visible to you on the page where they appear.

Tiered owner subscriptions

Owners can claim their listing for free and upgrade to a paid tier (see pricing) for additional presentation features. Tier upgrades change what the listing shows. They do not change where it sits in the ranked list.

Clearly-labelled advertising

Some pages carry advertising. Every ad is labelled "Sponsored" and visually demarcated from listings, articles, and navigation. Ads are never injected into the ranked list of suitable providers.

Sponsored editorial

A small number of editorial articles are produced in partnership with a sponsor. These articles carry a prominent disclosure banner at the top, naming the sponsor and the commercial relationship. They sit in editorial sections only, never inside verified listings.

What we do not do

Who signs off

The editorial team is responsible for this methodology, the verification cadence, and any change to ranking signals. Material changes are published with a date and a changelog entry. We make our work auditable.

Questions, corrections, or a register lookup you think we got wrong: editorial@ourmate.com.au

Changelog

  • October 2026.Corrected how we describe verification: listings come from official registers wherever one exists, not every listing is checked against one, and listing pages do not yet show a last-checked date. Aged care pages now show register facts and how each home’s star ratings compare locally. Removed Men’s Shed descriptions copied from another directory while we seek permission.
  • May 2026. Methodology page first published. Ranking, verification cadence, revenue lines, and limits documented.

See also