Livid over yelp - I'll take three advils please!

[Pinkape404]

Guys sorry to take up otherwise valuable thread space, but I need to gripe.

I got signed up for the yelp service. The sales guy conveniently forgot to mention there is a penalty for canceling the add campaign.

I've had dozens of conversations to no avail but at the end of the day I got some useful insight into the SEO used car lot of doom.

I urge anyone reading this - stay away from Yelps paid service. I've gotten more satisfaction buying a lemon from a used car dealer than this sham of shams!

 

[Dustybones]

Sorry to hear your having issues. Yelp is nothing but frustrating...but hey, on the bright side Yelp Stock Tanked nearly 20%. Can't wait to see the documentary come out.

 

[Pinkape404]

Or the class action lawsuit .. I Cut my losses. They can choke on the penalty fee.

 

[Dustybones]

What kinda fee's are they wanting to charge?

 

[Pinkape404]

$750 penalty - mind you the sales agent conveniently forgot to mention that I was entering into a year-long contract.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Ouch! How bad were your results?

 

[Pinkape404]

Non-existent but that is not the gripe. gripe is 1) I was not informed that there would be a cancellation fee 2) the account manager assigned openly admitted he had no idea of what was going on outside of the fancy fluff talk. When asked simple questions like why companies not even in my industry where organically ranking higher than mine which were also further than mine he had no idea when asking what would be the better way to place my contact he had no idea they have no relevant answers for anything except a few scripted keywords such as relevant content & algorithm

 

[Pinkape404]

The listing just does not come up when you search for my industry in my location it simply does not come up. So the only way Clients searching for my services could see me is by way of the add and that is just not enough I'd like to know how to rank organically. Why a company with the keyword rich name is coming up ahead of mine yet the same company is 20 miles further away from me

 

[Dustybones]

Another approach you can take is to cancel your Credit card with them or block it due to breach of contract and send them an email saying, "Sue Me"

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yeah I guess on Yelp, just like Google, paid and organic don't really impact each other. So your paid ad probably had no impact on your organic ranking there. I don't mind looking at your listing if you want advice on how to get it to rank better.

 

[regl8r]

I hate yelp just as much as the next person but honestly it sounds like you are the one who screwed up. You signed a contract, did you not read it? None of these directory type sites are going to let you advertise for a short period of time and cancel at will always expect a year contract.

Instead of blaming the sales guy take it as a lesson and don't do it again. Also do a chargeback with your credit card company, I've done one for much larger than $750 and yelp didn't even fight it.

 

[CodyBaird]

I set up display campigns for our clients and use the placement feature to target yelp.com or yelp.ca. I can tell you that cost per click for yelp ads averaged $50 - $75 as opposed to yelp display clicks being around $5. I learned that trick from David Mihm but couldn't tell you where that post is.

I would also mention that if you want to focus on yelp as a channel to Gen leads you had better put your yelp review strategies in order. If the local competition has quality and or quantity advantages over your yelp reviews - start by putting money towards fixing that issue first or the roi will be garbage.