More Jobs Without Werkspot: Getting Found as a Handyman

What a lead on Werkspot costs you

Werkspot runs on leads. You respond to a posted job, and once there's mutual interest and the homeowner shares their contact details with you, you pay for that lead. The price is shown on the listing before you respond and, according to Werkspot's own FAQ, ranges from EUR 3 to 60, depending on the trade, the size of the job, and the materials, among other things.

In Werkspot's own description, a lead is simply a potential customer's contact information: a name, an email address, a phone number. At that point you don't know whether a job will come of it. That same FAQ says the platform is designed so that the income from the jobs you land eventually covers all your lead costs, and adds that this includes the leads that never turned into work. Paying for leads that go nowhere is built into the model.

Say you take on ten leads in a month and land two jobs from them. You pay for all ten. As long as the margin on those two jobs is big enough, that can still work out fine. It starts to pinch once lead prices in your trade climb, or the number of serious inquiries drops, because you don't control either of those dials.

Why the deal wears thin after a few years

The customer posting a job can compare your reply side by side with several other tradespeople's before choosing. The reviews you build up over the years sit on your profile on the platform. And the moment you stop responding to jobs, new customers stop seeing you there.

To be fair, for someone just starting out, that model isn't a bad deal. It buys you work in the weeks your calendar is empty, without needing to know anything about marketing. It only turns lopsided once you've been fully booked for years and you're still paying per lead to stay visible in a place where customers line you up against everyone else.

How the customer who skips Werkspot searches instead

Someone in Haarlem with a jammed back door and a short list of small jobs types "handyman Haarlem" into Google, or something more specific like "fence installation Haarlem." That customer skips the platform entirely and calls the first business that looks reliable and can come soon.

That search brings up two blocks you can influence: the map with business profiles, and the regular results underneath. You want to show up in both, and you can do it without an ad budget. How you build that up with your profile, your site, and your reviews is covered step by step in the guide on getting customers without advertising.

Start with a Google Business Profile

Adding or claiming a Business Profile is free, as Google itself puts it, and once verified, customers can find your business on Search and Maps. Fill in your service area, your services, and your hours, and add photos of real work.

Then ask for a review on that profile after every finished job. Those reviews sit next to your business name on the map and stay there, even if you later change your website.

A profile on its own is thin, though. Someone who clicks through wants somewhere to land: to see exactly what you do, where you work, and what past jobs looked like. That's what the website is for.

What needs to be on a handyman's website

A site like this doesn't need twenty pages: a few solid pages that spell out what you do, and where, beat one long homepage that tries to cover everything.

• One page per service you actually do: bathroom renovation, tiling, carpentry, painting. Someone searching one of those terms lands on a page about that one thing.
• Your service area, with the town names spelled out, the places you actually drive to.
• Photos of your own work, including the messy middle stage. Nobody is fooled by a stock photo.
• A call button and a WhatsApp button, right at the top on mobile.
• What you don't do. If you don't install boilers, just say so; it saves you and the caller a conversation.

How long before this brings in jobs

Don't expect this to pay off overnight. A new website won't rank at the top of Google in the first few months, especially if a lot of handymen are already competing in your area. More specific searches in a smaller town often move faster, but think in months.

So don't cancel Werkspot during that period. Run both side by side and note how each new customer found you. Once enough work comes in directly each month, you can gradually scale back how many leads you accept.

Every customer who calls through your own site costs you no lead fee. And their call comes straight to you, without a page of competing replies next to it.

What a website of your own costs

I build these as a fixed package for local businesses: EUR 1,200 flat, excl. VAT, hosting included, ready in 2-3 weeks. The domain is registered in your own name and costs around EUR 15 a year.

See it before you pay is meant literally: you only pay after you've seen the site. What you get is laid out at the Get Found package.

Set that against what you've spent on lead fees over the past few months. That's the fastest way to know if this pays off for you. And keep in mind that a website doesn't write quotes and doesn't call anyone back. Being found is the start; landing the job is still up to you.