Anyone still advertise in yellow pages and yell.com?

[Crisspy]

Hi All,

 

Just to put my 2 pence worth in as a "consumer" rather than a professional.

 

Got to agree with theflyingscotsman on this. Unless a company has an easy to find and use website with obvious contact details and examples of their work I either don't know they exist or move on (probably sounding quite lazy now) and which works on mobile, a page that takes an age to load or is difficult to use on mobile is swiftly going to find my thumb reaching for the back button.

 

When I need a specialist the first thing I do is Google "profession + county or nearest major town/city" and see what comes up. I usually look through the first 6-10 results and judge them based on their website. Does it look professional and is it easy to use? Can I easily tell if they offer the service I require? Do they have examples of their work? Are they really local, most people know their surrounding STD codes so a phone number can quickly tell me if they are local or not.

 

Most people I know use Google in the same way.

 

Chris B

[richy_B]

Good points. In a consumer guise I always look for a street address of the business, company details and generally a VAT number. Essentially common sense items to re-assure customers you are legit. For me a mobile phone number only rings alarm bells.

[Lowestoft Firewood]

We are spending close to £900 a month with this lot and I just don't see the benefIt. Does anyone use them and get good results.

Thanks jon.

 

spend it on a decent website. for that amount you could get an awsome website, you can have a simple free listing on yell just to have a presence. we had a ''free'' yell site which we dropped and paid £1500 for a fully responsive site and have had tons of enquiries from it.

plus they are rubbish to communicate with.

[dan494]

spend it on a decent website. for that amount you could get an awsome website, you can have a simple free listing on yell just to have a presence. we had a ''free'' yell site which we dropped and paid £1500 for a fully responsive site and have had tons of enquiries from it.

plus they are rubbish to communicate with.

 

Your website isn't working, just clicked your sig to see what a £1500 website looks like and it just goes to an error page..

[Robert_S]

Your website isn't working, just clicked your sig to see what a £1500 website looks like and it just goes to an error page..

 

:lol: i clicked too, do the website company lay tarmac too i think you have been robbed….

[Lowestoft Firewood]

:lol: i clicked too, do the website company lay tarmac too i think you have been robbed….

 

oops sorry lads i forgot i had that one on here!! i have moved on and was talking about the one the company has that i work for!!

[Stephen Blair]

Websites great for doing a lot of pricing, if you want jobs then I feel Facebook is the new word of mouth.

I am rural so maybe diferent if you are in a city.

[Mortimer Firewood]

Websites great for doing a lot of pricing, if you want jobs then I feel Facebook is the new word of mouth.

I am rural so maybe diferent if you are in a city.

 

I've found the exact opposite face bookers want it done for nowt and calls off the site want a quote.

[Wood wasp]

Google changed their search algorithms year or so ago, if you have Facebook page, blog posts etc with lots of activity linked to your website then their search engines pick up on this more than just a flashy website with lots of buzz words.

[MartinN]

Hi, just for info as I am in a different line of work. I've advertised with YPs for 23 years. I got a deal this year??? If I advertise on Yell.com £1700 worth of advertising I get that discount off the book advertising. They keep trying to get me to do Yell.com so no additional cost to me.

 

The Yell.com went live at Beginning of March. I always monitor where jobs come from. So far not one single job! Yes not one job.

 

With regards to the book advertising I've found an increase in the last couple of months from the book advertising. Also prices are less sensitive as most of the cheap boys and girls no longer pay YP for book ads. I spend £100 a week overall and generates £400-£500 worth of nice top profit work. Internet is so price driven. Out of areas, I pulled my book ads as they weren't worth it and website pulls in work. I spend £1000 tops on web promo, hosting adwords, etc It generates business but it is defo more competitive.

 

Oddly I've found this slight increase in younger people using book ads as they've been had over by the internet a few times and when they've tried to get redress it's a prepay mobile with a fake address and police trading standards, of course, don't want to know.

 

Though I have trimmed my ads to suit reduced competition.

 

It's a bit like being a chimney sweep, less chimneys to clean and falling but the rate of fall of sweeps is greater.