How Does Sitejabber's Rating Actually Work?
Why Sitejabber’s rating isn’t a simple average — and why the brand is now SmartCustomer
In March 2026, Sitejabber rebranded to "SmartCustomer." sitejabber.com now redirects to smartcustomer.com — including individual business review pages, which keep the same URL structure on the new domain — so an existing Sitejabber profile link still works. The review history, business dashboard, and underlying company are unchanged; what changed is the brand and a set of newer verification features. Because most business owners still search for and refer to this platform as "Sitejabber," that’s the name used throughout this page, but its current official policy pages are published under the SmartCustomer brand.
Why Sitejabber’s rating isn’t a simple average — and why the brand is now SmartCustomer
Sitejabber’s overall star rating is a weighted blend, not a plain average of every review a business has ever received. By its own published formula, 50% of the rating comes from the all-time average of all reviews, 25% from the average of reviews in the last 12 months, and 25% from the average of reviews in the last 30 days. If a business has no reviews at all in one of those recent windows, that window is scored as a neutral 3 stars rather than being excluded — which means a quiet month can quietly drag a rating toward the middle even without a single bad review.
One practical effect: because a full quarter of the score is tied to just the trailing 30 days, a handful of very recent reviews — good or bad — can move a business’s displayed rating faster than the same reviews would if the score were a simple lifetime average. A business fielding a cluster of negative reviews in a slow week can see its rating dip sharply even with a strong multi-year track record, and the reverse is true of a strong recent stretch.
Sitejabber (SmartCustomer) also tightened its verification rules following a 2024–2025 matter with the FTC over how pre-delivery "point-of-sale" product reviews were displayed; Sitejabber’s own response states it removed those reviews from overall business ratings and split them into a separate "Instant Feedback" tab in early 2024, and settled without further penalties. Since February 2026, the platform requires all reviewers to supply proof of purchase, and a separate "Verified User" badge requires government-ID and biometric identity verification through a third-party partner (Persona). Sitejabber publishes meaningfully less detailed public methodology than larger platforms like Google or Trustpilot, so where its documentation is thin, that’s noted here rather than filled in with assumptions.
What actually moves a Sitejabber rating
- Weighted blend, not a simple average — 50% all-time review average, 25% average from the last 12 months, 25% average from the last 30 days.
- Neutral default for quiet periods — any of those time windows with zero reviews is scored as 3 stars in the blend, not skipped.
- Heavy recency weighting — because a quarter of the score tracks just the trailing 30 days, a small recent cluster of reviews can move the number faster than the same reviews would in a simple lifetime average.
- Guideline enforcement — reviews removed for violating Sitejabber’s guidelines (fake, paid, undisclosed-employee, second-hand, or otherwise non-compliant) don’t count toward the score.
- Verification layer — since February 2026, all reviews require proof of purchase, and reviewers can additionally complete ID verification for a separate "Verified User" badge.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Sitejabber review packages start at $110 for up to 5 reviews, scaling to $690 for 50, with monthly billing at 15% off. Pick a package on this page, or try a free example first.
Yes — Sitejabber rebranded to SmartCustomer in March 2026. It’s the same company, the same review history, and the same business dashboard under a new name; sitejabber.com now redirects to smartcustomer.com, and existing profile links still work.