Heavyweight Search Results
On 1st April 2009 yell.com changed the way their search results are displayed.
Before 1st April, if you took out an advertising programme on the yell.com website (known as a weblink), your advert would be displayed when people search for one of the keywords you select.
10 adverts are displayed per page, and the order in which they are displayed is random. So, if there are only 10 adverts for a given search term, everyone will be on the first page of search results, and you’ll appear 1st on the list roughly 10% of the time, on a random basis. If there are 100 search results, then you’ll be on the first page roughly 10% of the time, and you’ll be 1st on the list roughly 1% of the time.
On 1st April, their new system introduced what Yell call ‘Heavyweight’ search results, which appear in the first 4 search results on the 1st page (or if there are more than 4, on the 2nd, 3rd pages etc).
However, by appearing in slots 1-4, what happens to all the standard listings? Well, they are now reclassified as ‘Mediumweight’ search results and appear in positions 5-10, and on subsequent pages.
What does this mean for advertisers? To use the same examples as above, if there are only 10 advertisers, then as a ‘Mediumweight’ advertiser you will only appear in positions 5-10, so will never appear 1st. If there are 100 advertisers, you will appear on the first page only 6% of the time, and again will never appear 1st.
Old System:
- 10 listings – appear 1st 10% of the time, on first page 100% of the time
- 100 listings – appear 1st 1% of the time, on first page 10% of the time
New System:
- 10 listings – appear 1st 0% of the time, on first page 100% of the time
- 100 listings – appear 1st 0% of the time, on first page 6% of the time
View the full communication history between Yell representatives and myself about this issue here.
Resolution:
On 23rd August 2009, after 3 months of communication, Yell agree to refund under £200 of mis-sold advertising.