Qype - Are they any good

[kiddyriffic]

I submitted my website to qype for a free listing in their directory but a day later a sales consultant called to cold sell a premium listing which is going to cost about £42 per month for 1 category in 2 areas. Minimum contract is for 6 months.

I've heard of qype but they dont rank high in google when i search directory listing. Does anyone have any experience using qype and did this bring enough traffic to your website? if it did how much of it was converted into sales (just a rough percentage).

Kiddyriffic

 

[QypeBiz]

Hello Kiddyriffic,

I just came across your post and thought I'll introduce myself. I'm Geri, B2B Community Manager at Qype. First of all, thanks for joining us recently!

Just to let you know that I'm here to help if you need more info. All our business profiles on Qype are search engine optimised so as long as you use your free listing to the max (description, photos, address, website link, etc...) - and you did - and invite your customers to leave you reviews on Qype regularly, Google will start picking up your page. Currently, if you type your business name in Google, you'll notice that your Qype listing is on the first page (7th from the top).

A Premium listing will simply optimize this visibility to potential customers, both on the Qype site and on search engines, giving you more chance to be found/seen. Your special offers will therefore become more visible, and your business advertised on competitors' pages too.

If you want to talk to other businesses and get their feedback, you can also join our Business Group on Qype - Qype for Business Owners - and start a topic.

I hope this helps. Don't hesitate to contact me directly on Qype!

PS: really keen to hear from any other business currently on Qype or not and hear their feedback on the site and their experience so far.

 

[MASSEY]

They are good to submit to for your free listing as it aids seo in other areas.

They are good for nothing else.

 

[QypeBiz]

Hello Kiddyriffic,

I came across your post and thought I'll give you a quick overview. I'm Geri, B2B Community Manager at Qype.

All our business profiles are search-engine optimized so as long as you use your free listing to the max (description, photos, website link, vouchers, etc...) and obviously encourage your customers to leave you reviews, Google will start picking it up. As a matter of fact, when you type your company name in Google at the moment, your Qype listing is on the first page (7th from top). Also the more reviews, the better as Qype is also about managing your reputation online, therefore attracting more customers via recommendations, online word of mouth.

A Premium listing will basically optimize all of this both on Qype but also on search engines (choosing keywords) and give you even more chances to be found/seen by customers - like promoting your special offers across the site and appearing on competitors' pages, which overall give you more visibility to customers browsing our site.

You can also get feedback from other business owners by joining our "Qype for Business Owners" group (free) and start a topic in there. And of course, contact me direct if you need more info.

Massey, may I ask for a bit more details about your experience?

Also keen to hear feedback and experience from any other businesses - feedback (good or bad) is what makes us improve and adapt our products.
Thanks,
Geri

 

[MASSEY]

It all depends what service you offer but paid directory's are a proven waste of money. For the op to be charged £42 a month plus vat no doubt to be listed in a directory that itself ranks very poorly he would do far better to spend it on google adwords or list in the free index or hot frog uk, hot frog Is free and more optimised than qype. It's nothing personal geri but you know the deal the op was offered isn't a good one

 

[british steve]

I submitted my website to qype for a free listing in their directory but a day later a sales consultant called to cold sell a premium listing which is going to cost about £42 per month for 1 category in 2 areas. Minimum contract is for 6 months.

I've heard of qype but they dont rank high in google when i search directory listing. Does anyone have any experience using qype and did this bring enough traffic to your website? if it did how much of it was converted into sales (just a rough percentage).

Kiddyriffic

I my registered my business with Qype, within 24 hours they were phoning me trying to get me to take a premium paid listing for some stupid amount of money each month. First the cheeky toads phone me on my 0800 number and then dont take no for an answer. Have now blocked them from calling me and all the emails they send go to a bin email.

Free listing fine, anything else with Qype is probably a waste of money!

 

[QypeBiz]

Hello british steve,

First of all, I can only apologise for your bad experience with us. I'll have a chat with our sales team about this. Please contact me directly on Qype if you have issues with emails or anything else (profile "Geri Sancho"), I can explain how to change your settings too.

Let's be clear, once you claim your business, you're automatically on the free listing. You can update your details, add pictures, opening times if relevant, reply to reviews, create special offers,...and interact with both the business community & customers. And the good news is you can stay on the free package for as long as you wish!

If our current premium offer is not relevant to your business (and to yours either Massey) then fair enough. It's then our job to review & improve our features on both Free and Premium to fit our customers' needs going forward. So to me, this feedback is valuable information.

I hope you'll have a better experience going forward. I'm working towards this. Don't hesitate to add me in your contacts on Qype as well!
Thanks,
Geri

 

[british steve]

Hello british steve,

First of all, I can only apologise for your bad experience with us. I'll have a chat with our sales team about this. Please contact me directly on Qype if you have issues with emails or anything else (profile "Geri Sancho"), I can explain how to change your settings too.

Let's be clear, once you claim your business, you're automatically on the free listing. You can update your details, add pictures, opening times if relevant, reply to reviews, create special offers,...and interact with both the business community & customers. And the good news is you can stay on the free package for as long as you wish!

If our current premium offer is not relevant to your business (and to yours either Massey) then fair enough. It's then our job to review & improve our features on both Free and Premium to fit our customers' needs going forward. So to me, this feedback is valuable information.

I hope you'll have a better experience going forward. I'm working towards this. Don't hesitate to add me in your contacts on Qype as well!
Thanks,
Geri

I have managed to change my settings. You cant phone me anymore as I have blocked the number you kept trying to call me from and any emails you send go in to the bin folder so I never have to see them. Problem solved.

I only went on the Qype for the free listing to help on the search engines but since Qype only appears about 5 pages down that did not really halp anyway. With Freeindex we get about 4-5 calls per month with Qype we never got a thing.

 

[QypeBiz]

Thanks for your feedback Steve. Happy to discuss further with you and find a way to optimize your current free listing on Qype so you get the most out of it, if you wish to of course.

Don't hesitate to contact me directly by sending me a private message on this forum. Otherwise, we'll keep working towards improving our products and services and hope to have you back as a customer at some point in the future!

Thanks,
Geri

 

[RoyaleGraphics]

I only heard of Qype through this forum and added a free listing. A week later I have just received a phone call telling me why I should pay £27 a month for a premium listing in Nottingham (we trade throughout the UK with Nottingham being one of the smallest areas we sell our products).

I added a free listing for a reason - because it was free. If I had wanted the premium listing, thats what I would have gone with in the first place

 

[largada]

Its not just qype they are all at it, too be honest i expect them to phone me as they wouldn't be sales people if they didnt!!

I added a free listing for a reason - because it was free. If I had wanted the premium listing, thats what I would have gone with in the first place

thats exactly what i tell them and politely ask them not to check in with me in 6months time

 

[QypeBiz]

Hi RoyaleGraphics,

First of all thanks for being with us on Qype!

Largada is right though: we do have a sales team in the UK to sell our Premium package and it is likely indeed you'll be receiving a call from them after you register to let you know of the existence of this Qype product and see your interest.

As I said though, you can stay on the free package for as long as you want if the Premium listing is not something for you & your business. I can't stop these calls - I can only ensure they're handled properly.

But I'm also available for any queries you might have with your free listing. I sent you a contact request this morning as well on Qype.

Hope that makes sense.
Thanks,
Geri

 

[Ashley_Price]

It seems Qype aren't getting a very good reputation. People sign up for free and then you get a phone call to try and make you pay for a premium ad.

Does it clearly state when you sign up for a free ad you will get a phone call from a salesperson?

Why not allow people to indicate whether they are interested in speaking to someone about a paid-for advert?

This is why I use FreeIndex. They are completely free, there's no sales team going to phone you up, as they don't do paid for ads. (They do have sponsored ads through Google.) There's no spam from them; they don't pass your details on to others, etc.

I love all the little extras that FreeIndex give you, including the ability to have a live feed to our site of the reviews people put up about BananaOffice on FreeIndex.

 

[RoyaleGraphics]

I know that they are sales people and there job is to generate sales, but how many times can I explain that i'm not interested in premium listings or paying any money before someone actually listens.

 

[MASSEY]

I had it recently from the city visitor.

I applied for the free listing and got a call. I basically ripped his sales pitch apart and at the end I said I would call him if I change my mind.

And then he called me again even though I said I would call him

I'm sure the sales staff have to hit a certain amount of calls a day.

But what's funny Is the guy from city visitor didn't even give me the fee listing.

 

[captaincloser]

Free lunch anyone ? Free directory entry... ?

A free entry is a free lead guys ! Wow

That is a bit of a no brainer surely ? You think these free directories have been set up by the Angel Gabriel ?.Think again,

Of course Qype are going to hound you. Same as you would if someone showed an iota of interest in your company's services.. Wouldn't you call them several times to try and get them interested in your services ? The word NIMBY always springs to mind when I read of outraged SME owners getting their knickers twisted over 'outrageous' sales calls.

The fact that nature of the calls is sometimes abysmal is another matter. As a business owner one can learn a lot from a really bad cold call to your office and make sure your own staff are not as guilty.

But if you dont want sales calls don't take the FREE LUNCH menu from the likes of Qype.

PS: The messages on here from customer services at Qype need framing.I think they came from a machine.

 

[MASSEY]

"wouldn't you call them several times?"




Erm, no some one telling me once is enough,

 

[captaincloser]

Agreed in your business 'NO' once is enough.Though I am guessing.Also in many other businesses.Point taken.

Anything to do with advertising sales though will generate multiple calls. They don't know how big you are, so maybe presume someone else will answer next time. Also they will have figures on how many buy on first, second and third calls and so it must be worth it to them to keep this up.

They may have a system of passing leads around the office etc. They will certany resurrect leads on a continual basis. Yes you have the 'free' entry but you have the sales calls to go with...

Very telling that the customer service reply on this thread claiming to be from from Qype mentioned NOT being able to stop the calls. Of course they could stop the calls.

 

[Ashley_Price]

Did I mention I like FreeIndex... because it IS free?

 

[tomek32]

Hi to everyone posting on this,
I just found this post via Google doing a research on business directories in general. I find a lot of possitive feedback about Qype from visitors and only bad feedback from business owners. This made me thinking and I just registered on this site to get feedback on my thoughts.

Qype is offering the listing of your service either for free or as a paid premium membership. This listing is providing you visitors to your profile and your website. I would assume, that just very few people are browsing through Qype because they are bored. So lets assume people really need something and by clicking on your profile they might hope to find it. Or am I missing something?

So lets state that Qype is doing something and this something is even helping your business.

I think the question is, that you can't measure the results that Qype is bringing to you. Or is here any premium member that can correct me on this? Please, I honestly welcome this information.

I assume, that anyone complaining about Qype wouldn't invest into advertisements without measurable success, right? I think, business owners concider Qype listing to be a risky advertisement and you have to decide for yourself to invest into the hope you get something out of it or not. It is nothing else than the good old ad in the papers or leaflets you push into post boxes, right?

On the other hand, if Qype could quarantee you each month a 1000 visitors to your website and you know from experience that 5 percent of them really buy something, would you invest in it?

I hope I found a more or less neutral way to say that both sides are right. Qype might have its pros and business owners have any right to be annoyed by either calls or posts in this forum.

I would honestly appreciate any feedback on my thoughts.
Thanks

 

[MASSEY]

Qype is just another one of the bazzillion waste of money directories that are floating around the internet preying on people with advertising budgets who dont know their arse from their head.

 

[british steve]

Hi to everyone posting on this,
I just found this post via Google doing a research on business directories in general. I find a lot of possitive feedback about Qype from visitors and only bad feedback from business owners. This made me thinking and I just registered on this site to get feedback on my thoughts.

Qype is offering the listing of your service either for free or as a paid premium membership. This listing is providing you visitors to your profile and your website. I would assume, that just very few people are browsing through Qype because they are bored. So lets assume people really need something and by clicking on your profile they might hope to find it. Or am I missing something?

So lets state that Qype is doing something and this something is even helping your business.

I think the question is, that you can't measure the results that Qype is bringing to you. Or is here any premium member that can correct me on this? Please, I honestly welcome this information.

I assume, that anyone complaining about Qype wouldn't invest into advertisements without measurable success, right? I think, business owners concider Qype listing to be a risky advertisement and you have to decide for yourself to invest into the hope you get something out of it or not. It is nothing else than the good old ad in the papers or leaflets you push into post boxes, right?

On the other hand, if Qype could quarantee you each month a 1000 visitors to your website and you know from experience that 5 percent of them really buy something, would you invest in it?

I hope I found a more or less neutral way to say that both sides are right. Qype might have its pros and business owners have any right to be annoyed by either calls or posts in this forum.

I would honestly appreciate any feedback on my thoughts.
Thanks

Your first post on this forum and your rushing in to tell us how wonderful Qype is ! I'm guessing your new at Qype.

Once you contact Qype they dont leave you alone. Qype are on my email blacklist because of the 20 plus emails a week telling me how brilliant Qype is and how i am missing out but not having a paid for upgrade.I have blacklisted Qype phone number because they kept ringing me to upgrade to paid advertising even when I have told them I am not interested - not now, not ever. With Freeindex I have had about 10 phone calls - with qype nothing, waste of time.

Qype is pointless

 

[tomek32]

Hi MASSEY and british steve,
this post is preventing me from submitting my business to Qype and I am sorry you got the impression I am a fan of these kind of sites. But still the question: is finding new customers worth a penny or not and is Qype worse than doing other advertisement?
Maybe I should start on other questions? Where do you or would you advertise?

 

[Unicora]

I am a premium member on QYPE and so far I have mixed feeling about the site and whether it was worth upgrading. I have had a few jobs from qype so it has paid for itself in the first month or so, however its not often that people visiting my qype profile will click through to my website. I am guessing this is due to the only link being a tiny text link in with the address details etc.

www (dot) qype.co.uk/place/1514497-Unicora-Telford is the address to my listing there (its not hyperlinked as not sure if that was agaist the forum rules) and if anyone wants I am happy to give a screenshot of traffic to the advert and how many of those clicked through to my website.

The other good thing I can say is that they used me as a feature business and published an article on my company and mailed this out to all their users which did give me some more business however that not part of the package just a lucky bonus that they liked my company and decided to feature it.

Hope this is helpful to anyone looking into a paid listing with them.

 

[MASSEY]

Well another way i look at it. If i was going to spend money with an online directory why would i choose anyone other than yell.com and thompson?


​

 

[Unicora]

I feel yell.com and thompson is a waste due to them being flooded with businesses. Even paying huge amounts your still miles down the list. By using less overused directories you are more likely to walk away with the business.

 

[Unicora]

Here are the screen shots;

 

[MASSEY]

Well in your case the below is the same as what you have with qype, and i would imagine gets far more traffic as free index ranks for a lot more terms.

Oh and its free... no monthly fee.

http://www.freeindex.co.uk/mediacentre(pressreleases)_61.htm

 

[MASSEY]

I dont believe those figures

And how do you know that they have not been bumped up by the directory owners.

Take ufindus for example, they click their own customers listings to make their low traffic directories look more used. I know they do that for a fact.

 

[Unicora]

I dont believe those figures

And how do you know that they have not been bumped up by the directory owners.

Take ufindus for example, they click their own customers listings to make their low traffic directories look more used. I know they do that for a fact.

Honestly cannot say they dont and personally would suggest all diretories are not worth the price. I am not defending Qype and would have expected a higher clickthough and more traffic then that anyway. I didnt pay much and only for a few months to test it so no harm really lol

 

[popunder]

> "all diretories are not worth the price"

A supposed truth spouted often on these forums but definitely not true. "Many" perhaps but not "all".

Most of the small businesses on my directory have been paying monthly for over 2 years because they know it's bringing in business, not pageviews or clicks but genuine enquiries and new business.

The reasons it works are (a) it's local to the town - people generally want to deal with local businesses (b) we promote the site offline so it has some local awareness, although not as much as I'd like and (c) we get good, often page 1, organics on Google for searches in our town.

The only way to be sure about what's working is to buy some virtual phone numbers (they're cheap as chips) and use different numbers for different marketing channels. Very eye-opening. This has saved some of my clients £000s, mostly on large YP ads that were generating NO calls.

As for your Qype listing I'd stick with the free one but rewrite your description for a start, it's not remotely compelling and you only mention websites in the last line; when I started reading it I wasn't sure quite what you did. Get rid of the "grown into one of the most respected and trusted brands" etc. - not relevant, not even true I'd suggest - tell me what you can do for me (that every other web designer can't). Then I might click through to your website. And yes the link is a bit small TBH.

 

[QypeBiz]

Hi,

Thank you all for your feedback.

*captaincloser - my Qype profile: "Geri Sancho" - nope, not a machine!
Apologies for "I can't stop the calls". I meant I can't stop someone from the sales team giving a call after a business joins Qype for the first time. However, as I said before, they should take "no" for an answer right the first time. I'll look into this.

*massey - no, I confirm, we don't bump up the stats! Believe it or not, we're a very very small team in the UK & it's not the kind of things we really have time for when dealing with over 350,000 members in the community! . Plus, our aim is to try and bring customer leads as much as possible so it would be completely pointless if our premium customers had really high stats but had had absolutely no enquiries coming through. Not a wise move on our part.

*britishsteve - I'm surprised by the "20+ emails" you receive. We only have one system generated email going out about premium and once it's gone, it's gone. There's no more. I'd appreciate if you contact me separately with the details so I can investigate as this is not normal. Thanks.

*popunder - completely agree. The link to the business owner website currently is far too hidden in the new design we deployed recently and too close to the address so you can miss it easily. I've flagged this already and hope they'll change it soon.

I don't want to highjack this thread so popping in from time to time only. All I'd say is that Qype might not be for everyone indeed. At the end of the day it's free to register and you can say no to premium if you don't think it's right for you. We're working currently on optimising this package.

It's also good to bear in mind that Qype is not only a directory, it's a social networking & local review site. Whether on free or premium, you have to encourage your customers to review your listing, interact with other businesses or/and potential customers. Customers come on the site or browse through our Qype mobile app. while on the go, to find places/businesses in their local area. They will look for reviews and opinions from other users to make up their mind about visiting/buying from you or not. A listing with no review is likely to be less trustworthy to them than a competitor with even just one good one.

Thanks,
Geri

 

[jewell10]

I'd definately go with FreeIndex. If I could put my referral quote link in here I would because there are so many different features to this directory and it's actually free.

I hate companies that continuously call me up and try to flog me things - i've recently had my information passed on to other companies without my permission, but who won't tell me who passed on my details, so Im now wary about what I join up to.

 

[noble123]

I just came across your post and thought I'll introduce myself. I'm Geri, B2B Community Manager at Qype. First of all, thanks for joining us recently!
us-monclerjackets.com

 

[Victoriao]

I have a free listing with qype and have so far received no traffic from it- doesn't seem like there's much point paying for it when the free service offers nothing. I've had a lot more traffic come from freeindex and a few other directories.

 

[MASSEY]

I'd definately go with FreeIndex. If I could put my referral quote link in here I would because there are so many different features to this directory and it's actually free.

I hate companies that continuously call me up and try to flog me things - i've recently had my information passed on to other companies without my permission, but who won't tell me who passed on my details, so Im now wary about what I join up to.

Free index is a pet hate of mine. They make their money off google ads. The ads dominate the screens so you can assume that most of the traffic gets taken away from the free listings. And all the user generated content is only aiding to make them even more money. All of the companies that list and generate content are only making that site stronger and harder for companies with web pages to compete against them in the natural search engine listings. I wish people would stop going on it

 

[boggi]

Free index is a pet hate of mine. They make their money off google ads. The ads dominate the screens so you can assume that most of the traffic gets taken away from the free listings. And all the user generated content is only aiding to make them even more money. All of the companies that list and generate content are only making that site stronger and harder for companies with web pages to compete against them in the natural search engine listings. I wish people would stop going on it

sorry massey but that's not fair - they've managed to provide some excellent value to their users and the user generated content helps promote the businesses that publish it too. the fact they have so many users means people are happy to have that amount of ads thrown at them so they've found the right balance. also motivating your users to create unique content is one of the goals of the webmastering game i.e. it's not against the rules - on the contrary it's a testimonial for ability.

 

[dagaul101]

That sounds a little extortionate for the time, would be better putting that in an Adwords campaign

 

[MASSEY]

sorry massey but that's not fair - they've managed to provide some excellent value to their users and the user generated content helps promote the businesses that publish it too. the fact they have so many users means people are happy to have that amount of ads thrown at them so they've found the right balance. also motivating your users to create unique content is one of the goals of the webmastering game i.e. it's not against the rules - on the contrary it's a testimonial for ability.

Let me guess, you own free index

How is it not fair. The site thrives off user generated content. I think anyone that uses it is just taking business away from themselves in my opinion.

 

[Victoriao]

That sounds a little extortionate for the time, would be better putting that in an Adwords campaign

Totally agree! Forget Qype, use the money for adwords.