How we verify Arab-owned

The details

What counts as Arab-owned

Heritage, not location. Every business here is in Southern California; the country on a listing is where the owner's family comes from, or the professional's. It can be any of the 22 member states of the Arab League, and a listing can carry up to three. The owner states their heritage. We do not test it, and we would not know how to. A listing can also be here because the staff speak Arabic; it says so in place of a heritage badge.

How a listing gets on the site

Whoever adds a business tells us the connection: an Arab-owned business, an Arab professional, or Arabic-speaking staff. A person on our team reads every new listing before it goes live and declines the ones that do not fit. Once live, every listing ends with “Something not right? Tell us.” “Not Arab-owned” is the first reason under Report a problem, and we look at every report.

How a listing becomes Verified

A Verified business is one whose owner we confirmed. On a professional profile, it means we confirmed the person or an authorized listing manager. It does not verify a professional license or credential. Verification happens in one of these ways.

• A claim our team reviews. The owner, or a manager claiming for the owner, signs in and claims the listing. They tell us how we can check: a page on the business's website or social account that names them, a business license, DBA or utility bill they can show us, or another way they explain. A person on our team checks it and approves or declines. If you added the listing yourself while signed in, the review of the listing is the review of your claim: approving one approves the other.
• A match on the business's own email. When the claimant signs in with a confirmed email address on the business's own web domain, the same domain as the website we found for the business ourselves, that is proof enough and the claim is approved on the spot. Free email providers and addresses on social or website-builder platforms never qualify, and a website the submitter typed in is not used for this. Corporate-domain matching is never enough for an individual professional, a franchise owner, or another professional-connected profile; those claims always go to our team for review.
• A code sent to the business's email. We look for the email address published on the business's own website, the website we found ourselves, and send a 6-digit code there. The claimant types it in, and a correct code approves the claim.
• A code on the business's website or Instagram. We give the claimant a short code to put on the business's website, or in its Instagram bio when that is the link on the listing. We read the page, and when the code is there, the claim is approved. Only the website or Instagram already on the listing counts, and on Instagram only the bio, not a post or a comment.
• A document checked automatically. The claimant uploads a photo of a DBA, business license or utility bill that shows the business name. An automated check compares it with the listing's name and address. A strong match approves the claim with no person involved; anything less goes to a person on our team. We store the document privately and never publish it. We keep it so our team can look at it again, and delete it 7 days after the claim is decided.

The code and document checks are only for a business listing. Individual professionals, franchise owners and other professional profiles always go to our team, and so does a listing whose website was typed in by the person who added it.

Whenever a claim is approved without a person, we also email the address the business publishes, when we have one, so the real owner hears about it even if they were not the one claiming.

Every way, we record how the owner was confirmed. If we later find a claim was wrong, we remove the owner, and the next claim on that listing goes to a person on our team whatever email it comes from.

What Verified means, and what it does not

The badge is verification, not quality: it means we confirmed who may manage the listing, not that we recommend the business or professional. It does not mean we checked prices, hours, credentials or the quality of the work, and it does not change where a listing appears in results. Reviews are separate. They come from signed-in community members, and we never write or edit them.

Some facts on a listing come from the business itself: halal, ownership and service details, insurance accepted, the Arabic name, and the description under “About.” We never infer them and do not treat them as certifications. Details such as halal and ownership carry the label “Provided by the business.” A license line is different: we look the number up in the public registry it links to and print the day we checked it. That date is the one thing on a listing we vouch for beyond the owner.

Mistakes and removal

If a listing is wrong, tap “Something not right? Tell us.” at the bottom of the listing, or write to hello@daleelarabi.com. Any business can ask to be removed with one message, no reason required.

About Daleel Arabi · Add a listing