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That seems correct, nationally yellpages.com ranks 718 while yellowbook.com only ranks 4,463 based on overall traffic. Alexa.org is a great tool for those of you who don’t know about it. You might look into superpages.com as they are ranked 821. This can be an amazing tool all around.
@Patrick, Mike, and James – Can you give us more specifics on what your ROI is with yodle? This is one of the first companies that have shown me a demo that I was fairly impressed by. The tools they provide significantly simplify the job and add extra value to the point where it seems worthwhile. Our only concern here was the call system, if you decide to stop and you have advertising with that number on it, it could be a problem. But if you like them, shouldn’t be too much a problem.
Good point with the phone numbetr Justin. Also, don’t they build a website for you? If you stop using them does it go away too?
I know they do have that option. I’m guessing you could negociate a different route though. I was left somewhat unimpressed by the design team.
Google carpet cleaning (your area) I spend lots of time googling different variations. I ask family, friends, and customers if you were to look for a carpet cleaner on line what would you type. For my home town I would type in carpet cleaner Folsom. The top results are what I care about. For me Folsomliving.com is always near the top. they are a local Folsom website. My cost to advertise with them is $70 a month and we receive 6-8 calls every month. Find out who is on top in your area and that would be the first place I would go.
As for all of these that guarantee first placement on google, in my experience they are not good resources. Yes they will get you on the first page of your local town on google. Heck send me your money and I will do the same for you. It is free and it takes only a few minutes. It is http://www.local.google.com follow the instructions and there you are.
The companies that I have had a bad experience with so far are superpages.com, reliable listings, and servicemagic. I have not tried city search yet, but they seem to be much of the same as the others. This is just my experience and I am sure they have made some companies a lot of money.I agree with Greg 100% on those companies that say you will be on “the first page”. Usually they are talking about local ads or pay-per-click ads which doesn’t seem really right. Now if they offer to get you up there in the organic results, that is entirely a different thing.
Aside from signing up for google local, you should also sign up for yahoo local using this link:
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/In the past MSN local search hasn’t been great but its always improving. You can sign up for them here:
https://ssl.search.live.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspxMake sure your information is correct on these. Other websites will use this data to build their own databases. These three are a source for almost everyone that aggregates such data.
As I’ve mentioned before, this website is also a good location to sign up for some other free listings. You should end up on most of these pages anyways after aggregation occurs, but it can’t hurt to check. Also note that I don’t have experience with all these pages, so use careful judgement when you sign up for a paid service:
http://www.locallytype.com/pages/submit.htmI also ran across this directory which seems fairly descent:
http://www.dmoz.org/add.html – *Overall Rank of 232For those of you that are using yodle. How is there service working? Is the return on your investment worth it?
I have used yodle for awhile now and have had no problem and feel its well worth every dollar I spend. I have had multiple operators call me asking how it is with them, am I happy with them and so on and my answer is always yes. I dumped ALOT of money into advertising when I first started and alot in internet advertising and then finally came across yodle. Im not saying its goods gift to internet advertising im just saying it worked for me. What I like most about it is that they do the same thing I could do on google but its well worth my fifty dollars to have them do it and it is one less thing I have to stay on top of, next I like how it is all keep track of for me and documented. I still do it myself but wouldnt really have to. Someone asked about if they make you a website, they do but you dont have to use it. I have my own website and the one they have for me is a mirror image of mine so if I change something on my website it instantly changes on theirs. To sum it up yodle is good for some and bad for others. I dont say yodle will definetly work all I say is it did for me. Its like the whole national TV advertisment thing on the board now, some want it some dont. You have to do what works for you and not what works for others but yodle definetly is a solution for those that dont want to, dont have time or dont know how to do it themselves and in MY opinion is fairly cheap.
I have a really dumb question…about return on our money…from advertising.
I have read where some are happy to have advertising pay for itself and are happy, others, so many calls per so much money spent…
I guess I am from the old school…it seems to me that for every dollar spent should return about $10. Am I nuts? Is that realistic? Cody ask us each month for our advertising dollars spent and our gross.
For anyone, and probably Cody can answer better than anyone else…What is the average ratio for our operators and what should we be trying to get to as a goal?
I guess that it is the true measure if our advertising is really working…is it meeting our goal? And what should that goal be?
Just a dumb question…
From an old guy.
Dave,
I think you have a great question.
My advertising expense, after 5 1/2 years, is finally under 10% off my gross sales. In other terms, for every dollar I spend in advertising, I do $10+ in sales. In my first year, my advertising cost were 37% of my gross and am able to wittle that down each year. My gaol is to get it down to 5%.
Company wide Imost of our operator spend only 10% on advertising. If you are spending more than that you are probably throwing some of it away. Most of our operators are able to reduce their advertising percentage each year they are in business. Many of our operators track where every call comes from and can make very smart advertising choices. You have to know what is working and what is not. Stick with what works for you and get rid of the stuff that only costs you money.
Some of our operators want to build their business into an empire and are willing to pour a lot more dollars into building the foundation, knowing that all of their advertising efforts will pay great dividends in the future.
Each area is different and requires adapting to your specific market.
We have had a similar experience to the talented Mr. Ferris. Our advertising is getting in line with the 10% number seen company wide, but when you look at revenue generated from new customers, we are spending about 25%. Given our overhead and everything, we have come to the conclusion that any advertising campaign that adds loyal customers and returns better than $3.50 for every $1.00 spent is probably worthwhile for growing the business. As Cody says, this ratio is unique to our situation (building, employees, capacity, etc.) but may give you a reference point to work from. We spent a solid afternoon calculating this number and reviewing our advertising campaigns. It led us to some major changes in where we spent our money.
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