Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NXDR), the essential neighborhood network, today announced major improvements to the platform that will make it easier for neighbors to find the most beloved local businesses around them. This overhaul will not only benefit neighbors looking for local business recommendations, but will also help businesses build their local reputation in the U.S., Canada, and United Kingdom.
These ongoing investments reinforce Nextdoor’s commitment to becoming the go-to resource for local business recommendations while recognizing the vital role businesses play in the neighborhood ecosystem. For years, millions of neighbors have tapped their neighbors for local business recommendations on Nextdoor. This organic behavior already represents nearly 30% of all content on Nextdoor, proof of how central local recommendations are to how neighbors use the platform. Nextdoor businesses have also claimed their free Business Page and collected recommendations and Faves (Nextdoor’s signal that a neighbor vouches for a business). Today’s announcement shares how Nextdoor is taking that to the next level both for neighbors and businesses.
Nextdoor’s opportunity to be the trusted place for local business recommendations matters now more than ever: 97%1 of consumers still lean on reviews to guide their purchase decisions, yet 59%2 have encountered an online review they believe was fake. Nextdoor is uniquely positioned to close that gap: both neighbors and businesses are verified on the platform.
“Local businesses have always grown through word of mouth. Online, though, reviews can be bought, manipulated, or faked,” said Nextdoor CEO and Co-Founder Nirav Tolia. “Nextdoor’s approach mirrors the value of real word of mouth: a real neighbor, in a real neighborhood, sharing a business they’ve actually used. By surfacing those recommendations more prominently, Nextdoor is helping neighbors discover great local businesses and helping those businesses earn a reputation that can’t be bought.”
At the center of Nextdoor’s rebuild is a simple conviction: real people, not algorithms, decide who’s trustworthy. The FTC has adopted rules targeting fake and purchased reviews. On Nextdoor, the platform is designed to help prevent them: every Fave is a verified neighbor’s endorsement—no tiered stars, no paid reviews, no anonymous voices, no manufactured credibility. The local businesses winning on Nextdoor are winning the right way, and their neighbors are telling that story.
The announcement comes as the platform reports nearly 75 million Faves across nearly 6.6 million businesses globally.
Neighbor improvements:
- New surface to find the most-loved businesses easily – “Local Faves” (U.S., Canada, United Kingdom): The first dedicated discovery hub that features everything the neighborhood trusts, in one place. It shows local businesses near you, by category, ranked by neighbor trust.
- Improved AI-powered Search (U.S.): AI summarizes the most relevant insights from 15 years of real neighbor knowledge and distills local business information in seconds. ML ranking systems improve what neighbors see, and businesses mentioned in posts are automatically tagged and linked to their pages.
- Easier-to-browse Business Pages (U.S., Canada, United Kingdom): Neighbors can visit a Business Page and find business contact information, see Faves, recommendations, business posts, and Fave Awards recognition all in one place.
- Fave Awards voting (U.S., Canada, United Kingdom): New and improved Fave Awards voting experience to surface the top businesses annually.
Business improvements:
- Revamped free Business Pages (U.S., Canada, United Kingdom): Redesigned Pages that utilize AI summaries highlight the information neighbors are looking for with cover photos, a “what neighbors say” tab, elevated Fave Awards display, and a clean call/message bar.
- New Business Onboarding + Dashboard, coming soon (U.S.): A new educational experience guides business owners on how to be successful. Local businesses also get an improved dashboard interface, making it easier to track performance and manage campaigns in one place.
- Feed for Local Businesses, coming soon (U.S.): Businesses can now interact with neighbors in the community and comment and engage in the neighborhood feed.
- Opportunity Alerts (U.S.): A paid product that quickly routes requests from verified neighbors directly to local service providers (e.g., auto repair, gardening, handyman, moving services).
“Nextdoor is the cornerstone of my business,” said Kelly Jakob, owner of ProLine Painting in Chicago, IL. “Unlike other platforms, the customers are always legitimate; they’ve usually heard about me from somebody else. I have customers I’ve done numerous jobs for, and anytime they see anything about painting on Nextdoor, they recommend me.”
