Editorial standards
How we curate Boutique Ultrasound.
The full process behind every listing — and the lines we will not cross for any amount of money. If anything below sounds different from what you experience using the site, we want to know.
The loop
Discover · Verify · Publish · Monitor.
Four phases. Same process for every listing on the site, including paid Featured studios.
Discover
New candidates come in through two channels: the Google Places API (per-city queries cross-checked against existing entries to avoid duplicates), and direct outbound — small in-home practices, mobile sonographers, newer studios. Both paths lead to the same staging table. No shortcut for either.
Verify
Three checks: a unique Google Place ID with verified address and lat/lng; a credentialed sonographer verified against the relevant external registry; and service truthfulnessdrawn from the studio's own published materials. Studios that fail any of these sit in staging until the gap is closed.
Publish
Publication is an editorial decision, not an automatic one. We review every listing once after the verify step before it goes live: photo quality, copy fit, pricing presentation, and a sanity check that the studio's own materials do not contradict claims we're importing. Listings publish in batches as cities reach minimum coverage, not one at a time.
Monitor
Quarterly re-checks for: (a) sonographer credential still active in the registry, (b) studio still operating at the listed address (we cross-reference Google Place “permanently closed” flags and a manual sweep of recent reviews), (c) major service or pricing changes. Listings that fail re-verification drop back to staging.
Inside step 02
The three checks every candidate must clear.
Place identity. A unique Google Place ID, plus a verified street address and lat/lng. No ghost businesses; no re-used Place IDs from a relocated or merged studio.
Credentialed sonographer. A named sonographer holding RDMS / ARDMS, ASUM, DMU, CASE, or BMUS — verified against the relevant external registry.
Service truthfulness. Service flags (2D / 3D / 4D / 5D / gender reveal) come from the studio's own published materials. Where the studio's page is silent or ambiguous, we mark the service as unconfirmed.
Studios that fail any of these sit in our staging tier (Notion-backed) until the gap is closed. Studios that pass move to the production tier (Supabase-backed) and become visible on the directory. Read the credentialing detail →
The lines
What we will not do.
A directory's integrity is defined as much by what it refuses to do as by what it does. The lines below are non-negotiable.
We will never accept payment to hide a poor review.
We don't host our own reviews precisely because doing so creates that incentive. Aggregate ratings on every studio card come from Google Place data and update with the underlying source.
We will never fabricate ratings.
If a studio has no Google rating yet, the card shows no rating — not an estimate, not a placeholder, not a default value that nudges it up.
We will never list a studio whose sonographer credential cannot be verified.
No exceptions for budget, no exceptions for friendly owners, no exceptions because a studio paid for a Featured slot. The credentialing gate is the same for everyone.
We will never sell ranking position.
City-page ordering is determined by Google rating, review count, credential status, and editorial signals. Featured status grants a badge and a small dedicated section, never ranking.
Featured pays for a badge. Never for ranking.
Some studios pay for a Featured Studio badge. Featured studios go through the same verify step as free listings, including credential verification, and they can lose Featured status if they fail re-verification. Paid placement does not exempt anyone from the floor.
What it buys
- ✓Featured marker on city pages
- ✓Expanded card layout
- ✓Lead-routing tools access
What it does NOT buy
- ✕Ranking position
- ✕Different credentialing standard
- ✕Skip in editorial review
Found something wrong?
Our 48-hour correction promise.
Factual errors happen — a price changes, a sonographer leaves a studio, a business relocates and Google takes a week to catch up. If you see something wrong on a listing or a guide, write to us. A human reads every correction email, and substantive factual fixes are applied within 48 hours of receipt. Changes worth flagging publicly get a dated correction note at the bottom of the affected page.
editorial@boutiqueultrasound.com →Where the money comes from
We are editorially independent.
Boutique Ultrasound is not owned by an ultrasound studio chain, an equipment manufacturer, or a hospital system. Revenue is a mix of Featured Studio subscriptions, B2B AI tooling licensing, and (eventually) a small number of carefully chosen partnerships.
Any partnership that risks editorial independence will be disclosed inline on the affected pages, not buried in a footer. We do not currently use affiliate links in guides; if we ever do, they will carry a visible affiliate-disclosure tag.
Non-diagnostic disclaimer: Studios listed here provide non-diagnostic keepsake imaging. Listings are not a substitute for medical prenatal care. Consult your OB/GYN.