Service Magic.com was without a doubt the pioneers of the home space industry, connecting home owners with reputable home improvement contractors around the nation. Since then other contractor referral services like DoneRight.com, Contractors.com, Angies List, Renovation Experts, Best Contractors and many others have re-invented the wheel in hopes to take a just a small piece of the pie for this multi-billion dollar a year industry…

Team Dave Logan differentiates themselves by their ‘local touch‘ when connecting pre-screened  home improvement contractors with local Colorado residents.

It seems that more often than not, larger lead generation providers lose the ‘personal’ touch when it comes to national expansions, this is something that is savored with locally focused companies like Team Dave Logan.com.

How about them apples? More to come, you can learn more about Team Dave Logan at www.teamdavelogan.com.

ServiceMagic.com

If you will, please  send me your company name (it will remain anonymous), your contact information as well as the answers to these few questions – thanks!

1. What industry are you in? (Plumbing, HVAC, Roofing etc…)
2. On average what is your monthly spend with ServiceMagic.com?
3. On average how many total leads do you get per month with ServiceMagic.com?
4. On a rating scale from 1-5, 5 being the best  how do you rate your lead quality with ServiceMagic?
5. What is your average job ticket?
6. What is your average profit per ticket?
7. How many leads on average from Service Magic do you close per month?

That should do it for now! Please send your info to sean.hakes@i-clickwebsites.com, thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!

Overview & Notes:

Founded  by Mark Henninger / Information Ergonomics, Inc on Jan 24, 2006. Mark had a brilliant idea to connect home owners with pre-screened home improvement contractors / service professionals also known as SPs – sound too familiar?

This marketing approach was very similar to the popular lead aggragator ServiceMagic except for one thing – the contractor selections were based on choice.

[Note: My final grades are at the bottom ]

Back in 2008, I was hired as the company’s Director of Search Marketing and was considered the key-player in turning their online marketing struggles around. BestContractors.com needed help and help fast – they were surviving on a poorly compiled Search Engine Marketing campaign that consisted of Google Adwords, Bing AdCenter (Microsoft back then…) and Yahoo Search Marketing.

BestContractors.com in 2007/08 was a rough design that was hard to use and even harder to find. With zero SEO presence, BestContractors.com needed a complete overhaul, a redesign that would not only cater to end users but just as important a website that Google could crawl and rank – something that was non existent at that time. That overhaul was completed in several months with almost instant results and a complete turnaround from their prior stratedgy.

On Jan 12, 2009 HomeSphere, Inc acquired BestContractors.com… Since the acquisition I have been following HomeSphere, Inc for several reasons – 1, they are in the same industry as I am and 2, my client  base consists of roughly 80% home improvement contractors.

Where is BestContractors.com today? Since the acquisition it looks that BestContractors.com has lost a majority of its traffic. This could  be due to financial restrictions or SEO downfalls, whatever it is it can’t be good for their advertisers.

BestContractors.com Traffic Trends:

Pre HomeSphere Era:

This is the time that I worked for BestContractors.com. Traffic was looking good, rankings were steadly increasing and  it seemed that conversions were on the rise. There were mixed emotions – traffic was starting to improve but conversions lacked a following – this  in my opinion was due to a well graphically designed but hard to use and confusing user interface. Things were looking: Good.

Current HomeSphere Era:

Obviously I don’t have much statistical data but I can tell you from the looks of their traffic results HomeSphere or BestContractors.com, Inc is in some trouble… There has been a significant decrease in traffic, a near zero organic presence for competitive key-terms and literally a massive bomb shell decrease in Pay Per Click / Search Engine Marketing.

Usability – confusion to the general consumer:

What do I do next? (Home Page Screen Shot…) No real “Call to Action”

Final Thoughts:

• Get SEO back in line (it’s much needed)
• Invest in a PPC Campaign where you can track results.
• I know this is going to hurt but I personally don’t think the whole ‘based  on choice’ is a good way to go. Sure there are a lot of complaints on ServiceMagic.com but their model is flawless when it comes to driving cash and delivering results. MOST HOME OWNERS don’t have time nor do they care to look through an online portfolio of recent jobs (unless its a remodel etc…), give them a place to submit the job and go – it’s that  simple. Conversions, Conversions, Conversions – did I mention conversions?
• User Interface Help – Rick did a great job on the design of BestContractors.com but it needs more. It’s not user friendly and can be construed as confusing.

My Official Scores:

1. Search Engine Optimization:  ( D ) - BC went from 26K pages indexed and ranking down to 1K.
2. Search Engine Marketing: ( D- ) – Out of 10 relevant searches – I didn’t find BC once.
3. Website Usability: ( D- ) Home page entries are very hard to find, below the fold for most categories, no real “call to action…”
4. Traffic Trends: ( F ) Almost nothing from a year ago.

Overall Score: D- needs work.

I still think BestContractors.com is a good idea and is good for home owners and contractors  alike but if its going to provide value for advertisers it needs some strategic redirection.

How does the future look for lead aggregators?

I predict there will always be a market for lead aggregators but the market share is sure to slim down significantly and the reason is this…

Local Internet Advertising companies like iClick Websites and Yodle who offer a unrepresented search marketing and lead generation services provide custom lead aggregators that are branded to their advertisers, deliver exclusive leads at no additional cost, offer a low cost flat fee that in most cases cost  significantly less than aggregators like ServiceMagic and deliver similar technology in lead generation and delivery.

Many business owners  are burnt out on lead aggregators that seem to do less and cost more – therefore they have educated themselves and found that it’s not to difficult to run their own self lead generation campaigns.

Companies like ReachLocal and Yodle have helped small business owners significantly with their own online lead campaigns with affordable 100% managed search engine marketing services. Combine this with powerful SEO or throw in a CWD MicroSite and you have no reason to keep paying high cost-per-lead fees that offer little to no exclusive value.

Resources:

• CWD MicroSites – www.coloradowebsitedesign.com/micro/
• ReachLocal – www.ReachLocal.com
• Yodle – www.Yodle.com