Questions, answered honestly
Including the answers that are not flattering to us.
The basics
What is Outranked.me?
A public leaderboard where your position is decided entirely by how much you have verifiably paid. Pay more than the listing above you and you take their position. Somebody pays more than you, and they take yours.
How much does it cost to get listed?
The minimum first payment is $5. Where that puts you depends on what everyone else has spent. Creating the listing itself is free — you only pay when you choose a position.
How do I move up?
Pay more than the listing above you, plus the minimum increment of $1. The site calculates the exact figure for you and recalculates it at checkout, because the board can move while you are deciding.
Do I need an account?
To browse, no. To bid, yes — we need somewhere to send your receipt, your invoice, and the alert when somebody passes you. That alert is the single most useful thing we do for you.
Ranking
Can you move me up if I ask nicely, or pay extra?
No. There is no rank field to edit. Position is computed from verified spend every time the board is read, so there is no manual override to abuse — not for you, not for anybody.
What happens if two people pay for #1 at the same instant?
Both payments succeed. Neither is rejected. The board simply orders them by what each actually paid, with an exact tie going to whoever reached that amount first. This is tested against a real database with simultaneous transactions.
Does my spend ever expire?
Yes. Under the decay model each payment counts fully when made, then halves every 7 days, never falling below 10% of its original value. This keeps every position reachable instead of letting the board freeze.
Why are there so many separate leaderboards?
Because one global #1 makes exactly one customer happy. Category, country, industry and city boards each have their own #1, they cost a fraction of the global position, and they put you in front of people looking for specifically what you do.
Money
When does my position actually change?
Only after your payment provider confirms the payment directly to us and we verify it against their API. Returning to our website after paying does not move anything — anybody can visit a URL.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, under the circumstances set out in the refund policy. Note that refunded money stops counting towards ranking: the amount is subtracted from your verified spend and the board recalculates. That rule has no exceptions.
What currencies can I pay in?
Whichever currencies the configured payment providers support on this deployment — currently USD, INR, EUR, GBP, AED, CAD, AUD. Ranking is computed in USD using the exchange rate captured at the moment of payment, which is stored on your payment record and never re-derived.
Do you charge a monthly fee?
Not for bidding. Analytics subscriptions exist separately and never affect your position.
Traffic and measurement
Will this get me traffic?
It gets you a position in front of the people who are already here. Whether that becomes meaningful traffic depends on your category, your position and how compelling your listing is. We show you the real click count so you can judge it rather than take our word for it.
Will this improve my Google ranking?
No, and we will never claim otherwise. Payment here buys visibility here. Anyone selling you a directory listing as an SEO ranking service is selling you something that does not work.
Are the click numbers real?
Yes, and deliberately conservative. We exclude detected bot traffic, clicks from your own account, and more than 10 clicks from the same visitor per hour. Excluded clicks are shown to you separately rather than hidden. Our numbers are lower than raw traffic because they are meant to be trusted.
Trust
What does the Verified badge mean?
Only that the owner proved control of the destination domain. It is not an endorsement, a quality rating, or any kind of accreditation.
Are sponsored placements mixed into the leaderboard?
Never. Homepage takeovers, category sponsorships and featured slots are separate products, always labelled, always outside the ranked list. The earned board only has value if nobody can mistake a purchased slot for an earned position.
Do you create fake listings to make the board look busy?
No. Every listing you see on a production deployment paid real money. Development seed data is explicitly marked and the software refuses to complete a production migration while any is present.
Still unclear about something? The full methodology documents every rule that affects your position, or ask us directly.