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Home Advisor Isn't A Good Advertising Choice for Small Business Owners

Note: This blog article is off topic from IT Security for Small Business, but online advertising is adjacent to IT due to the technical nature of the many of the tasks associated with creating and maintaining an online presence. 

 It is important for small business owners to delegate or outsource certain administrative things such as online and search engine marketing.  HomeAdvisor bills themselves as just that, the answer to your online marketing problems. 
However, HomeAdvisor is really bad for the home services companies and contractors that HomeAdvisor claims to represent. Why is HomeAdvisor bad? Because they snipe leads and give them to other companies! When HomeAdvisor acquires Angie's List later this year there will be fewer options for small service provider companies that need these types of services for online advertising.
How? When a company signs up with Home Advisor that company gives HomeAdvisor the right to their company name and brand in online SEO and advertising. HomeAdvisor then works to place themselves in the top three search results using SEO to acquire organic search hits as well as to advertise with your company's name. 

Additionally, when a potential client searches for the company that they've been referred to or have previously used, the business listing in the right hand column of the search result will not actually be the company, but Home Advisor presenting themselves as the company. 

When you call the number in the right hand column (shown above), Home Advisor answers. If the company in question isn't currently paying for leads from HomeAdvisor, HomeAdvisor will NOT give the lead to the company for which the potential client actually called.  Furthermore, even if the business in question is taking leads, they are now subject to additional competition for that lead as HomeAdvisor will sell it to multiple companies who will pay for the lead.

If all they were doing was using the primary search terms that a service provider company would use (e.g. local plumber or bathroom remodeler) vs. company names I would have no issue with them. But they use the company's name and indirectly their good reputation to get quality leads that they hardly ever give to the company that actually resulted in the lead.
This is nuts! A company that has worked hard to build a reputation and relationships with clients to get those referrals or has worked hard to advertise so that potential clients will know them by name. It is simply WRONG for HomeAdvisor to snipe those lead and give them to another company just because you're not paying them at the time.
You don't need to take my word for it. You can test what I've stated for yourself. (Well as of writing this you can). But while you're checking my facts, do a search for HomeAdvisor Reviews and read what others have to say about HomeAdvisor. You'll find that beyond what I've stated there are many other reasons why people who use HomeAdvisor are dissatisfied.
Bottom line? If you can avoid using Home Advisor, please do. Instead use Houzz or another provider. Also if you call a company like Top Notch Decking (as I did) and HomeAdvisor answers, tell them, "Sorry, I wasn't calling for you!" and go down the search results until someone actually answers the phone as that company.
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