Most customers now turn to online listing services or home service websites to find the best service provider or contractor. Also, a solid and positive online reputation in the home services industry can lead to higher leads, business growth, and more customer trust in your business.
You can make this a reality for your business by establishing a presence on the leading home services websites.
This blog post will tell you all you need to know about how to get started with home service website listings for your business and the top websites to get listed on.
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Table of contents
What are home services websites?
Home services websites are review sites specifically focusing on home service businesses in construction, interior design, plumbing, electrical fittings, and other allied industries.
These websites serve as a directory for home service providers and contractors to list their businesses, collect customer reviews, and boost the visibility in their target market. Customers can easily find businesses that cater to their specific needs and have been vetted by other customers already.
Why are home services websites important?
Listing websites have played a vital role in almost every service-based local business, and the home service industry is no exception. Home service websites specifically can help businesses by:
- Allowing them to collect customer reviews and display them for potential customers to gain trust in the business. Studies show that 86% of customers read reviews before choosing a local business, and these websites help collect them from customers.
- Creating a detailed profile online without having to dedicate a website to it.
- Improving the visibility of business in local searches. Home service websites are the ones to show up first when someone looks for a local contractor or home service provider. You can take advantage of this SEO capability to grow your business.
- Growing the online reputation of the home service business with verified listings, customer reviews, and ratings.
Best home services websites to get listed on
Now that we know why listing on home services websites is essential for your business, it is also vital where to list. We have curated a list of the top websites that can significantly boost your business’s online presence.
Porch
Porch is a home service website that helps customers find the right project contractors. Setting up a Porch account is free,making it a convenient way to reach more customers and get more reviews.
How Porch works is that it brings customer projects directly to you.
With Porch, customers can enter all of the project needs they have, including pictures of the area of the home that requires renovation, the proposed budget, and details about the project.
Home service businesses like yours will then receive the information about the project and have the option to reach out with your information and a quote for the project. The customer then decides which business is right after receiving multiple quotes and project offers.
A presence on Porch can help your business find customers and also host their reviews on your profile so that they assure your future customers.
Thumbtack
Thumbtack is a quick and easy way for customers to reach your business directly for their home improvement needs. Customers can select a home service provider based on their project needs and location. This presents a great opportunity for local businesses to reach customers in their target market.
Once the customer posts the details of their project, businesses can pitch with their listing, business information, photos, and quotes to get the job. Having customer reviews on your Thumbtack profile will help you get the job faster as reviews build trust in the business.
$49 per year can help you secure membership with the platform, where business owners can get phone numbers of potential customers, customer support, and other support features.
Pro Referral
Pro Referral, owned by Home Depot, partners with contractors by incentivizing them with benefits when buying products and materials from Home Depot. Customers can browse businesses on the Pro Referral App and look at the business profiles, pictures, and reviews from past work to decide what business suits their needs.
The vetting process for Pro Referral is more stringent as it requires a twice-yearly background check fee and requires you to have general liability insurance. When those requirements are met, your profile will be added to the site, where it will be visible to thousands of new customers.
Having a presence on this site can help businesses improve their standing in the marketplace and grow their online reputation.
Houzz
Houzz is one of the first sites people visit when looking for a contractor for home improvements.
Whether it’s for a plumber or home renovator, Houzz contains hundreds of detailed photos from previous jobs so potential customers can see the work they can expect before deciding who they will hire for their next home improvement project.
Setting up your Houzz business profile is free and provides tools like email and social communication, website building, and more.
HomeAdvisor
HomeAdvisor is often the first home services directory that comes to mind when looking for home improvement options. The platform matches potential customers with up to four professionals willing and able to do the customer’s desired job.
The customer can then look through the profiles, pictures, and reviews of the businesses they’re matched with to choose the best one. All of the professionals on HomeAdvisor have background checks conducted before being listed — making it a reputable site to have your business on for potential customers to find.
This home service website is traditionally known to be popular for large contracts, so businesses looking to find customers in that domain must definitely establish a presence here.
Angi
Angi or Angie’s list is a popular home service website that features contractors’ information and their customer reviews. Customers can find the service provider they require by entering the job’s nature and location.
Angi is a trusted name in the contractor reviews and home service business reviews industry. It is usually one of the first places customers look for trustworthy contractors. Within the Angi dashboard, businesses can view leads, verify customer reviews, and request reviews to their customer to boost their profile.
How to list your businesses correctly on home service websites
Getting listed on these home service sites can certainly help you get more reviews and leads, but it is important to leverage them to their full potential. Here’s how to list your business correctly and use home services marketing to your advantage.
Make your listings appealing
Customers on home service websites have the luxury of being able to choose from hundreds of profiles. To make sure they pick your profile:
- Create listings that flatter your business with project photos, customer reviews, service details.
- Optimize the listing description so that the website and Google can easily pick you when a customer puts in a request.
- Make sure that you add your service areas, store location, and project locations so that local customers can easily find you.
Listing accuracy
Your presence on various home service websites also plays a bigger role in your Google search rankings. Google validates your profile by cross-referencing the other profiles you have in place to verify the accuracy of your listings.
Make sure that you maintain accuracy across all your listings for:
- Business name
- Store location
- Contact information
- Website
- Social media handles
- Service areas
- Hours of operations
- Service categories
Managing reviews
Once you’ve listed accurate information on multiple review sites, you’ll need the ability to monitor and respond to every review you get.
You could try to manually keep up with all the reviews from all of your review sites, but it just isn’t scalable or practical. Using a reputation management platform like Birdeye can help you monitor and manage all your online reviews in a single dashboard.
Rather than allocate time and resources to manually monitor and respond to each review you get by visiting each individual review site, Birdeye lets you see your reviews in one place and even automate responses specifically tailored to positive and negative reviews.
Frequently asked questions about home services websites
Angie’s List (now called Angi) and HomeAdvisor merged in 2017, however, they are two separate websites powered by Angi.com.
Yes, Thumbtack and websites like it are reputable and trustworthy as they often make sure that the professionals listed are experienced and have conducted background checks.
Get listed on more review sites with Birdeye
If you want to get listed and reach as many customers as possible, Birdeye can help. Birdeye Listings can help you get listed on as many contractor review sites as possible and make sure that all your listing information is accurate to boost SEO ranking. If you want to learn more about Birdeye listings, click the banner below.
Originally published