new yell.com

[moosegoose]

hi i was looking at the sponsored listing on yell. and see there are three. national, regional, and local. there is limited availability position 1,2,3 in each section. but im confused to which listing take priority when searching for services. ie if i search for a plumber in norwich how do yell list the service. national listing first followed by reginal and then local !!..

 

[BdTS]

The National Listings are just back-fill.

If you buy one or two and you're the only Local Sponsored listing you should get top spot/

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Yes, but if they've sold it 200 times, you only get rotation. Do you want your advert to be shown to only 1/10 searchers?

 

[BdTS]

Yes, but if they've sold it 200 times, you only get rotation. Do you want your advert to be shown to only 1/10 searchers?

If it's a Sponsored Listing, they only sell 3 per class per area.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Sell or show?
The two aren't necessarily the same, and last time I asked they were still rotating the sponsored listings.

 

[BdTS]

Sell or show?
The two aren't necessarily the same, and last time I asked they were still rotating the sponsored listings.

If they aren't the same then it means it's national listings taking up the back-fill.

If they are local Sponsored Listings, they will always be the same three in the same place.

If you bought position one for Ayr for your classification but position to and three weren't taken, random National Listings would fill the gaps.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

So what about the poor sods that PAY for national listings??

It's a bit of an irrelevant topic though, because the amount of work sent through from national/local/regional listings is immaterial. Might as well throw the money down the street than pay for yell advertising these days, more chance of actually bringing in a customer.

 

[BdTS]

So what about the poor sods that PAY for national listings??

It's a bit of an irrelevant topic though, because the amount of work sent through from national/local/regional listings is immaterial. Might as well throw the money down the street than pay for yell advertising these days, more chance of actually bringing in a customer.

How is it immaterial? You trying to tell me a plumber who takes out the LSL for position one in Central London won't get work from it?

A client of mine took out the Health & Safety position two recently in a not so brilliant area and it's covered his costs already.

...and national listings are Pay Per Click anyway, so not really a big deal.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

How is it immaterial? You trying to tell me a plumber who takes out the LSL for position one in Central London won't get work from it?

A client of mine took out the Health & Safety position two recently in a not so brilliant area and it's covered his costs already.

...and national listings are Pay Per Click anyway, so not really a big deal.

Just my experience. I took a national sponsored listing for yell.com. It did not generate one telephone call or enquiry through the 12 months period. Yell.com agreed and extended it for a further 18 months. It still did not generate one telephone call.

I also took a 118247 advert for a year across Edinburgh. It too did not generate one telephone call for work. It too was extended FOC by yell for another 6 months. It still did not generate one telephone call.

Each year Yell suggest "bigger advert, more add ons, different colour, stand out more to get the calls". When the underlying problem is that Yell is dying.

Yell quote me search numbers that defy logic. Apparently, 2000 people a month search for "House Clearance Ayr" in yell.com. But per google - insufficient numbers of searches.

So according to Yell, over 10000% more go to yell to look for a house clearance company than go to Google. Yep, right!!

How can you have any faith in a company who's reps spin so many "mis-statements" exagerations, and generally misleading information just to get you to sign a contract.

If yell worked. If it actually did what it's reps claimed it could do. If it genuinely got the search volumes that it claimed. If it generated the levels of work that it's reps claim. Then selling Yell would be the easiest job in the world.

The fact that there is so much mistrust, and disbelief, and generally touncing of Yell, is because it Doesn't do what is claims it does. It is overpriced for the work that it does do. The reps are either downright misleading or simply can't be bothered their ar8e. And overall, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

 

[BdTS]

Just my experience. I took a national sponsored listing for yell.com. It did not generate one telephone call or enquiry through the 12 months period. Yell.com agreed and extended it for a further 18 months. It still did not generate one telephone call.

I also took a 118247 advert for a year across Edinburgh. It too did not generate one telephone call for work. It too was extended FOC by yell for another 6 months. It still did not generate one telephone call.

Each year Yell suggest "bigger advert, more add ons, different colour, stand out more to get the calls". When the underlying problem is that Yell is dying.

Yell quote me search numbers that defy logic. Apparently, 2000 people a month search for "House Clearance Ayr" in yell.com. But per google - insufficient numbers of searches.

So according to Yell, over 10000% more go to yell to look for a house clearance company than go to Google. Yep, right!!

How can you have any faith in a company who's reps spin so many "mis-statements" exagerations, and generally misleading information just to get you to sign a contract.

If yell worked. If it actually did what it's reps claimed it could do. If it genuinely got the search volumes that it claimed. If it generated the levels of work that it's reps claim. Then selling Yell would be the easiest job in the world.

The fact that there is so much mistrust, and disbelief, and generally touncing of Yell, is because it Doesn't do what is claims it does. It is overpriced for the work that it does do. The reps are either downright misleading or simply can't be bothered their ar8e. And overall, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

I don't work for Yell or any other directory but part of my current and previous roles has been to spend my client's marketing budget on directories, and my approach has always been an open-minded one depending on the information the company gives.

In terms of search numbers, I always ensure that I get that part of it in writing, I've had to complain a couple of times on my client's behalf regarding poor performance and have always kept emails the staff have sent me about search views/click-throughs etc.

I must admit that I've never dealt with the Yell.com national listings or set one up for a client.

...and I really don't think Yell is dying Boxby, their Yell.com revenue has shot up by 40% for two consecutive quarters where their competitors like Thomsons for example have experienced bad falls.

So has every form of Yell advertising you've done yielded zero response?

I always thought couriers/removals done ok out of them?

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

So has every form of Yell advertising you've done yielded zero response?

I always thought couriers/removals done ok out of them?

It wasn't couriers, it was Hubby's business, which is house clearances. The thing with house clearances is that you don't even know what one is till you need one, and customers rarely know of a company to call. You don't see an advert in a newspaper etc for House clearances, and think "oh, i'll keep that number, it will be handy one day!".

So, traditionally Yell/Yellow pages was very very important and generated a large proportion of leads/work. And hence my emotive response. We have advertised with Yell for 20+ years, and the returns from yell now are miniscule as compare to years gone by.

When the target customer prefers google to the yellow pages, we tried Yell.com and 118247. But results were pants. And then a few years on when rep assured us that yell.com was thousands of times better than it was before we tried again. It wasn't.

The house clearance market should be one that yell works for. But the thing is that Yell haven't noticed, is that the customers needs have changed.

The internet puts information into everyone's hands, and people simply don't need the one stop yellow book solution to every problem. Customers want to research, they don't want to see a list of names, they want to hear about the names, read reviews about the names, see what & who those names are. Google offers this, the book and 118247 doesn't.

Yell.com only offers this via the enhanced weblink. But for many business, its simply easier and better to rank your own website highly, pay for SEO, pay for it once, and be in control.

Also, national advertising listings in Yell cost monthly approximately the same price as a national adwords campaign. So again, why bother.

Search for "house clearances". Where is Yell???
And that is why Yell is less relevant now than it has ever been.

(Just noticed that Touch have all the PPC ads for house clearances - suppose I better expect a sales call, because they must be selling this listing in my area this week!)

 

[BdTS]

Boxby - Yell are starting it too in the coming months.

A trial is going on over the next month or so.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Boxby - Yell are starting it too in the coming months.

A trial is going on over the next month or so.

I'll look forward to the call (NOT!!).

 

[moosegoose]

thanks i think i will give yell a call just to confirm what u guy are saying. and get some performance figures in writing. they have done quite a few changes to the site including moving the sponsers from right to left. they are also giving more space for your money and seo for your site. i to have had bad results mostly with the book and you are spot on about the reps they have so much spin that u feel dizzy when they leave. so ill call them get some info and post it on here so we can analize it. regards

 

[moosegoose]

the 3 local sonsored listings have been taken. but the regional sponsor is free. with a regional sponsoed listing i would appear as the only sponsored listing for key words that match my catogory and the area field as norfolk. not sure how many people will use norfolk as the location but if they do i will bein first position. this is half the price of being a local sponsor which kinda reflects the potensial customers i will get. to off set that i will be on my own not competing with two other local sponsers. at the moment this search term digital aerial norfolk cat aerial services and supplies is filled in by a national sponsor. aerial force. do any one think its worth a shot.

 

[moosegoose]

oh i fogot to say if in the post code section u enter nr or pe or ip i would be displayed on a rota basis with the two other regional sponsors for cambs and suffolk. but again who would search using th first two digits of the post code.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

What price are they asking for?

And then compare this to be the price of a targeted adwords campaign that would concentrate on the local area that you really want?

 

[moosegoose]

£1500 plus vat

 

[moosegoose]

the only stat they have is 60% is local so i presume the other 40% is national and regional. aerial force have taken all the big regions and left the likes of norfolk and cornwall which are filled in with there national ads

 

[spreadsheetsdirect]

Just had a call from yell trying to sell me sponsored listing. Said that the advert page you get does well in search engine results but can't say I've seen many in search results.

 

[eventdomain]

£1500 plus vat

That's expensive. For that cash I want exclusivity on their homepage for 5 years.....

 

[eventdomain]

Each year I my copy of the YP gets thinner and thinner.

YP book 2007/08

Classified ads start from page 40 to 1357

book 2008/09

Ads start at page 52 to 1296

book 2009/10

Ads start at page 58 to 1059


Most of the pages are Free Line Entries as we all know, but I physically counted the display adverts (I was bored one day) and got to about quarter way through and counted about 700 paid adverts - but that was 2 years back and its different now.

Each year a new YP book is issued, it has less pages. Less pages means less room for adverts. Obvious companies are pulling their adverts.

Book for years 2009/10 is only about 65% the size of 07/08.....

Other words its bad news for the Yellow book.

 

[BdTS]

Each year I my copy of the YP gets thinner and thinner.

YP book 2007/08

Classified ads start from page 40 to 1357

book 2008/09

Ads start at page 52 to 1296

book 2009/10

Ads start at page 58 to 1059


Most of the pages are Free Line Entries as we all know, but I physically counted the display adverts (I was bored one day) and got to about quarter way through and counted about 700 paid adverts - but that was 2 years back and its different now.

Each year a new YP book is issued, it has less pages. Less pages means less room for adverts. Obvious companies are pulling their adverts.

Book for years 2009/10 is only about 65% the size of 07/08.....

Other words its bad news for the Yellow book.

Just as well .com will make up the shortfall any month now...

 

[eventdomain]

BdTS,

did you buy an advert on Yell?



How many enquiries did you get over 12 month contract?

 

[BdTS]

BdTS,

did you buy an advert on Yell?



How many enquiries did you get over 12 month contract?

Under "Marketing and Advertising Consultants" I got about 4 jobs in the first year of being on.

Small return but more than covered it. That was back when they charged £360+VAT for the year, second year I was on it got me maybe about 6ish. I don't advertise on there just now for different reasons but it definitely justified itself, all be it in a fairly understated way.

Why'd you ask?

 

[Slartibartfast]

I
Yell haven't noticed, is that the customers needs have changed.

The internet puts information into everyone's hands, and people simply don't need the one stop yellow book solution to every problem. Customers want to research, they don't want to see a list of names, they want to hear about the names, read reviews about the names, see what & who those names are. Google offers this, the book and 118247 doesn't.

Hmm, I must be one of the minority who DO use Yell a lot then! If I want a company for something locally, my usual first stop is Yell, to see what the options are. I then use Google to search for more info about any chosen companies if required.

I use yell first to avoid the about 107,000 results returned from google when I'm searching for a local plasterer or something like that.

So for me, Yell is a useful tool. Though I don't like the way it has changed recently and, now I come to think of it, I'm starting to use the 'local business results' that Google returns as well.

So, er, my point is, er, whatever, or something

Cheers,
Slarti.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

So, er, my point is, er, whatever, or something

Cheers,
Slarti.

Lol

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

£1500 plus vat

Try a post on the SEO PPC forum asking how much it would cost to run a good adwords campaign.

We now pay 50% for our adwords than we did at the height of our Yell spending. And the adwords generates a lot more jobs.

(Although, bizarrely, we do get better (not necessarily more) enquries through PPC when our website also ranks organically on the first page).

 

[eventdomain]

Under "Marketing and Advertising Consultants" I got about 4 jobs in the first year of being on.

Small return but more than covered it. That was back when they charged £360+VAT for the year, second year I was on it got me maybe about 6ish. I don't advertise on there just now for different reasons but it definitely justified itself, all be it in a fairly understated way.

Why'd you ask?

Just wondered, and it confirms what I knew about them already - waste of time advertising for anyone outside of the trades.

First time I used them to advertise was for my CV writing service. That got me 30 enquiries and maybe 3 jobs (using Free Line Entry).

Second time I used them for Internet advertising websites, result = No enquiries and zero sales.

Proof that hardly anyone searches YP or Yell for web/technical services.

 

[happyoutdoors]

Ah yes, yell.com, I agree with Boxby. You are encouraged to search using your postcode, the nearest businesses are then listed. With an enhanced listing your ad often appears on the next page under, these businesses also serve your area, after the enhanced ads for that particular postcode but before un-enhanced, simple, plain & free listings that are nearer than your business postcode.
We have 2 enhanced listings, they want an extra £245 +vat to get a website link set up just for one ad.

But you have to select which category to list yourself, of which their are loads, guessing which your potential customers will use. Yell always but always say 30,40,50 customers searched for this last month but lo & behold as soon as you get your ad up & running, they stop!

Our enhanced listing covers our entire YP book area, we didn't realise this, cos funny enough the rep never mentioned we could be more specific with the area, which is of course cheaper. Too late, 24hrs after seeing the rep the ad is live, can't be changed now, it's in the T&C you get 7 days later. The reps excel at bamboozling!

 

[BdTS]

Our enhanced listing covers our entire YP book area, we didn't realise this, cos funny enough the rep never mentioned we could be more specific with the area, which is of course cheaper. Too late, 24hrs after seeing the rep the ad is live, can't be changed now, it's in the T&C you get 7 days later. The reps excel at bamboozling

If you took it without the YP book area coverage you'd only appear on searches that happen practically on your doorstep, and you'd be excluded from searches for your services in towns or cities like 1 mile away from you for example.

Perhaps they could've been clearer on the cost of it, mind.

 

[BdTS]

Just wondered, and it confirms what I knew about them already - waste of time advertising for anyone outside of the trades.

First time I used them to advertise was for my CV writing service. That got me 30 enquiries and maybe 3 jobs (using Free Line Entry).

Second time I used them for Internet advertising websites, result = No enquiries and zero sales.

Proof that hardly anyone searches YP or Yell for web/technical services.

I used part of a client's budget last year on Yell.com, the guy is a Fire Risk Assessor based in Norther Ireland.

Absolutely coining it in. Covered his costs in ten days.

That's the thing, not many people on here will post success stories about the directories which I guess is only natural...

I recommended that one of my client's optimise himself on Touch and Yell last week and he refused because of the success of his one-liner.....he was a Health & Safety consultant.....

So these sites do work, it's all about the quality of the Ad and the areas you cover.

Buying the cheapest ad possible or relying on a freebie to bring you work rarely brings success.

 

[happyoutdoors]

If you took it without the YP book area coverage you'd only appear on searches that happen practically on your doorstep, and you'd be excluded from searches for your services in towns or cities like 1 mile away from you for example.

Perhaps they could've been clearer on the cost of it, mind.

Yep I know, but at the time the rep knew that we wanted to restrict our coverage to 30 mile radius of York, & the ad was gonna state the towns our coverage extended to. This was then buggered when the Yell.com coverage went all the way from Scarborough (50miles) to the far side of Harrogate.

Methinks that if yell is postcode orientated then advertisers should be equally be able to select the postcode areas to advertise within. Rather like the adwords picked up for searches on particular text.

In fact there is a whole load of options on the website that the rep never mentioned, e.g there is an intermediate ad on yell between enhanced & free, its name escapes me, which can also have a weblink, but costs much less, but still covers the larger area.

There was also no explanation by rep or site to what exact area (postcode) is covered by a non-enhanced ad. This is all from the 'top' online directory. Information is what I want, & as usual sorely lacking.

 

[BdTS]

happyoutdoors,

The "intermediates" are Lightweight listings, formally known as "Value Listings". They optimise you above free line entries but below Enhanced so you've still done the right thing, you can't take out coverage with them either.

Freebies are also bumped out of service searches on Yell.com wherever possible mate, so I can assure you you've been sold something that will get you seen by new customers.

Have a look for yourself, free-line entries are bumped out of servicve searches - even by companies who aren't in the area searched for.

 

[eventdomain]

I used part of a client's budget last year on Yell.com, the guy is a Fire Risk Assessor based in Norther Ireland.

Absolutely coining it in. Covered his costs in ten days.

That's the thing, not many people on here will post success stories about the directories which I guess is only natural...

I recommended that one of my client's optimise himself on Touch and Yell last week and he refused because of the success of his one-liner.....he was a Health & Safety consultant.....

So these sites do work, it's all about the quality of the Ad and the areas you cover.

Buying the cheapest ad possible or relying on a freebie to bring you work rarely brings success.

All due respect, this is why so many lose money with Yell. A Fire Risk assessor is an occupation, not a business (unless its connected to the Insurance industry). Even if the Fire Assessor were to get more enquiries, a technical company wont get them, see nobody after a technical service will go to Yell.com - bcos Yell doesn't target that specifically - they only use the TV to promote to a wide, mixed audience, so wont reach the exact market for technical buyers anyway.

General publications arent read by specialists, they got their own publications and associations for that. I counted 30 companies all advertisng the same service on the same page on Yell, and the only reason their there is their competitors are. Yell.com and YP is used by companies with budgets they dont mind using up - I doubt they spend with Yell bcos of the amazing ROI.

 

[limotek]

I have always found yell.com to be a great alternative search engine. Has never let me down.

 

[moosegoose]

yes they are spin doctors. i done a lot of research and if u are a local trades man the local sponsored listings seem to work well. but they are gone for my trade. as yell can not come up with any useful stats for the regional sponsored listings im going to give it a miss. im going to spend some more money on seo and tarting my site up. and i will take a look at ppc. regards to every one.

 

[Mr Limo]

If you took it without the YP book area coverage you'd only appear on searches that happen practically on your doorstep, and you'd be excluded from searches for your services in towns or cities like 1 mile away from you for example.

Perhaps they could've been clearer on the cost of it, mind.

Do you work for Yell.com by any chance ?

 

[moosegoose]

hi i managed to get a local sponserd listing which is position 3 for every place in norfolk. i was exsited as it cost 2000 so i thought i would see a good return. but it has not performed that well in comparison to adwords. the problem i think is its hard to stand out as you all have to were the same shell suit and say the same stuff. maybe gogle will do a post code search one day.