The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK find a trade sites has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK find a trade sites perform across the digital space.
The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK find a trade sites has just been published. It covers the largest 12 UK find a trade sites, including Rated People, Checkatrade, TrustATrader, Bark.com, Book a Builder UK, Houzz, Local Quotes, Which? Trusted Traders, MyBuilder, MyJobQuote, Top Tradespeople, and HomePro.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other find a trade websites to win brand exposure, drive traffic online, and increase listing volumes. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
Q1 2026 winners leader board
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 find a trade websites on, check out our quick-look table below;
To understand what the *CTM Digital Performance Index™ is click here.
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK find a trade sites or request a copy of the report for the full review.
What The Industry Research Report Covers
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each brand based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will under-perform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.
For Q1 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK find a trade sites was £147,071 with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £16. This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.
There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape.
The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, Book a Builder UK has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £1, and Houzz has the highest at £99.
By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.
Technical Website Compliance
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Find a trade websites will want to ensure that old, or expired listings do not impact their technical website compliance.
In our previous audit, Rated People received the most 404 errors (119). This quarter, Rated People has made an impressive development by decreasing their 404 errors to 28 — no longer making them the brand to watch. Currently, the find a trade site with the most 404 errors is Checkatrade, with a total of 67. Reducing 404 errors protects the integrity of the user journey from entry to conversion. A website that consistently delivers functioning links and available content feels trustworthy, efficient, and respectful of users’ time.
Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Find a trade sites will want to ensure they are quick to use, so users needing to find a tradesperson quickly will find them easy to access and navigate.
In our previous report, Bark.com flagged the slowest mobile site speed (28). This quarter, Bark.com has increased their mobile site speed to 41, moving them up the leaderboard. Currently, the mobile site speed ranges between 77 and 38, with Houzz receiving the lowest score. Testing pages across different mobile devices and connection speeds ensures performance remains strong under varied conditions. Customers benefit because the site remains accessible and responsive whether they are on high-speed Wi-Fi or mobile data.
Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. For find a trader sites, they'll want to consider working with a digital PR specialist to identify backlink reclamation opportunities, along with ideate new ways of building backlinks and referral traffic.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our last report, Top Tradespeople reported the lowest DA score (19). This quarter, Top Tradespeople remains the site to watch, though they’ve increased their DA score to 21, demonstrating progress. Domain authority is an important indicator of how trustworthy and credible a website appears to search engines. Websites with stronger authority are more likely to rank higher in search results, making it easier for customers to discover them organically.
Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Find a trade websites will want to keep tabs on the most searched-for trades, to identify whether the cost-of-living crisis is having an impact on the types of trades people are searching for.
Eight brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Top Tradespeople reporting the biggest loss (-98%). On mobile, four brands reported a drop in organic traffic, with Top Tradespeople reporting the biggest drop (-99%). Analysing user behaviour across devices helps refine SEO strategy continuously. Understanding how mobile and desktop visitors interact with content allows websites to adapt and steadily increase organic traffic from both sources.
Universal Search Opportunity
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a brand can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. 'Reviews' will be a key Universal Search result for find a trade websites, as they'll want to build trust with users searching for reliable tradespeople.
Checkatrade continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (85,369) — an increase from 57,035 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘people also ask’ (52,200).
The Longtail Keyword Opportunity
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Find a trade sites can optimise towards specific trades, locations, and availabilities, to capture traffic from users with a high conversion intent.
Checkatrade continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (28,921) — a decrease from 4,979 previously. Checkatrade also secured the most appearances for positions 4–10 (30,641) — a decrease from 32,175 previously. Long-term content planning built around long-tail opportunities creates sustainable organic growth. By consistently targeting specific, relevant phrases over time, websites can build steady traffic from highly qualified audiences rather than relying on competitive broad keywords.
Facebook Adverts
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.
We’ve included screenshots of MyBuilder’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK find a trade site considered line length with their text, helping to make their content easier to scan compared to longer content.
Top Social Shares & Content
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Find a trade sites can create shareable content such as guides to finding the right tradesperson, common household maintenance tasks that will need carrying out, or even how to do simple fixes at home (building brand awareness and trust).
Houzz secured the most Facebook Likes (2.8m) and the most Instagram followers (658,600). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Bark.com received the highest total engagement rate (10,099) and the highest average engagement (75).
Website Readability & Accessibility
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Everyone will need to welcome tradespeople into their homes at some point or another, so find a trade sites must ensure that those who are vulnerable, such as blind or partially sighted users, can place trust within their choice of tradesperson from the very first point of contact.
In our previous report, Trusted Traders flagged the most accessibility alerts (109). This quarter, Trusted Traders has slightly reduced their accessibility alerts to 100 — no longer making them the brand to watch. Currently, the find a trade site with the most accessibility alerts is Bark.com (a total of 104).
Get the full 70-page Q1 2026 report
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.
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