Disparity of Construction Contractor Presence on the Web

When my partner, Brett Vernon, and I began the conceptualization of jobtrio.com, we were spurned by a vacuum both of us had experienced first hand: Why is it so hard to find contractors on the Internet. With only a couple clicks you can find every restaurant in town, every doctor, or every car dealership, but where are all the construction contractors? Below is a collection of other interesting facts we have stumbled upon which have encouraged jobtrio.com along the way:

• Consumers are searching. A 2008 Yahoo study found that 59% of homeowners use the Internet to help them choose the right contractor for their projects.


• Contractors are absent. In a study conducted by jobtrio.com team members, a random sample of 100 contractors was selected from a database of all 250K+ licensed contractors in the state of California. A Google search was performed using the business name for each of these 100 contractors. Of these 100, only 9 contractors appeared in the first 2 pages (top 20) results on Google. Of course, I realize that 100 is not a very large sample size, but it is certainly enough of a sample to indicate a disparity.


• Just having a company website doesn't cut it. We have found that about 15-20% of contracting companies with more than 5 employees have a company website. A website is a great way to spread information about your product and services, but who is going to your website? Chances are, unless you have employed search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) firms, the majority of people landing on your site are either existing clients or someone who heard about your site through some other media outlet (newspaper, radio, word-of-mouth). In other words, your website may be doing very little to generate new business for your organization.


• "You come to me" is on the out. In the late '90s there was a wave of web-based companies that featured "you come to me" business models, meaning, a consumer specifies their general desires for a product or service, and a handful of providers then bid to get the consumer's business. As the web and its users have evolved, this old-school approach has proven to have little staying power. For one reason, the "bidders" began to setup automated response systems or other tactics which are intended to lure-in unsuspecting consumers. Also, consumers have grown much more savvy, and wish to be in the driver's seat, with all decision-making tools placed right at their fingertips via the Internet.

These above mentioned discoveries have been integral in shaping the jobtrio.com product. Here is how we responded:

• jobtrio.com is built around a database already containing the business name and contact information for 250K+ California contractors. The information was hiding out there on the web, we just assemble it all in one place.


• jobtrio.com is absolutely free for consumers to use.


• we have employed top-notch SEM and SEO firms to assure that jobtrio.com listing come up with high rankings in Google and Yahoo searches


• We set our Enhanced Profile pricing as low as we possibly could. In order to benefit the consumer and contractor, we are aiming for volume, volume, volume.

As always, I would love to hear any feedback on this blog!

Have a great day,

Josh
President of jobtrio.com
Profiles and Review of California Contractors


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