ServiceMagic Becomes HomeAdvisor (and only Paid listings now)?

[Travis Van Slooten]

This is probably old news but I was doing some citation cleanups for a client and I found out ServiceMagic is now called HomeAdvisor.

I also learned that they no longer accept free listings. You can only be listed now if you are a paying contractor.

When did this all happen? This probably happened months ago so forgive me for being late to the party

Travis Van Slooten

 

[Marie Ysais]

News to me! I haven't checked that site in months so I have no idea when it switched over. Thanks for reporting it.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Marie:

I did some Googling after I posted this and apparently the change occurred in October 2012 so it was a while ago.

Golden's ServiceMagic becomes HomeAdvisor in risky rebranding strategy - The Denver Post

This is a pretty interesting article because it talks about the pitfalls of changing your domain name.

Travis Van Slooten

 

[chrisauman]

Yea, I noticed this a while ago. I believe you can register on the site but that's as far as you'll get. They'll immediately start calling your client to upsell them so unless it's in the budget don't even start.

Sidenote: I have seen their site show up a lot for local results. They do position their site and categories locally using PPC on Google so if it is in the budget it could be a good secondary way to drive traffic. Just not sure of the cost vs. return.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Chris:

Ya, I notice HomeAdvisor in the search results all the time. For a few of my clients, there are literally 3-4 search results on the first page from HomeAdvisor. That's what led me to digger deeper into who HomeAdvisor was.

I read some reviews on ServiceMagic/HomeAdvisor and they were pretty bad. Customers were complaining of poor experiences using contractors they found on the site and contractors were complaining that the cost per lead makes it hard to turn a profit (and that in general it wasn't worth being a paid member).

Personally, I think they're going the way of MySpace. When I need a contractor I NEVER think of ServiceMagic. I automatically think of Angie's List. I'll bet if you asked 100 people they would give a similar response. I don't think ServiceMagic would be top of mind.

Travis Van Slooten

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Travis

Yeah, ServiceMagic became HomeAdvisors in probably the second half of 2012. The trouble with being listed with them is that they'll create tracking numbers for you, which can cause your NAP consistency to go to seed. I don't recall whether this is done for free listings or only if you get on an ad deal, though.

 

[Chris Ratchford]

Speak of the devil. Just yesterday afternoon I had a repair guy come to my house and fix my fridge. I asked him about his business. He said since SM has rebranded that he's already getting way less leads.

He's focusing his $$$ on AdWords.

 

[landmstr]

The paid listing trend is worrying, and we're at the bottom so we'll feel the squeeze the most.

 

[Matt Justice]

These people suck... seriously.

You know how easy it is for me to outperform these cats? Haha

The complaints I hear the most, verbatim:

• "Yeah I get leads, but everytime I call someone else has already called"
• "When I show up to an appointment, there's 3 other companies there too"
• "We waste so much time and money with those leads it's ridiculous"

I love it! Makes it easy for me to deliver more value for less money. If you start working with someone who is a former/or current Service Tragic customer, here's what you say:

Exclusive leads, they only come to you not 5 other guys
I can beat they're CPL
If everything works out, I can offer you bi-annual prepay, and I won't work with any other **service type** in **town/city**

 

[Phil Rozek]

These people suck... seriously.

You know how easy it is for me to outperform these cats? Haha

The complaints I hear the most, verbatim:

• "Yeah I get leads, but everytime I call someone else has already called"
• "When I show up to an appointment, there's 3 other companies there too"
• "We waste so much time and money with those leads it's ridiculous"

I love it! Makes it easy for me to deliver more value for less money. If you start working with someone who is a former/or current Service Tragic customer, here's what you say:

Exclusive leads, they only come to you not 5 other guys
I can beat they're CPL
If everything works out, I can offer you bi-annual prepay, and I won't work with any other **service type** in **town/city**

The trouble is they've already peed in your pool. Many business owners have tracking numbers floating around out there.

 

[Matt Justice]

The trouble is they've already peed in your pool. Many business owners have tracking numbers floating around out there.

I don't follow... I think maybe you're referring to muddy NAP?

 

[Phil Rozek]

I don't follow... I think maybe you're referring to muddy NAP?

Yup.