Yodle

Hi Tom,

Don't have direct experience with this or any other major mega national internet marketing company but my gut reaction for all of them is to say "run away". Think about it: some huge (over 1,000 employees) based far away in a big city claims to know about how you can have the advantage in your local market?

The bad reviews about Yodle outweigh the good ones, and the consistent complaint is about a super aggressive telemarketing sales calls that don't stop even if you sign up as a customer. Second common complaint is that they don't deliver after you pay a lot of money.

Frankly, you can achieve a lot with a free Google account, signing up for Google places and getting a free Google business listing (and Yahoo free business listing and Bing free listing, as well) will take you a long distance and then the next thing is to get a good web site that you have control over (please run away from Hibu, the former YP site). Since you're in Rhode Island, you might want to talk with Big Fish Results (http://bigfishresults.com/) in E. Greenwich about internet marketing and branding. I would also be happy to talk with you about what you're thinking you would like to do with a web presence--I'm in Rhode Island, too, and it'll cost you a cup of coffee.
 
That's all I needed to hear. Ironically, I posted a request on FB for help with website maintenance (maintenance only!), and am meeting a friend Friday to chat. I'd love to meet and buy you a cup of coffee as well, are you anywhere between New Bedford and Providence? I travel that route usually 2-3 times a week.

-Tom
 
Tom,

I'm just down the road from Coastal Roasters on Main Road in Tiverton, and can do Friday. Only dilemma there is getting the old locals who tie up the few chairs to give us some room. But the coffee's really good! What time?

Carol
774-473-9874 (cell)
 
I can't speak for Tom, but I think our conversation yesterday about services like this has run Yodle through a Brush Bandit 'till there ain't nothing left. Just say "no" to these cold-calling web weasels. Not worth your valuable time.
 
We tried Yodle and just cancelled it. They better have done on their end.
Admittedly we probably didn't follow up properly on some details at our end. But my complaints:
It didn't link to our own website but to some lame website they assembled. We rarely get around to updating our own website on a timely basis and to have to do it on a second one is more than we have time for.
If we miss a call we get a notification but usually it's just a phone number with no name or even basic info. So, we'd have to call the number and say that we are calling a nameless person who we believe is trying to contact us for tree work. Beyond lame. I hate phoning as it is and I'm not doing this.
I can see that we get a good placement on key words on a laptop but we don't get these results on mobile. So that sucks. Not acceptable.
Lastly, it seems like it attracts the impatient type who wants it done by the lowest bidder the very next day.
Angieslist is what works for us in our area. We get great customers this way. But the success of Angieslist might not be this good in other areas.
 
I just got a cold call from these guys at Yodel. I told them I was interested but had to research them and Im not committing to anything. Then I got on here and read everyone else's thoughts on it. Thanks.

To be fair, does anyone have anything GOOD to say about this service??
 
kstreehuggerco said:
I just got a cold call from these guys at Yodel. I told them I was interested but had to research them and Im not committing to anything. Then I got on here and read everyone else's thoughts on it. Thanks.

To be fair, does anyone have anything GOOD to say about this service??
Click to expand...

We started using Yodle in November 2013 and I just cancelled last week. The pros: they put your company information on 100+ site listings (yellowpages, manta, etc.)

I wish I could say that Yodle is worth it because that means our $1150 a month was well spent.

The cons: they do not use your website. They make their own website for your company that they promote with their efforts that you pay for. They create their own yelp, Google maps, Google page ..that all link to their website. They set up s new phone number (for tracking purposes) that forwards to your own phone number. They push this website to the top of Google and lower your own website.

My hope was to improve our online presence and receive new leads from Google adwords. What really happened? They used our actual company name in Google Adwords, so people that were referred to us, return customers or got a mailer in the mail from us ..would search our name, yodles Google adwords or site would come up before our own and we were charged for someone that already had our company name. We were essentially being charged twice. Once for our own marketing to this person and once by yodle for a lead they swear they generated on their own. Most leads were not people searching tree removal, tree trimming, etc.

What really made me frustrated was that a few months into our campaign I came across one of our competitors websites that had an almost identical domain, website layout and wording. They also signed up with yodle and yodle did the exact same set up for them.

We got a lot of telemarketer calls from marketing companies that saw the yodle site and want to sell you their products and explain how they are better than
Yodle.

As soon as you cancel with yodle (which took me 8 weeks because they never returned my call to cancel, but they always answered my call when I wnted to add money to our Google adwords campaign) all of the work and efforts you paid for them to do disappers because they remove the website they made for you. You are essentially back at square one with your own website.

My final thoughts on yodle? Find a marketing company that will work on improving your own website with the search engines and will create a google Adwords campaign that works directly with your actual phone number and website. If you cancel with them your organic search results on Google will not be affected and all the customers you gained through your campaign will hve your actual number, not a temporary one set up by Yodle.

I wish someone would have shared that with me in November 2013
 
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