How we make money

How we earn

Contractors pay for visibility in the directory listings on city pages, and for the job leads that come through our quote forms.

We may also show display ads served by Google AdSense. Google selects those ads, and we earn when they are viewed or clicked. An ad is not a recommendation from us. The privacy policy explains the cookies involved and how to opt out.

That is the whole model. We are open about it because the alternative — pretending a free site has no commercial interest — is worse for everybody.

What paid placement and ads do and do not affect

It affects: which companies appear in the listing block on a city page, and in what order. Paid positions are limited and labeled. Display ads affect only the ad slots they appear in.

It does not affect:

• Any cost figure or price range anywhere on the site.
• What a guide recommends, or which method we say is cheaper.
• Whether a competitor gets listed. Nobody can pay to remove a rival.
• Editorial content of any kind. See the editorial policy.

What we are not

• We are not a contractor, and we do not employ or supervise the contractors we list.
• We are not a party to any agreement between you and a contractor.
• We do not guarantee any contractor's work, pricing, licensing status or insurance.

Always verify licensing yourself before you hire. Septic and well work is state-licensed in most of the country, and we link the official lookup for every state we cover — it takes about two minutes.

Your information

When you submit the quote form we record what you told us about the project, along with the page you submitted from and the time. We share those details with contractors who serve your area so they can quote. We do not sell your information to data brokers or unrelated advertisers.

Want your details removed? Ask us and we will delete them.