> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.baselayer.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Online Presence: Basics > See what Online Presence tells you about a business, and pick the right way to request it. ## Online Presence: Overview Baselayer's Online Presence products give you digital-footprint intelligence on any business: whether its website is real and active, what industry it operates in, where it shows up on social media, what customers say about it, and whether it appears across online directories. Traditional KYB confirms that a business is registered with a state agency. Online presence confirms that it actually operates as claimed — a critical second layer for fraud detection, sole proprietor verification, and any applicant where Secretary of State data is thin, missing, or inconclusive. These signals are a cornerstone of modern business verification, particularly for businesses with thin registration data, no credit history, or operating as sole proprietors. *** ### A note on terminology Each sub-product is requested via an `Order.*` option value (e.g., `Order.WebsiteAnalysis`, `Order.SocialMedia`). An **Order** is both the unit of requesting a sub-product and the unit of billing — every Order is priced independently, regardless of which endpoint it was requested through. *** ### What's included | Sub-product | What it tells you | | :- | :- | | [Website Analysis](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/website-analysis-basics.md) | Domain legitimacy, age, SSL validity, email deliverability, and contact discovery | | [Industry Prediction](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/industry-prediction-user-guide.md) | NAICS, MCC, and SIC codes + confidence score + extracted keywords describing core business activity + card network risk indicators | | [Social Media Profiles](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/social-media-profiles.md) | Discovered and verified social media presence across major platforms | | [Customer Reviews](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/customer-reviews.md) | Ratings, volume, and sentiment from Google, Yelp, Trustpilot, and others | | [Directory Listings](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/directory-listings.md) | Business presence across online directories | *** ### Integration paths | Path | What it does | | :- | :- | | `options` on `POST /searches` | Bundles online presence into your KYB call. Returns orderable data alongside the business search result in a single response. | | `POST /web_presence_requests` | Runs online presence independently of KYB. Full access to all sub-products, including social profiles, reviews, and directory listings. | | `POST /naics_prediction_requests` | Runs industry classification only. A lighter, cheaper call when NAICS, MCC, and SIC codes are the only signals you need — useful for analytics, MCC validation, or pre-screening at scale. | *** ### Recommended architecture **Run KYB and online presence as separate calls.** Use `POST /searches` without `options` for business verification. Use `POST /web_presence_requests` for digital intelligence. This separation ensures that online presence data is returned for every applicant, including sole proprietors and businesses that don't match a registration record. When `/searches` returns `state: FAILED`, no orderables fire, even when `options` were included in the request. This is the architecture that gives you 100% coverage across your applicant base. For the full sole proprietor workflow, see [Sole Proprietorship Verification](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/sole-prop-verification.md). *** ### When `/web_presence_requests` is the better default | Scenario | Why standalone fits | | :- | :- | | You approve sole proprietors | Bundled path returns `FAILED` for most sole props (no SoS match means no orderables fire); standalone returns data on every applicant. | | You want signals on every application, including rejected ones | Industry classification and online activity are valuable for analytics and underwriting calibration even when KYB fails. | | You're latency-sensitive on KYB | Running online presence in parallel to (or earlier than) your KYB call keeps Business Search fast. | | You want to pre-screen before KYB | Run digital discovery early in your funnel to gather context before committing to a full KYB search. | | You want fully independent pipelines | Online presence signals never influence KYB ratings; the two run on separate tracks. | See [The Web Presence API](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/web-presence-api.md) for the full decision guide and request/response details. *** ### When bundling into `/searches` makes sense Requesting `options` on `POST /searches` is a reasonable choice when: * Your team wants a single API call and results will primarily be reviewed in the Baselayer console rather than parsed programmatically. * Your applicant base consists almost entirely of registered businesses, and sole proprietors are a negligible edge case. * You're in an early integration phase and want to minimize the number of endpoints in your initial build. **If you use this path**, follow up with `POST /web_presence_requests` or `POST /naics_prediction_requests` for any application that returned no match, to maintain full coverage. *** ### Response shape differs by path > The underlying field structures are identical across all paths: a `website_analysis` object looks the same regardless of how you requested it. What changes is where the data sits in the response, and which `options` values are available on each endpoint. > > To receive social profiles and reviews on `POST /searches`, you must request `Order.Enhanced` (send it together with `Order.WebsiteAnalysis` and `Order.NaicsPrediction`), there is no granular `Order.SocialMedia` or `Order.ReviewSummary` on this endpoint. `Order.Enhanced` covers the full bundle: Website Analysis, Industry Prediction, Social Profiles, and Reviews. > > On `/web_presence_requests`, each sub-product can be requested individually via its own `Order.*` value. > > Once returned, social profiles and reviews live at `business.social_profiles[]` and `business.reviews[]` on `/searches`, and at `found_social_profiles[]` and `found_reviews[]` on `/web_presence_requests`. Directory listings are only available via `/web_presence_requests`. Discovered addresses and officers merge into the business object on `/searches` (via `Order.Enhanced`); on `/web_presence_requests`, they are nested inside each sub-product object. > > [Response Reference →](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/online-presence-response-reference.md) documents all placements side-by-side. *** ### Pricing Every Order is billed independently, as defined in your Master Service Agreement. The integration path you use does not affect cost, each Order is priced the same regardless of whether it was requested via `/searches`, `/web_presence_requests`, or `/naics_prediction_requests`. *** ### Where to go next * [Adding Online Presence to a Business Search](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/adding-online-presence-to-a-business-search.md) - how to use `options` on `/searches` and what to expect in the response * [The Web Presence API](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/web-presence-api.md) - how to run online presence as a standalone product * [Response Reference](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/online-presence-response-reference.md) - every field, every match value, and path-specific response shapes documented in one place * [Online Presence: Best Practices](https://docs.baselayer.com/docs/web-presence-orderables.md) - how to use these signals for onboarding decisions This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.