As a contractor you’ve likely got a lot on your plate. You have to manage your employees, get jobs done in a timely fashion and generate and close new business. With the advent of online directories like Angie’s List and Houzz it’s obvious there’s an opportunity to generate some leads by being listed on these sorts of sites. The more you look into these websites you’ll realize there are far more than you may have heard of. So, with a limited amount of time and budget, how do you decide which of the online contractor directories are worth it?
We did some homework and attempted to put some numbers behind these sites to figure out which are the most popular in terms of traffic and visibility in search engine results. Before we get into the results, here is a quick explanation of the metrics we used and what they mean:
- Compete.com monthly traffic: An estimate on the number of unique users a website receives each month. These numbers are merely estimates based on their data, but a data point of comparison we can use across sites.
- Quantcast.com monthly traffic: A service very similar to compete.com, providing another estimated data point for monthly traffic.
- Alexa rating: The global popularity of a website according to Alexa’s data. Here, the lower your ranking the better.
- PageRank: A statistic from Google which is no longer updated, but historically is a general sign of how much Google trusts and values a web page. Here, we took the last updated score Google provided for the site’s home page.
- SEMRush monthly traffic: An estimate of the amount of monthly organic search traffic a domain receives.
- Keyword volume of brand name: The number of times, on average, that a brand name (i.e. “home advisor” or “angie’s list”) gets searched each month according to Google Keyword Planner. This number can help provide an idea of just how popular the directories are in terms of brand popularity.
- Keyword volume of URL: Similar to the volume of the brand name, often times users will know a URL and simply type it into the Google search bar. This statistic gives you the average number of times a URL is searched each month according to Google Keyword Planner.
About the Directories
HomeAdvisor is one of the biggest home improvement lead sites out there. With over 30 million users with numerous categories, users can find exactly what they’re looking for with extremely targeted search results. The site allows contractors to sign up for one service or multiple so they can reach their best target audience(s). RenovationExperts is handy because not only does it allow you to find a contractor for the exact service you’re looking for, but offers helpful articles and advice from current contractors and past remodels. Angie’s List is one of the most reliable service sites because it comes with local reviews, price comparison and background checks making sure the contractor you hire is truly a professional. Being listed on this directory is credible for your business.
Buildzoom, TalkLocal, Fountain, Thumbtack, Pro, Houzz, GoSmith, Uptual and Porch are all pretty similar home improvement directories and offer the same services for users and contractors. Users can browse these directories for the services they need and contractors can list their business for leads with relative ease. These directories often have instant estimates available for better price comparison which is helpful for both the customer and the contractor. Yelp and Amazon are both great for reviews, comparing services and local visibility on a high traffic and quality domain. ContractorsHQ does offer the same services as Buildzoom and others, but the site doesn’t generate much monthly traffic and the directory itself looks outdated. Taskrabbit can be useful to be listed on but is geared more towards small projects and individual tasks that need to be completed, which would be less effective if you’re trying to generate remodel or larger contracting projects.
