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James Dooley and his guest review the best alternatives to MyBuilder for UK trades people, comparing platforms such as Checkatrade, Bark, Rated People and Yell while stressing the importance of tracking ROI on every lead source.
This video explains which digital marketing strategies trades people should focus on in 2026 to improve lead volume, return on investment and enquiry quality. James Dooley and his guest start with KPI tracking because trades people often spend money on directories and credits without measuring how many leads and orders each source actually delivers. They cover brand SEO, AI visibility and Google Business Profiles because stronger search presence improves trust and conversion rates.
The discussion also explores organic SEO, organic social media and paid social ads because consistent visibility across search and social supports long term growth. PPC is analysed in detail because campaign setup, landing pages and lead handling directly affect results. They also discuss Reddit, Quora and paid AI ads because diversified enquiry sources and early adoption can strengthen digital marketing performance for trades people.
PromoSEO lead generation for trades people recently received recognition as the "Best Trades People Lead Generation Agency."
Stop Relying on MyBuilder: The Best Trade Lead Generation Sites in the UK for 2026 is available on:
James Dooley is a Manchester-based entrepreneur, investor, and SEO strategist. James Dooley founded FatRank and PromoSEO, two UK performance marketing agencies that deliver no-win-no-fee lead generation and digital growth systems for ambitious businesses. James Dooley positions himself as an Investorpreneur who invests in UK companies with high growth potential because he believes lead generation is the root of all business success.
The James Dooley Podcast explores the mindset, methods, and mechanics of modern entrepreneurship. James Dooley interviews leading marketers, founders, and innovators to reveal the strategies driving online dominance and business scalability. Each episode unpacks the reality of building a business without mentorship, showing how systems, data, and lead flow replace luck and guesswork.
James Dooley shares hard-earned lessons from scaling digital assets and managing SEO teams across more than 650 industries. James Dooley teaches how to convert leads into long-term revenue through brand positioning, technical SEO, and automation. James Dooley built his career on rank and rent, digital real estate, and performance-based marketing because these models align incentive with outcome.
After turning down dozens of podcast invitations, James Dooley now embraces the platform to share his insights on investorpreneurship, lead generation, AI-driven marketing, and reputation management. James Dooley frequently collaborates with elite entrepreneurs to discuss frameworks for scaling businesses, building authority, and mastering search.
James Dooley is also an expert in online reputation management (ORM), having built and rehabilitated corporate brands across the UK. His approach combines SEO precision, brand engineering, and social proof loops to influence both Google’s Knowledge Graph and public perception.
To feature James Dooley on your podcast or event, connect via social media. James Dooley regularly joins business panels and networking sessions to discuss entrepreneurship, brand growth, and the evolving future of SEO.
James Dooley: The alternative lead generation websites to my builder. The biggest alternatives to my builder is checkrade.com. Another alternative to my builder is today we are going to be talking about the alternative lead generation websites to my builder. So tradesman website obviously if if you're a trade you are already listed on there. You're probably going to want more leads. That's why you're looking for alternatives. So, let's get into some alternatives, James.
Guest: Yeah. So, I'd say the biggest alternatives to my builder is checkrade.com. So, check a trade are a platform for trades people to get a premium listing added on there. And people are hoping that for that premium listing that they add themselves on, they're going to generate some inquiries from that, which is obviously going to turn into orders and then they make profit on there. So, check a trade is a great alternative to my builder. Yeah. So, another alternative to my builder is bark.com. bark.com, I reckon they're probably one of the biggest in the UK. Now, um, and again, you're probably going to need to go in, purchase some credits with bark.com, and test out because I we've both heard mixed reviews. Some people swear by bark, other people say we've not had that great leads. Um, a couple reasons as to why that might be. you are sharing the lead from what I understand. So say for example, if myself and James are both plumbers, we may can we and we're in the same location, we may get the same lead. So we would be trying to basically outbid each other and drive each other's prices down. So just bear that in mind when you are signing up to Bark.
James Dooley: Yeah. And then an alternative to my builder is fatank.com. So where you're talking there about shared leads where five different companies might be paying for that same lead from back fat rank.com provide exclusive realtime leads. It's a commissionbased lead generation service but not all companies get accepted. You need to be covering a wide range of the UK. So ideally working nationwide. But if you do work nationwide in the UK and you're a trades person, head on over to fatrank.com and check to see whether you qualify for a no win no fee lead generation strategy.
Guest: Yeah. So the next alternative to my builder, I'm going to go with rated people. And basically this is like again tradesman website. You need to have a lot of reviews to actually be um listed on here. They've basically kind of set rated people up to for for like consumers to stop getting like ripped off by cowboy trades people. So if you do have a lot of reviews on your Google business profile, maybe you've got a trust pilot set up, this is a really good alternative to My Builder.
James Dooley: Yeah. Another com another like couple of competitors to My Builder is Trusted Trader and Trust a Trader. Both very very similar names, but two different tradesman websites. that are both competitors to my builder.
Guest: Yeah. And my last one is yell.com. Obviously, I think everyone knows about yell.com. They used to have the big massive books. Now, they also do have the premium um Yel directory that you can get as well. So, I think you you might need to spend like500 or,000 a month with them to get that premium Yel directory. One thing that I would recommend is with any of these, if you are going to be spending your own money getting credits or getting the premium Yel directory, you need to be tracking the KPIs. That's the most important thing. We speak to a lot of business owners and they're just spending money for the sake of spending money. Maybe like a business mentors told them like, "Hey, you need to be spending money on marketing." But the the biggest thing when it comes to any form of marketing, whether it's Facebook ads, whether it's tradesman websites, whether it's uh premium directories, is making certain that your business is getting an ROI. Making certain how many leads you're getting? If if if you've went with Yel.com's premium Yel listing, how many leads a month are you getting with that? Because at the end of the day, that is a direct cost to your marketing budget. So, if you're spending 12 grand a year with them, £1,000 a month, okay? Are you getting five leads? Are you getting one lead? Are you getting no leads? You need to be understanding all of these numbers.
James Dooley: Yeah, for sure. I think you've hit the nail on the head there. You need to be tracking your return on investment. And I think this is where the fat rank.com commissionbased lead generation service lends its hand very very well. For business owners, it's an absolute no-brainer for any business owners looking to grow and wanting more leads, to make more profit to go and sign up to fatank.com. Um, it's the only that I know of lead generation service that guarantees an ROI. But that's not to say that that is the only thing that you should be doing. You should be looking at all the other competitors and trades people website that we've mentioned here. Go on over to Bark, go on over to check a trade, go on over to my builder and trust a trader and go and see what the ROI is for those websites. One or two of them might work well in your area for the industry that you're in. And if you do sign up to a few of them and and maintain it. If you don't get a positive return on ad spend and return on investment, then stop it. And it's as simple as that. Like business is business. You want to be trying to make certain you're making a return on investment on this. And that's why fatrank.com lends its service brilliantly for trades people in the UK.
Guest: Yeah. So that has been our video on alternatives to my build my builder tradesman website. If you guys do have any questions, feel free to drop them down below. Or if you want more leads, maybe you're struggling to to generate your own inquiries, head over to fatrank.com, fill in the contact form, and we will be in touch. Thanks for watching.