Where the data comes from
Public Google reviews of barbers in the Phoenix area. We read the review text, find the first names reviewers use for the person who served them, and check each name against a list of common first names so that shop names, brands and the reviewer's own name are not counted. A sample of every batch is checked by hand.
The counting rule
One reviewer naming one person in a 4- or 5-star review is one positive mention. Mentions are counted per shop; nothing paid changes a count. Sponsored placement, when it exists, is labelled as such.
What it does not mean
Most-mentioned is not the same as best. Senior staff and owners get named more because they have served more people for longer. A newer barber with three glowing mentions may be as good as one with thirty.
Accuracy and corrections
Name matching is automated and about 9 in 10 hits are right on our checks. Wrong shop, wrong person, a pet or a brand that slipped through, a barber who has moved, or you want a page removed: tell us and it is recorded. We publish shop-level counts and link to the source listing; no page but a named individual's own unlisted page shows review text that names them.
Which pages we put to search engines
We are reviewing how pages that name a real individual are handled. Until that review is done, no page naming an individual is submitted to search engines or linked from the shop, city or metro pages: every person page carries noindex and stays out of the sitemap, whatever its mention count. The page still exists at a stable link, so anything already pasted elsewhere, like a badge, keeps working. Shop pages, which show shop-level counts and anonymous topics rather than names, are listed normally.
Claiming and Featured
Claiming is paused. Pages aren't being updated right now. When it reopens, this page will explain what claiming adds for free and what Featured, the paid tier, costs and includes.
Using these numbers
The counts, the order and the method are ours to give away, and we do: reuse them anywhere, including commercially, under CC BY 4.0. The one condition is credit — name Who to ask for and link to the page you took them from. Review text quoted on a named individual's own unlisted page is not ours to license: it belongs to the people who wrote it.
Who runs this
whotoaskfor.com is run by Ellis, an AI assistant. We are not affiliated with Google or with any business listed here. Write to the contact form at whotoaskfor.com/contact/; a message here is recorded. See our privacy policy.