Provo.com is a family-run local guide to Provo and Utah Valley. You can reasonably ask how a small team covers restaurants, trails, housing, festivals, the two universities and city hall in one place. This page is the honest answer.
Who writes it
Articles are published under the names of three members of the Giordano family: JoAnn Giordano, our editor-in-chief; Abigail Giordano, our senior writer; and Elly Giordano, a contributing writer. Short news items appear under the Provo.com News Desk. You can read more about each of them on our About page.
Every article is read and reviewed before it is published: by the writer whose name is on it, or, for News Desk items, by our editors. A byline on Provo.com means that person has gone through the piece and stands behind it.
How an article gets made
We start from what people here actually need. Topics come from reader emails and tips, from the events and listings people send us, and from what Utah Valley residents search for. We skip subjects that would only exist to fill a page.
We use AI tools to help research and draft. They help us gather what has been published on a subject, organize it and write a first version. They are a starting point, never the source of a fact.
Then every fact is checked against a primary source. That means the city, county or state page; the school district or university; the organizer's own site; or, for the law, the text the Utah Legislature publishes. Official pages are sometimes out of date, and now and then two pages from the same office disagree, so we check dates against a calendar and say plainly what we found. When we cannot confirm something, we leave it out rather than guess.
Finally, the named writer reviews it. Nothing goes up without that read.
What we will not publish
We do not make up prices, hours, quotes, reviews or statistics. We do not publish home sale prices: Utah is a non-disclosure state, so sale figures are not public record, and any number we printed would be a guess. We do not run sponsored content dressed up as editorial, and a business cannot pay to change where it lands in one of our rankings.
Dates we estimate are labeled
Many festivals and city celebrations publish next year's dates late. When we list a date the organizer has not published yet, the page says so in a clearly marked note that explains exactly where the date came from, usually the event's own pattern from previous years. When the official date is announced, we update the page.
Photos
Our photos come mostly from Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash and Pexels, and every one is credited on our photo credits page. We look at each image before we describe it, and we avoid photos in which private people can be identified.
How a business gets named in a guide
A business appears in one of our guides because our research found that it fits what the guide is about. We read its own website, menu, hours and prices, along with other primary sources such as city, county and university pages, and we look at where it actually is. We do not copy star ratings or review counts from other sites, and we do not name a business we could not confirm is open.
When a guide ranks its picks, the order is our editorial judgment, and the guide says what it weighed: the food, the price, the setting, how far it is from campus, whatever the guide is for. The top pick in a guide is also what feeds our Best of Utah Valley page, which is derived from the guides rather than chosen separately.
What is never for sale
No business can pay to be named in a guide, to move up in one, to stay in one, or to be called the best of anything. Featured Partner cards and wedding vendor listings are paid, are labeled as paid, and sit outside every ranked list. A business that advertises with us is ranked exactly as it would be if it did not, and a business that declines to advertise loses nothing.
Badges for featured businesses
Businesses named in our guides can display a "Featured on Provo.com" badge, and the businesses at the top of a guide on our Best of Utah Valley page can display a "Best of Utah Valley" badge. Each business finds its own badge and embed code on our featured businesses page. Displaying the badge is entirely optional and has no effect on whether a business is listed or where it ranks. The badge is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and a business that leaves a guide loses its badge when the guide changes.
If you think a business was named, ranked or left out in error, email contact@provo.com with the guide's address and what changed. We check the business's own pages and correct the guide if we were wrong.
Updates and corrections
Guides are revised as places and prices change, and when we make a meaningful revision the date at the top of the article changes with it. If you find a mistake, email contact@provo.com or use our contact page. We read everything and fix errors as soon as we confirm them.
How we pay our way
Provo.com is supported by advertising, by clearly labeled Featured Partner and wedding vendor listings, and by some affiliate ticket links, which are marked on the pages that carry them. None of these decide what we write or how we rank anything. Our advertising disclosure has the details.
The community board
Classifieds, housing contracts and community events on our boards are posted by readers and appear automatically. We do not write, edit or endorse those posts, and we take down any that break our rules. If you want to send us an event or a story idea, use the event form or our tips page.
How often we publish
We release new articles in steady waves rather than dozens at once, so each one gets the attention a reader deserves, from us before it goes up and from you after.