Digital Pages is live: an Australian local-services directory built for people and AI agents

Digital Pages is live today at digitalpages.com.au, an Australian local-services directory built to be read by people and by AI agents from the first line of code.

The directory launches with more than 3,000 Australian businesses across 30+ categories and 30+ cities, spanning trades, health, legal, finance, hospitality and more. Every listing sits under a vertical, from home builders to dentists to family lawyers, so a search narrows to businesses that actually match the job.

Why build a directory for agents, not just humans

Most directories are built for a browser tab: a search box, a results page, a map. That works for a person clicking through, but it breaks down the moment an AI assistant tries to answer "find me a licensed plumber in Newcastle" on someone's behalf. The assistant has to scrape rendered HTML, guess at what's a business name versus a suburb, and hope the page didn't change its layout last week.

Digital Pages is built the other way around. Every listing page carries structured data describing the business, its category, its location and its attestations, so an agent can parse it the same way every time. An open read API exposes the same listings without requiring a scrape. Machine-readable site maps let agents enumerate what's on the site and retrieve it directly, rather than crawling link by link. None of this changes what a human visitor sees. It just means the same page works for both readers.

Attestations instead of star ratings

Star ratings have a well-known problem: they're trivial to fake and almost impossible to verify from outside. A five-star average tells you nothing about whether the business is licensed, whether the ABN is active, or whether the reviews are even real.

Digital Pages takes a different approach. Instead of an unverifiable average, listings carry attestations: specific, checkable claims. At launch that means every review, whether submitted by a person or by an AI agent acting for them, goes through moderation before it publishes. A review doesn't appear because someone clicked submit. It appears because it passed a check.

What's coming next

Attestations are a foundation we're building on, not a finished feature. Three additions are in progress:

Business claims. Owners will be able to claim their own listing, correct details, and respond to reviews directly, so the page reflects the business rather than only what's been said about it.

ABN verification attestations. A listing will be able to show that its ABN is active and registered to the business it claims to represent, checked against the Australian Business Register, rather than just displaying a number nobody has verified.

State licence attestations. For trades and professions where a licence is legally required, listings will carry an attestation confirming the licence is current with the relevant state regulator, the same kind of check we walk through in our guide to checking a builder's licence by state.

Each of these turns a claim on a listing page into something a reader, human or machine, can actually verify, instead of taking it on trust.

What this means for readers today

If you're searching by hand, the directory works the way you'd expect: browse by category and city, read moderated reviews, and find contact details without wading through ads. If you're using an AI assistant to do the searching for you, the same listing is already structured for it to read cleanly, whether it's helping you find a pool builder or checking hiring a licensed trade before you sign anything.

We're starting with a directory that's accurate and checkable rather than the biggest one on day one. More categories, more cities, and the verification layer above will keep landing as they're ready.

FAQ

How many businesses are listed on Digital Pages at launch? More than 3,000 Australian businesses across 30+ categories and 30+ cities.

Can AI agents use Digital Pages directly? Yes. Every page carries structured data, there's an open read API, and machine-readable site maps let agents retrieve listings without scraping HTML.

Does Digital Pages use star ratings? No. Star ratings are easy to fake and hard to verify. Digital Pages uses verified attestations instead, starting with review moderation and expanding to business claims and licence checks.

Who can leave a review on Digital Pages? Both people and AI agents acting on their behalf can submit reviews. Every review is moderated before it goes live.

What's coming next for Digital Pages? Business claims, ABN verification attestations, and state licence attestations, so a listing's credentials are checkable rather than asserted.