On Nextdoor, people ask their neighbors the question every contractor wants to hear: "Who do you use for your gutters?" "Can anyone recommend a plumber who actually shows up?" The answers come from people who live a few streets away, and they carry more weight than an ad. A Nextdoor business page puts your company where those answers point.

For a home service business, Nextdoor fits the way you work: you serve specific neighborhoods, one happy customer on a street often leads to the next, and the basic business page costs nothing. This guide covers how to set up a Nextdoor business account, verify it, collect recommendations, post within the rules, and when paying for ads makes sense.

What a Nextdoor business page gives you

According to Nextdoor, a free Business Page lets you:

  • Show who you are: an introduction, up-to-date contact details and photos of your team and your work. Nextdoor calls the page "often the first touch point neighbors have with your business."
  • Collect recommendations from neighbors, which show on your page
  • Collect Faves, which work like follows: neighbors who Fave your page see your posts in their newsfeed
  • Post to nearby neighborhoods, which Nextdoor describes as "unlimited free posts": updates, expert advice, offers and announcements
  • Reply to messages from neighbors

The page also reaches beyond Nextdoor members. Nextdoor says business pages are generally available to anyone on the web, can appear in Google search results, and show up in Nextdoor search for neighbors who live within 50 miles of your business address.

Nextdoor business page cost

The page itself is free, and so is posting from it. Nextdoor sells ads on top (covered below). If someone offers to "set up your Nextdoor listing" for a fee, know that it's something you can do yourself in a few minutes.

Step 1: Claim or create your page

Your business may already have a page, created when a neighbor recommended you. Nextdoor says you must be an owner, employee or other authorized representative of the business to claim it.

  1. Go to business.nextdoor.com and choose to sign up or claim your free Business Page.
  2. Create an account or log in.
  3. Search for your business using both the name and the location.
  4. If it's there, claim it. If it isn't, click "Not here? Create your Business Page."

A few rules from Nextdoor's business page policy matter for contractors:

  • Use your real business name. Nextdoor says your page must reflect your business's real-world name. Don't add keywords or town names.
  • Use a precise address or service area. P.O. boxes and mailboxes at remote locations aren't accepted.
  • You don't have to show your address. If you work from home, you can hide it by unticking "Display address on page."

Step 2: Verify your business

Verification is what turns the page into a marketing tool. Nextdoor says verified businesses display a "Verified" checkmark and can create business posts, and that without verifying, your options to message customers or buy advertising may be limited depending on your region.

Documents Nextdoor accepts in the US include:

  • A government-issued business license or permit (local, state or federal)
  • A business tax registration certificate
  • An EIN confirmation letter from the IRS
  • Official tax notices from the IRS
  • Articles of Organization
  • A business credit report from one of the reporting agencies
  • A Fictitious Business Name Statement, in addition to one of the above, if you do business under a different name

The document must be current and readable, in PDF, JPEG or PNG, and the business name on it must match your page name exactly, including punctuation. Your personal name on the business profile should match the documents too. If you work from home or as a mobile service, the address on your page should match the one on your documents, which you can then hide from neighbors. Start from Settings, then Verify, and finish it in one session. Nextdoor says verification in the app is immediate.

If you already have two pages for the same business, tell Nextdoor during verification and it can merge them.

Step 3: Fill in the page like a homeowner will read it

Neighbors comparing contractors open your page to decide whether to call. Give them what they need:

  • A short description of what you do and where: "Drain cleaning, water heater repair and repiping in Cary, Apex and Morrisville. Family-owned, licensed in North Carolina."
  • Your phone number and website, kept current
  • Real photos: your truck, your crew, finished jobs. Not stock photos.
  • Your service area covering the neighborhoods you actually want work in

Nextdoor's own tips for being found in Google search are to claim the page, get at least one recommendation from a neighbor, complete the page with a description and photos, and share some posts.

Step 4: Earn neighbor recommendations

Recommendations are the heart of Nextdoor for business. Nextdoor says recommendations written on your page, and posts or comments where a neighbor tags your business, show on your page under "What neighbors say". Recommendations left on your page after Faving it are also shared in the newsfeed. They're visible to anyone, and you can see and reply to them.

Neighbors can recommend you two ways: from your business page, or by typing "@" and your business name in a post or comment when someone asks for a recommendation. That second route is why a matching page name matters: Nextdoor notes that neighbors need to match the spelling of your page name to tag you, and that a business with a hidden address doesn't show in those tag results.

How to get more of them:

  • Ask at the end of every good job, the same way you ask for Google reviews. Send a link to your page; the Share option on your page gives you one.
  • Ask customers who already praise you in person or by text. They're the most likely to write something.
  • Reply to every recommendation, briefly and by name.

Treat it like your Google reviews routine, and keep the two separate. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews covers the routine, and how to respond to negative reviews applies to a bad Nextdoor recommendation too.

Faves are not recommendations

Nextdoor is clear on this: a Fave means a neighbor has "followed" your page to see your posts. It isn't a recommendation. When a neighbor taps Fave, Nextdoor prompts them to write a recommendation, but they can skip it. You can see who Faved your page, and a chart of Faves over time, in your Dashboard. More Faves means more neighbors see your posts, so ask for both.

Step 5: Post as a business, within the rules

Business posts appear on your page and in the newsfeed for neighbors near your business address. When you post, you choose the audience by widening or narrowing the radius around your business, or by picking specific neighborhoods. (If you leave out your own neighborhood, you won't see the post from your personal account.)

What Nextdoor allows

Nextdoor's posting guidelines allow:

  • Updates such as changed hours or upcoming opportunities
  • Questions that invite neighbor feedback
  • Local events
  • Customer or employee spotlights
  • Expert advice related to a service you provide

What gets businesses in trouble

Nextdoor's guidelines don't allow, among other things:

  • Spam: mass direct messages, repeated or similar posts, or templated content with no personal commentary
  • Negative posts about competitors
  • False promises, exaggerated claims or untrue statements about your services
  • Links to third-party deal, classified or marketplace sites
  • Posting a neighbor's information or content without their consent
  • Suggesting that Nextdoor endorses your business

Neighbors can report business content, and Nextdoor says it may warn you, remove the content, put the account on read-only access, suspend it, or remove your page, and that it can act without contacting you first.

Post ideas for contractors

Expert advice is the easiest kind of post to get right, and it's what neighbors actually want from a tradesperson:

  • HVAC: "Three things to check before you call for a furnace repair this winter"
  • Plumbing: "Where your main water shutoff is and how to close it"
  • Roofing: "What to look for on your roof after this week's hail, and when to call someone"
  • Landscaping: "When to aerate and overseed lawns in our area"
  • Cleaning: "How to get hard-water stains off glass shower doors"
  • Spotlights: a finished project in the neighborhood (with the owner's permission), or a technician who just finished an apprenticeship

End with one plain line about what you do and how to reach you. Keep it local, original and useful, and don't post the same thing every week.

Step 6: Decide whether Nextdoor ads are worth it

Everything above is free. Nextdoor also sells ads through Nextdoor Ads Manager. According to Nextdoor:

  • Ads can run in the newsfeed (native ads), the For Sale & Free section, or the right-hand rail on desktop.
  • You set up a campaign with an objective, then an ad group with a bid, daily budget, duration and delivery schedule, and choose a target audience.
  • You can upload customer data to reach current customers who are active on Nextdoor.
  • Billing is automatic: you're charged when you reach a billing threshold or on your monthly billing date, whichever comes first.

Nextdoor's business pages that we checked don't publish ad rates or a minimum spend; what you pay depends on the bid and budget you set. Start small, run one offer to the neighborhoods you most want, and track what it brings in.

Ads make most sense when the free side is already working: a verified page, a handful of recommendations, and a reason for neighbors to call now, such as a seasonal service. For other paid options, compare with Facebook ads for contractors and Google Local Services Ads.

Nextdoor marketing tips for home service businesses

  • Concentrate on the streets you already serve. A recommendation from a customer on Maple Street reaches their neighbors on Maple Street. That's how you build route density, which matters most for recurring services like lawn care, pest control and cleaning.
  • Pair Nextdoor with offline marketing on the same streets: yard signs at job sites and door hangers for the neighbors.
  • Answer fast. When a neighbor messages you, reply the same day. On Nextdoor, other neighbors may be watching the thread.
  • Keep your Nextdoor name, phone and website the same as your Google Business Profile and website, so homeowners and search engines see one consistent business.
  • Ask every new customer how they found you and record it, so you know whether Nextdoor brings jobs or just Faves.

For trade-specific ideas that include Nextdoor, see our landscaping marketing ideas and house cleaning marketing guides. Comparing lead sources? Our guide to Thumbtack for contractors covers the pay-per-lead route.