Yell.com - any point?
Discussion
When I started up 20-odd years ago, I had a free classified listing in Yellow Pages. I carried on with it when they started charging, as I did get a few enquiries from older customers via the directory.
They have now stopped publishing the directory, and are online only. Is it still worth paying them?
I might have just stuck with it, but they seriously annoyed me yesterday by phoning me on my landline using a "spoofed" local number (same area code as me).
I have no idea if I'm getting any customers via Yell. I don't pay to advertise anywhere else, but I do have a business listing on Google, and I think this is where about half of my new customers come from, the rest being by word of mouth.
If I ask new customers where they found me, most just say "I googled", so I don't know if the google search found me on google maps or Yell.com. I'm guessing that the former comes up first on a search - it does for me.
They have now stopped publishing the directory, and are online only. Is it still worth paying them?
I might have just stuck with it, but they seriously annoyed me yesterday by phoning me on my landline using a "spoofed" local number (same area code as me).
I have no idea if I'm getting any customers via Yell. I don't pay to advertise anywhere else, but I do have a business listing on Google, and I think this is where about half of my new customers come from, the rest being by word of mouth.
If I ask new customers where they found me, most just say "I googled", so I don't know if the google search found me on google maps or Yell.com. I'm guessing that the former comes up first on a search - it does for me.
Yell.com will give you some search results high up in Google search.
We get on page 1 with them, and I’m sure we get some business via the account. However, we only have a free account. It is easy to set up and contains all the info about us, i.e. telephone, map location, business services, description of our business etc. Really don’t see much point in paying for any extra.
We get on page 1 with them, and I’m sure we get some business via the account. However, we only have a free account. It is easy to set up and contains all the info about us, i.e. telephone, map location, business services, description of our business etc. Really don’t see much point in paying for any extra.
Ham_and_Jam said:
Yell.com will give you some search results high up in Google search.
We get on page 1 with them, and I’m sure we get some business via the account. However, we only have a free account. It is easy to set up and contains all the info about us, i.e. telephone, map location, business services, description of our business etc. Really don’t see much point in paying for any extra.
Can you tell me how to get a free Yell.com account please?We get on page 1 with them, and I’m sure we get some business via the account. However, we only have a free account. It is easy to set up and contains all the info about us, i.e. telephone, map location, business services, description of our business etc. Really don’t see much point in paying for any extra.
They want just under £40 this year, and I don't get much for that, just a computerised version of the old Yellow Pages free listing, and my opening hours.
clockworks said:
Can you tell me how to get a free Yell.com account please?
They want just under £40 this year, and I don't get much for that, just a computerised version of the old Yellow Pages free listing, and my opening hours.
https://business.yell.com/knowledge/how-to-add-your-business-listing-to-yell-com-in-2-minutes/They want just under £40 this year, and I don't get much for that, just a computerised version of the old Yellow Pages free listing, and my opening hours.
The Moose said:
I would have thought spending a little money on a well optimized website for some local terms would see you much better off.
Thing is, even in these difficult times, I've actually got pretty much all the work I want. I just can't be sure exactly how the new customers that are contacting me are actually finding me.Some are by word of mouth - existing customers telling their friends.
Some are via my entry on Google Maps ("Google My Business")
I'm not sure if any are via Yell.com. For the sake of £40 a year, I don't want to risk losing a chunk of my new customers, but I don't want to waste £40 if it isn't generating any business currently.
I've never set up a website. Every now and again it goes a bit quiet, and I think a website might be a good idea, but before I have time to do it, it picks up again.
I even went as far as registering a domain name, just never did the website.
The last thing I want is to end up in the position that some in my game are in - having a massive backlog of work that just keeps growing. That can be overwhelming, and seems to finish off some otherwise viable businesses - overwork, pressure, stress, disgruntled customers, etc.
Where I am now is just right - a month's jobs in the pipeline, 6 week turnaround.
clockworks said:
The last thing I want is to end up in the position that some in my game are in - having a massive backlog of work that just keeps growing. That can be overwhelming, and seems to finish off some otherwise viable businesses - overwork, pressure, stress, disgruntled customers, etc.
Where I am now is just right - a month's jobs in the pipeline, 6 week turnaround.
Options include taking on staff, saying no to the work or regulating demand via your pricing strategy (i.e. put your prices up). The latter is the one many favour if they don’t want to increase their workforce.Where I am now is just right - a month's jobs in the pipeline, 6 week turnaround.
clockworks said:
Thing is, even in these difficult times, I've actually got pretty much all the work I want. I just can't be sure exactly how the new customers that are contacting me are actually finding me.
Some are by word of mouth - existing customers telling their friends.
Some are via my entry on Google Maps ("Google My Business")
I'm not sure if any are via Yell.com. For the sake of £40 a year, I don't want to risk losing a chunk of my new customers, but I don't want to waste £40 if it isn't generating any business currently.
I've never set up a website. Every now and again it goes a bit quiet, and I think a website might be a good idea, but before I have time to do it, it picks up again.
I even went as far as registering a domain name, just never did the website.
The last thing I want is to end up in the position that some in my game are in - having a massive backlog of work that just keeps growing. That can be overwhelming, and seems to finish off some otherwise viable businesses - overwork, pressure, stress, disgruntled customers, etc.
Where I am now is just right - a month's jobs in the pipeline, 6 week turnaround.
Although I retired a few year ago I never had a website and ran a very succesful business for over 15 years. I relied on word of mouth and local advertising only.Some are by word of mouth - existing customers telling their friends.
Some are via my entry on Google Maps ("Google My Business")
I'm not sure if any are via Yell.com. For the sake of £40 a year, I don't want to risk losing a chunk of my new customers, but I don't want to waste £40 if it isn't generating any business currently.
I've never set up a website. Every now and again it goes a bit quiet, and I think a website might be a good idea, but before I have time to do it, it picks up again.
I even went as far as registering a domain name, just never did the website.
The last thing I want is to end up in the position that some in my game are in - having a massive backlog of work that just keeps growing. That can be overwhelming, and seems to finish off some otherwise viable businesses - overwork, pressure, stress, disgruntled customers, etc.
Where I am now is just right - a month's jobs in the pipeline, 6 week turnaround.
I was the same as you, not actively seeking work but I did advertise in the local parish magazines which I suppose is now being replaced by Nextdoor. People regularly ask for recommendations for local business as well, so making yourself known on there should pay dividends, and it is totally free as far as I know.
Covid has put parish magazines on hold in our area but people retain back issues so they can always find a local trade/business when required.
They are also very cheap. I had adverts in 5 local magazines and my total cost for the year was just over £100.
Yell.com did absolutely nothing for me in the 4 years or so when I initially started up so I binned it.
mikebradford said:
I dont think yell will exist in a few years.
I'm an unfortunate one that got suckered in. In a moment of weakness I let Yell do our new website for us and also look after our Adwords account as I was too busy at the time. The Adwords cost us a fortune whilst they "worked out what worked best for us". I cancelled after a short period but they held me to the six months minimum term despite the campaigns losing money.The website took over a year to deliver and whilst it looks great from the front end, I can't say I'm impressed with the admin side of it. We're now on Woocommerce and it's such a clunky system compared to Shopify (I was on that before Yell). I'm tempted to just ditch the new site and go back to Shopify but having spent a fairly large sum of money on it I can't mentally justify just throwing it away. At the very least I need to move the site hosting away from them but I did agree to have them host it for a year which will run out early next year.
They've just left us too it as well, no training or help and little issues are taking ages to be resolved. I appreciate we're in difficult times but I agreed to go with them in March 2019 and it's still not where I'd like to be. I've been told by our latest account manager that as we're not a "premium account" she'd no longer be dealing with us as she only looks after those and we'll have to raise queries through the general support lines now.
I know this isn't the particular product you've asked about but I wouldn't give Yell another penny of our money for whatever service they offer - I'd rather go with out it than deal with them again.
Edited by silobass on Sunday 8th November 22:50
Edited by silobass on Sunday 8th November 22:50
silobass said:
mikebradford said:
I dont think yell will exist in a few years.
I'm an unfortunate one that got suckered in. In a moment of weakness I let Yell do our new website for us and also look after our Adwords account as I was too busy at the time. The Adwords cost us a fortune whilst they "worked out what worked best for us". I cancelled after a short period but they held me to the six months minimum term despite the campaigns losing money.The website took over a year to deliver and whilst it looks great from the front end, I can't say I'm impressed with the admin side of it. We're now on Woocommerce and it's such a clunky system compared to Shopify (I was on that before Yell). I'm tempted to just ditch the new site and go back to Shopify but having spent a fairly large sum of money on it I can't mentally justify just throwing it away. At the very least I need to move the site hosting away from them but I did agree to have them host it for a year which will run out early next year.
They've just left us too it as well, no training or help and little issues are taking ages to be resolved. I appreciate we're in difficult times but I agreed to go with them in March 2019 and it's still not where I'd like to be. I've been told by our latest account manager that as we're not a "premium account" she'd no longer be dealing with us as she only looks after those and we'll have to raise queries through the general support lines now.
I know this isn't the particular product you've asked about but I wouldn't give Yell another penny of our money for whatever service they offer - I'd rather go with out it than deal with them again.
and shopify is a far better solution
I worked for them for 7 years, left about 9 years ago. It wasn't working then so I can't imagine it's any better now.
When Yell realised the book was f
ked and started their (panicked, too-late) 'digital transition' with things like Adwords and website builds it was a bodge - Yell were tied to the 'classification' mindset and couldn't, for financial reasons, do site design and Adwords properly. It was all hacked together with broad keywords and regions, the entire opposite of what you could (and should) do with things like web design and Adwords. No-one goes to Yell.com to find a business - they'll Google and even if Yell.com comes up in search results their barmy results pages were unlikely to return you high up or even locally.
I'm unsurprised to hear it's still the same and I wouldn't give them a penny.
jammy-git said:
All the services like website builds and adwords management they just outsource offshore. You really don't get what you pay for.
^This, in spades.When Yell realised the book was f
ked and started their (panicked, too-late) 'digital transition' with things like Adwords and website builds it was a bodge - Yell were tied to the 'classification' mindset and couldn't, for financial reasons, do site design and Adwords properly. It was all hacked together with broad keywords and regions, the entire opposite of what you could (and should) do with things like web design and Adwords. No-one goes to Yell.com to find a business - they'll Google and even if Yell.com comes up in search results their barmy results pages were unlikely to return you high up or even locally.I'm unsurprised to hear it's still the same and I wouldn't give them a penny.
Edited by Funk on Monday 9th November 00:11
clockworks said:
The Moose said:
I would have thought spending a little money on a well optimized website for some local terms would see you much better off.
Thing is, even in these difficult times, I've actually got pretty much all the work I want. I just can't be sure exactly how the new customers that are contacting me are actually finding me.Some are by word of mouth - existing customers telling their friends.
Some are via my entry on Google Maps ("Google My Business")
I'm not sure if any are via Yell.com. For the sake of £40 a year, I don't want to risk losing a chunk of my new customers, but I don't want to waste £40 if it isn't generating any business currently.
I've never set up a website. Every now and again it goes a bit quiet, and I think a website might be a good idea, but before I have time to do it, it picks up again.
I even went as far as registering a domain name, just never did the website.
The last thing I want is to end up in the position that some in my game are in - having a massive backlog of work that just keeps growing. That can be overwhelming, and seems to finish off some otherwise viable businesses - overwork, pressure, stress, disgruntled customers, etc.
Where I am now is just right - a month's jobs in the pipeline, 6 week turnaround.
While I’m all for being efficient when managing expenses, it’s £40 not £4,000.
The Moose said:
In that case, if you are worried that it may be bringing you business, spend the £40. It’s not a huge amount of money at the end of the day - you could increase your price by £1 on every job and it would be paid for in short order.
While I’m all for being efficient when managing expenses, it’s £40 not £4,000.
Honestly, it's more hassle than the £40 is worth, with all the sales calls and the high pressure sales tactics.While I’m all for being efficient when managing expenses, it’s £40 not £4,000.
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