Checkatrade, MyBuilder or your own website: what each sends a builder, and the order to use them

The platforms are useful for a new firm and expensive for an established one, and the honest answer to "Checkatrade or my own website" is both, in the right order: the platform for the first jobs, your own site and Google profile for the rest, with the platform profile pointing at the site so the homeowner books with you rather than shopping three quotes. This guide is what each actually sends, what each costs, and how to make the move.

What the platforms are good at

They rank. Checkatrade and MyBuilder sit above most builders for most job searches because they are enormous sites with millions of pages and reviews. For a firm with no site and no reviews, a platform profile is the fastest way to appear in front of a homeowner, and the vetting badge does some of the trust work a new firm cannot yet do itself. A builder starting out should use one.

What they are bad at

• The lead is shared. On the bidding platforms the homeowner posts a job and several firms respond; the cheapest quote wins more often than the best one.
• The fee rises with the work. Membership, per-lead charges, or both, and they go up as you succeed.
• The homeowner stays on the platform. Your profile page sends them to the platform's quote form, not to you, and the relationship is theirs.
• The reviews are theirs. Years of reviews on a platform do nothing for your Google profile or your own site, and they leave when you do.
• You look like everyone else. A profile template with the same badges as the firm above and below.

What your own site and profile are good at

Closing the recommendation: the neighbour gives your name, the homeowner searches it, and your site with photos of the last extension is what they find. Ranking for your town in the map pack, which no platform can do for you. Ranking for the job searches over time, with pages the platform cannot write because it does not know your work. Keeping the enquiry, the reviews and the relationship yours. And costing the same whether you win one job a month or ten.

What your own site is bad at

Being there on day one. A new site ranks for your name in weeks and for your town when the profile is right, but the job searches take months and a new firm has no reviews to show. That gap is what the platform is for.

The order

1. Year one, no site: a platform profile for the first jobs, and the Google profile set up properly from the start, because it is free.
2. As soon as there are ten finished jobs on your phone: your own site with a page per job and the photos, and the platform profile's website link pointing at it.
3. Every handover: ask for the Google review, not the platform review, or both if the platform requires it. Google's stays yours.
4. When Search Console shows the site bringing enquiries for the town: the platform becomes optional. Keep it if the maths works; drop it if the fee outgrows what it sends.

The test: for the last ten jobs, write down where each came from. If more than half came from a platform and the fee is climbing, the site and the profile are overdue. If most came from word of mouth, the site is the thing that closes those recommendations and it is overdue too.

A note on badges

The platform badge on your van and site is worth something to a homeowner. So is FMB, TrustMark, and your insurance. Put them all on the site, with the numbers, so the homeowner can check. The site is where the badges work for you rather than for the platform.