Am I spending wisely?

And amazingly enough, I got a job today that paid for half of the years sub to yell.com. When I asked how he found me, he said "on the internet" but after I drilled him down, I realised it was from Yell. He even lived in a village that I paid extra to be high up the list for.

I'm a bit more optimistic about Yell now, but it's just one call and I've been on there for 5 weeks now.

The Yellow pages (on and offline) are dead now. No one uses them because the first place people go is Google.

If you are already top of the SERP's in your local area then what is increasing PPC spend going to achieve? I would recommend upping your offline marketing spend and getting creative if you live in a small local community.

How about running a free one day course in making sure your computer is protected and anti virus software is up-to-date? Or even showing them how to de-frag or speed up their computers. When they are in your store give them a voucher for 20% off their first spend with you.

I'm not a fan of Yell, mainly due to the costs, but lots of people like it, and the reality is, if you get paying jobs come through, and you've more than recovered the fee, and making a decent return, then why not? Marketing is marketing, what's works for some, doesn't for others.


As much as it pains me to defend Yell I have to correct you on this one. The physical book has without a doubt been long overdue for the axe, but you can't say Yell.com is dead, because people go to Google. Yell's mission (as is ours, and any directory) is to ensure that their listings display in Googles results. Over 80% of our traffic comes from Google. Yell has an advantage of identifiable brand, so will have a larger element of direct traffic, but I bet their largest traffic source is Google.

I agree with you in theory, but I have yet to come across a Yell result high up in the organic listings. They obviously aren't doing a very good job of it.

Also Google have their own local listings which are obviously going to beat a Yell listing everytime.

Maybe some people do get a R.O.I. but it will be minimal compared to other avenues.

Search result, Builders Warwick
Top of Page1, and above the Google Local listings

I'll be getting a Yell job interview at this rate

I'd love to have Yell's brand (minus the billions of debt),domain authority and Google presence. But do I still think they are expensive? Yep!

So then it's back to individual biz owners and perceived value. If you're selling thousand pound+ products with a big margin, then a punt with Yell is no big deal. But if you're selling lower cost products with smaller margins, then Yells not worth the risk, imho.