Methodology
How EMBR reaches a verdict about your business
If you want to pull the diagnosis apart before you trust it, this is the page for you. It covers what EMBR uses as evidence, how it decides what matters, and where the limits are.
1. Evidence before opinion
Every finding traces back to something EMBR observed. If it cannot be evidenced, it is not reported as fact.
2. Trade-specific standards
An electrician and a landscaper are not judged by the same yardstick. The standards applied are the ones that fit your trade.
3. Applicability and missing evidence
Where something does not apply to your business, or the evidence isn't there, EMBR marks it as such instead of scoring you down for it silently.
4. Competitor context
The same checks run on three qualifying local competitors, so your position is relative to your actual market rather than a national average.
5. Confidence and uncertainty
Findings carry a confidence level. Where an area is inherently variable — AI answers, for example — EMBR reports patterns across repeated observations rather than pretending there is a fixed ranking.
6. Weighted scoring and prioritisation
Areas are weighted by how much they affect whether a customer finds, trusts and contacts you, and findings are ordered by likely impact and effort. The internal weights are not published, so the Score can't simply be gamed.
7. Strengths as well as weaknesses
The diagnosis names what is already working, so you don't break something useful while improving something else.
8. Independent of what we sell
A recommendation is produced from the evidence, not from what EMBR could be paid to implement. You are free to fix anything yourself, or use anyone you like.
9. The role of AI
AI is used inside a governed method — reading evidence, summarising and drafting. It does not invent facts about your business, and it is not left to decide your Score on its own.
10. Limitations
EMBR sees what is publicly observable plus whatever you choose to connect. Some things it cannot see, and it will say so rather than guess. The method is versioned, and changes to it are recorded.
How your business data is collected and used is set out in the privacy notice, and the commercial terms in the terms.
Put the method to work on your business
The Business Score applies all of this to your business, for free.