Listing on GroomLocator is free and stays free. The Mobile Grooming Standard is an optional paid badge, TGS Verified, with an optional add-on, TGS Certified. This article is the owner's side of the story: what each costs, what you submit, what changes on your listing, and what can take the badge away.
For the pet-parent version, the one your customers read, see The Grooming Standard.
The quick answer
- TGS Verified is $199 a year. The first 250 groomers pay $50 for their first year, then $199 a year.
- TGS Certified is an add-on to Verified at $149 a year. Add it at your first checkout and the first year is $99; add it later and it is $149 from the start.
- Nothing is charged until a person has reviewed your application and approved it.
- Verified asks for a current liability insurance certificate and a signed background attestation. Certified adds documented training, three to five photos of your actual van or salon, and the code of ethics.
- Verified unlocks the badge, ahead-of-others placement in search, 20 photos, tagline, founded year, policies FAQ, team members, an embeddable badge, and removes the sidebar ad from your listing.
What each badge says to a pet parent
The wording pet parents see is fixed, so here it is verbatim:
A verified groomer has shown us a current liability insurance certificate and signed a background attestation, and a person on our team reviewed them within the last 12 months.
TGS Certified adds documented grooming training and photos of the actual van or salon.
It is not a grooming-skill rating; read their reviews for that.
The badge is a statement about documents reviewed on a date, re-checked every 12 months. We do not claim it is a skill rating or an independent background screening, and you should not either.
Prices
| Standard | First year, if you qualify | |
|---|---|---|
| TGS Verified | $199 a year | $50, for the first 250 groomers (the founding offer) |
| TGS Certified add-on | $149 a year | $99, when added at your first checkout |
| Verified with the add-on | $348 a year | $149 with the founding offer, $298 without |
The founding offer is counted against real redemptions, so the dashboard shows whether seats are left before you apply. An introductory price applies to the first year only; at renewal the subscription bills at the standard price. Prices do not include sales tax where it applies.
What you submit
Apply from Certification in your dashboard. Applying costs nothing.
For Verified:
- Liability insurance certificate, as a PDF or a photo, under 10 MB, with its expiry date typed in. The expiry date has to be in the future.
- Background attestation: a checkbox where you, the owner, attest that nothing in your history would make you unsafe to work with pets or enter homes. This is a self-attestation.
For the Certified add-on, in the same application or later:
- Documented grooming training: a certificate, course completion or equivalent proof, under 10 MB.
- Three to five photos of your actual grooming setup, the van or salon you work from. Not stock images; these are photographed, not designed.
- The code of ethics, a short commitment to safe handling, honest pricing and no surprises for owners, accepted with a checkbox.
A person reviews the application, usually within two business days. You get an email either way. If approved, the email has an Activate Verification button that takes you to checkout; the badge goes live the moment payment completes and is dated for one year. If not approved, the email includes the reviewer's note and you can address it and reapply.
Your listing has to be in normal health to apply: if it has been flagged by our link and phone checks, the page tells you what to fix first.
What Verified changes on your listing
Everything below is switched on by the Verified badge (the add-on changes the label, not the features):
- The badge on your listing, on your search result card and on city pages, with "Next review by" and the date shown on the listing.
- Placement. In every search without a typed name, Verified listings sort ahead of unverified ones. When someone types a name, the name match wins first and Verified breaks the tie.
- 20 photos instead of 5. See Add photos that get you chosen.
- Tagline (120 characters, under your name) and founded year on the Profile page.
- Policies, at Policies: the "questions pet parents ask" answers that render as a FAQ on your listing.
- Team, at Team: up to 12 people with a photo and a line each.
- No sidebar ad. Unverified listings carry a labelled advertising placement in the sidebar; Verified listings do not.
- An embeddable badge, a snippet from the Certification page that shows your live badge on your own website.
The Certified add-on changes the label on all of those places from "TGS Verified" to "TGS Certified".
Insurance expiry and what suspends a badge
The insurance expiry date you typed is the one we watch.
- Reminders go out 60, 30 and 7 days before the certificate expires.
- On the expiry date, the badge is suspended automatically. It stops showing on your listing and in search. Your plan, subscription and everything else on the listing are untouched.
- To reactivate, upload the new certificate with its new expiry date from the Certification page. It goes through the same review, and the badge returns when it is approved. Nothing is charged again.
Other things that remove the badge:
- Your subscription ends, because you cancelled or a renewal was never paid. See Billing, renewal and cancelling.
- A breach of the terms, such as false documents or photos that are not your business. The fee is not refunded in that case.
A suspended or removed badge never deletes your listing. It stays live, free, with your photos and description.
Frequently asked questions
Is the background attestation a background check?
No. It is a signed statement by you. We do not run an independent screening, and the pet-parent wording says so.
Can I get Certified without Verified?
No. Certified is an add-on line on the Verified subscription. Verified is the base badge; Certified is Verified plus training, setup photos and the code of ethics.
I applied. When am I charged?
Only after approval. The approval email links to checkout; nothing is taken before that. If you never complete checkout, nothing is charged and the application simply waits.
Does the badge help my Google ranking?
We make no claim about that. It changes your placement and your listing on GroomLocator, and it adds a visible check that pet parents ask about. Read the pet-parent page for exactly what we tell them.
Screens and limits in this article match the dashboard as of September 21, 2026. If something looks different, let us know and we will fix the article.