ContractorCalculator’s eighth ABC audit shows that readership increased by 20% over the last 12 months and Google’s April Panda update had no impact. This confirms that ContractorCalculator’s ongoing investment in high quality content and accurate, up-to-date calculators continues to retain and attract new readers to the UK’s leading contractor site.
“Labour market surveys suggest that throughout 2011 more of the UK’s skilled knowledge workers opted for contracting as a career and lifestyle choice,” says ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin. “These workers are also choosing ContractorCalculator as their preferred source of high quality content about contracting in the UK, resulting in a 20% increase in unique visitors to our site since September 2010.”
The latest ABC audit figures demonstrate that ContractorCalculator’s ongoing investment in high quality content continues to attract and retain new readers despite major changes to Google’s search algorithm as part of its Panda update. Chaplin explains: “Google’s Panda update in April 2011 killed traffic to sites created specifically with poor quality content to ‘game’ search engines.
“However, our strategy of focusing on contractors’ needs has kept contractors returning to the site. This strategy includes ongoing investment into accurate and up-to-date online interactive income calculators, high quality news, editorial and features, plus cutting edge white papers, insightful surveys and innovations such as our free Online IR35 test.”
In the last six months, since the most recent ABC audit in March 2011 revealed unique visitors to the site had grown to 130,682, ContractorCalculator has published a stream of innovative new information products and tools to better meet the needs of contractors operating in the current tough economic and business conditions.
These include a new ContractorCalculator iPhone app, thought leadership white papers on IR35 and the Agency Workers Regulations, and the highly acclaimed, bestselling Contractors Handbook as a Kindle edition. The site also includes over 600 contracting guides and publishes contractor news, features and comments as it happens.
“Our most recent audit month of September 2011 was also the run-up to the introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations,” continues Chaplin. “It is clear from the unique visitor numbers that contractors flocked to ContractorCalculator for the latest news, expert guidance, surveys and opinion about the potential impact of the legislation.”
Chaplin concludes: “ContractorCalculator remains the only online advertising property serving the contracting sector that invests regularly in industry-standard ABC audits. As a result, contracting sector service providers can invest in our online marketing solutions with confidence and trust.”