Yell No more freebies

[gemd89]

I was just wondering with yell.com and yellow pages as there were not doing free advertising anymore

-Is it worth the paid link in search engines?
-Will it do anything for getting my site in google?

Will it make much difference now there is no free listings on the site and book, will even less people use it?

Gemma

 

[Jenni384]

I haven't heard about this. Can you provide a link?
Their website is still offering them
http://www.yelldirect.com/

I can't see us paying for ads with Yell if they do pull the free service.

 

[eventdomain]

Get rid of the Yellow Pages book, I doubt people use it anyway. And its just a telesales magnet that ends up being trawled by sales people and those calls end up annoying the businesses they need to attract


This is what they should do:


Slash their ad fees
Re-design the site
Add more content
Improve their reach
Cater for website businesses a lot more

 

[MASSEY]

The free listing on yellow pages, helps with the google local ranking,

Google view the confirmation on yell highly,

I also dont think that yell links offer any juice, i read somewhere it has a negative effect because they are associated with spam.

 

[An Oasis]

The free listing on yellow pages, helps with the google local ranking,

Google view the confirmation on yell highly,

I also dont think that yell links offer any juice, i read somewhere it has a negative effect because they are associated with spam.

Make up your mind, which is it?

 

[MASSEY]

Make up your mind, which is it?

Ok for you oasis i will make it clear.

When google crawl the yellow pages and find you business address, they think

"hmmm this address is also listed with our google local we can trust this listing a bit more now,"

As for the live link like i said, it does not offer anything worth the money. Yell is associated with spam.

The birmingham elec site i have ranks higher than yell and i dont have paid directory links at all.

 

[eventdomain]

When google crawl the yellow pages and find you business address, they think

"hmmm this address is also listed with our google local we can trust this listing a bit more now,"

Really? how do you know this, does Yell quote this at all?

 

[MASSEY]

Really? how do you know this, does Yell quote this at all?

No yell dont, they would not want to would they.

 

[Maid Marion]

A couple of years ago we paid over 1500 for a years website link and there 118-247, we got nothing from it, its a complete waste of money.We only advertise with the free listings(TIGHTARSE).

 

[kontracta_com]

It's a new one on me too.

We've only done the free listings in recent years as the telephone book version brought us zero response in the early part of the 2000s; I'm guessing that it would be no better now.

If it's now only paid listings then we're not going to bother anymore. We can handle the associated sales pitch calls if we aren't paying anything but if we get them when being asked to pay for the privilege it'll be harder to adhere to the 'polite' bit of 'firm but polite' when dealing with them.

 

[wecandobiz]

I can't see them pulling the free service. The Yellow Pages is only useful because is has that volume of listings. With a fraction of that who is going to boether with it. And if no one bothers then they won't attract advertisers. Yell have been benefiting from the "Freemium" revenue model since well before the term was coined.

Yellow Pages does need an overhaul though, although I have little confidence they know what needs doing. The internet is hardly new and it's now a few years since Yell Group got booted out of the FTSE100. From my reading of their most recent reports, the only part of Yell making any serious money is the internet division... which sells Google advertising services!

IH

 

[gemd89]

but what if someone was searching plumber in birmingtham and there were no listing results, wouldnt you pay to be there?

gemma

 

[wecandobiz]

but what if someone was searching plumber in birmingtham and there were no listing results, wouldnt you pay to be there?

gemma

I am sure that is the logic they are using if there's any truth in free listings going (which I would be surprised by) but the other side of that argument is that if there are no listings showing why would people search there any more anyway...?

It's a highly risky stance to take, as once you have lost your audience it's a real job getting them back, especially with Google and the Social Web providing more compelling alternatives.

IH

 

[gemd89]

Sort of a catch 22 situation then...Maybe they are finding one paid for every category and then taking away all the free

Gemma

 

[Jenni384]

Gemma can I ask where you heard about this? I googled it and could find any reference to them taking away their free listings.

 

[the locksmith]

I was told by the rep that came to see me that they were putting the free line entries at the back of the new A5 size book i.e. they will not be mixed in with the normal "paid" adverts.

He showed me a copy of the Gatwick book .... a shadow of it's former self I would imagine !

 

[BdTS]

Get rid of the Yellow Pages book, I doubt people use it anyway. And its just a telesales magnet that ends up being trawled by sales people and those calls end up annoying the businesses they need to attract


This is what they should do:

• Slash their ad fees
• Re-design the site
• Add more content
• Improve their reach
• Cater for website businesses a lot more

they have done ALL of this over the past year.

If you click at the bottom of an advertisers listing, it brings up a profile page, images etc....they redesigned the site as well.

You've been highly succesful in running your own directory and you deserve praise for that.

But you do not have anywhere near the level of business expertise the people in charge of Yell.com currently have.