Anyone use yell.com to advertise or search for businesses? I know my favourite search engine is google. Just wondering if it was worth investing, think it probably won't be for me but anybody out there found the £2000 fee for the top spot of your business field worth it?

Thanks for any replies-I know it's not the most exciting post!! :help:

Miss Kitty, £2000 is a lot of money for this sort of marketing. Organic rankings take time through they are FREE. I think me personally (Yes I am biased) but I am sure you could put that £2,000 to better use.

Kind Regards
Neil

forget £2k. My business is the top listing on google in all the areas i cover and it cost zero!!!

The beauty of organic search engine optimization. I love to see business take advatange of it

The beauty of organic search engine optimization. I love to see business take advatange of it


Exactly! And i didnt even realise i was doing just that at the time!

I looked at your site very impressive. Straight away looking at it I knew which keywords you were going to be no.1 for. Sheffield PAT testing. Its in your title, h1 heading, keywords...if you did the by accident well done

Just get a free listing on Yell.com I wouldnt they are ok.

Although say its ok I am in dispute with them. lol

Sometimes people can lucky with Google. It is a bit of a lottery, you will find you'll come top of Google if you key in words specific to your site like but the more you generalise your search the lower down you may find your site in the rankings.

I suppose for a business such as PAT Testing you're pretty lucky that it is quite specific - unlike say 'electricians in sheffield'.

I used to advertise with Yell.com and in the Yellow Pages books but I stopped a couple of years ago.

I paid £2,000 plus a year, but I now use that money to maintain a website and the odd booklet and newsletter.

For me Yell.com and Yellow Pages didn't work.

There is a lot of competition in the accountants section in Yellow Pages and Yell.com. But during the four years I was with Yell I only ever picked up one client as a result of all my adverts.

My website has been much more successful as a marketing tool.

It does take time for the website to get noticed, get hits and appear on search engines, but it has been worth it.

A lot of accountants have websites, but the searches can be more specific than just "accountant in Sheffield", and people do seem to find our site.

I only use Google for general searches, but if I want a business in sheffield I use yell.com as it's more specifically sheffield

If I want a business based on distance from my house, I use upmystreet.com instead

I used to have a standard add on Yell.com, I upgraded to the sponsored listing in sheffield, it generates around 12 calls a day for me & Ive made over 70k profit from it since august, not bad for 2 grand. Google can be random, you dont know whos looking at it, its global where as Yell.com is local

email me if want, Im not on this website much
stephenroddyni@hotmail.com and I can give you more info if you like

I completely disagree. I have been on yell.com for the last couple of months and I have found the only calls I have got have been people trying to sell me stuff, not actually clients or customers.

At least with google, if optimized correctly, your getting customers and clients looking for what you have to offer.

Do you own that website ?? I've never heard of it. What type of advert do you have on Yell.com & what classification is it under

I mentioned in another thread that I did a pocket survey on Yell.com, Yellow Pages and Thompson Local a little while ago. Only found one person who used Yell and Thompson, everyone used Google and Yellow Pages. Personally I've used Yellow Pages with moderate success but always steered well clear of Yell.com. Having seen some of their efforts (for web site clients who now come to me instead) I'm pleased I did. I'm with Optimize on this one - put your money into a website and some natural search optimisation - including local area towns in your search terms - and you'll likely do a lot better for less money.

It really makes me LOL that people like yell cold call & expect you to buy something for £2K over the phone.

My yellow pages props a door open...

I think it depends on what you do. If you don't have much competition in your line of business, take a free listing with Yell and you'll probably find you come up on page one or two anyway.

Josie G
Freshaire Business Services
Copywriters - Sheffield - South Yorkshire

I would put the lot in to Adwords. If you have a useful product or service its like printing money. SEO is good but I'd rather have the guarantee of traffic rather than have to worry about any Google algo changes, even though adwords costs.

I used Google Adwords for a while and at first the price per word and phrase was 1p I had to pay if someone clicked on my link.

Over the next few months the price went up until no words were under £3 per click.

I suppose Google would say I should change my words and phrases but when you have 2,000 and the price goes up on 100 to 200 every day you don't have time to keep up with the changes.

For accountants Yell.com and Yellow Pages don't really work as there is a lot of competition, but for other businesses where there aren't many other businesses Yell.com could work.

i advertise with yell.com and havent received any work off it i think its rubbish and will be cancelling it. I advertise with leaflet drops business cards and adverts in loacal windows of shops. put your money to good use.

an adwords account that is not fully optimised to its best ability will cause the click rate to be high, is one suggestion. Certain things will cause Google to penalise you and thus charge you more per click and nothing to do with how competitive the keyword is.

Taking out a year's subscription with Yell has been a total waste of money for me. The only calls I get are from salesmen.

I agree, it was a total waste of money for me, had more work from here.


Kieron

I get calls from sales people who found me on yell.com. Its same with Sheffield Chambers, as soon as you are on the business list everyone pounces.

For a bit of PR you could use OPM (other peoples money) to set up venues and resources in exchange for exposure to money spending businesses.

Another way is sponsoring sports teams from football to hockey. It doesnt cost much to buy a team strip for the year and get some weatherproof signs made up for the match days.

I'm still getting calls now from people trying to sell me things via my old yell.com and SENTA listings, and I closed that business 2 years ago.

During that time, I never had a single business enquiry from those listings.