What Craigslist Can Teach Us About SEO | SEJ
Craigslist is an iconic website. It’s outrageously ugly, incredibly useful, amazingly relevant, and outstandingly successful. But why? I think Craigslist has some great SEO things going for it. So, I’m going to tell you a little bit about that. But it’s way more than SEO. Anytime a site has “great SEO” it also has other amazing things happening. “Great SEO” never appears in follows in this article is a list of Craigslist’s most notable features, SEO included, and what we can learn from on Functionality More Than Design FlairCraigslist hasn’t won an you know what? They don’t you judge Craigslist by design, it would probably fail. They have four colors on their homepage: Internet blue, boring gray, black, and tiny pale yellow highlights here and there. And not a single image. Just line after line of blue text on a white aigslist did not design for eye candy. They designed for raw, unfettered functionality. This site purrs along with a suite of powerful techniques that turns any developer green with envy. Let me point out just four of their techniques:AdvertisementContinue Reading BelowKiller load times. By trimming the fat, Craigslist is able to shave lag off its load time. Think about the kind of load time your site could have if it didn’t load a single image! Automatic conversion funnel. If you go to Craigslist, you will convert. You are either buying, selling, or looking. Either way, the conversion action — posting or clicking on an ad — will almost invariably engagement. The average user spends time — lots of it — on Craigslist. No bouncing going on here! Streamlined organization. From the start, Craigslist was focused on organizing information. They created an organizational matrix that could receive and present lots of information in all varieties. And as the amount of products and services mushroomed, the organizational structure did what it was supposed to do. Information is organized logically into nine main categories. Most of it even fits above the fold! When you hire a web dev firm, don’t just look for cool designs. Instead, look for top-notch functionality. I think that there’s a happy medium between best-of-the-best functionality and great design. I’m a big fan of simple designs. A good site has a clean design and great, what’s the deal? Why does Craigslist insist upon spartan design in a day of flashy responsiveness and eye-popping awesomeness? Let Buckmaster, Craigslist’s CEO tell you:We have been fortunate to do well by doing good, whatever phrase you want to use, by focusing only on improving the service for it is — focusing on the users. Even in the field of web design, a contentious battle ground between designers, developers, and SEOs — gives way to the users. That’s customer service for you! AdvertisementContinue Reading BelowWhat can we learn? Make sure your site is functional before trying to make it beautiful. Functionality is its own the user in anize information logically. In the words of a Kissmetrics article, “Ask yourself, ‘How can I organize all this so that it makes sense to the visitor? ’”Optimize For Local QueriesCraigslist has more than 700 local sites in 70 aigslist was born in the San Francisco Bay area in March of 1995. (Yes, it’s that old. ) Since that day, it has spread — first to Boston, then to seven of the largest cities in the U. S., and on and aigslist is all over the world. But they don’t do the typical local optimization techniques that we think about — directory listings, citations, Google+ accounts, etc. They’re so big they really don’t need strategy is to create local market subdomains. For example: domains are SEO genius. Each URL leads with the local market name, and includes the power of the Craigslist brand name. As a result, Craigslist has incredible results in each local ’s a query that combines “VHS for sale” with a local city name. Craigslist is in the number one Atlanta dog owners searching for a walking service, Craigslist ranks at number three:For one of the most competitive keywords on the Internet, “iphone, ” Craigslist crushes the competition with above-the-fold can we learn? If you’re a national brand with local service locations, use localized subdomains that contain the name of the local geo-specific longtail keywords as part of your SEO Real ConnectionsFew websites do a better job of creating personal connections than Craigslist. In spite of our uber-connected digital existence, Craigslist breaks through with the ability to bring people vertisementContinue Reading BelowI’m not just talking about the personals section. I’m talking about the vast majority of interactions on Craigslist. You want to buy someone else’s sofa? Sell your used Nexus? Find a used car for under $5k? If so, you can go to Craigslist and find what you need. Then you’ll probably meet someone in your area. You’ll make a connection. You might get to know vertisementContinue Reading BelowThat’s part of the appeal of Craigslist. It’s more than the feeling of I-scored-a-great-deal-on-a-sofa, but the sense of I’m-buying-local-and-invested-in-my-community. Which is and more websites are discovering the power of the personal. Even Wikipedia is meeting the world on a more personal level by hosting the Great American Wiknic. The Internet has not denuded us of social interaction or relationships. Instead, with sites like Craigslist, it’s making the world a bit more can we learn? Bring a personal touch to your website by encouraging comments, and giving your own a forum where users can meet, interact, and give and take vertisementContinue Reading BelowLet Users ContributeCraigslist would be nothing more than a few bytes in the backwaters of the Internet if it weren’t for crowdsourced aigslist’s exabytes of information are generated and uploaded by aigslist doesn’t limit you to merely posting pictures of your apartment for rent. It’s a place where you can speak your mind, talk about your house purchasing experience, or ask questions of the community. I mentioned forums above. Craigslist is the king of is user-generated content. That’s how Craigslist lives. Its discussion forums are lively places content (UGC) is like atomic energy for SEO. Most Internet users are engaged enough to provide input in the form of comments and forum questions. By harnessing this form of social SEO, you can create a powerhouse of keywords, discussion, and indexed content that will attract incredible results. It’s especially powerful in a post-Hummingbird vertisementContinue Reading BelowThe forum discussions on my site are a great example of this. The forums receive tons of organic traffic. These users aren’t finding the forums with branded searches. They’re just typing in longtail queries, often in question form, and getting pointed to the Media Explorer writes:UGC leads to a site that constantly generates new forms of content that you can submit to search engines. Doing so is an excellent way to increase one’s search visibility and associated vertisementContinue Reading BelowThis isn’t about selling. This is simply about being a place where discussion can take can we learn? Embrace UGC. It could usher in insane amounts of new is GoodMost of the time, Craigslist is free. You can list a car for sale, and pocket 100% of the money you make from it. Craigslist doesn’t take a commission or charge a fee. You can run a successful business buying and selling Craigslist stuff, and never pay Craigslist a ’re suckers for free. And Craigslist gets that. That’s why everything is mostly described Craigslist’s business model like this:[It is a] business model which, by any rational standard, is completely insane. And yet it’s also been shockingly successful, at least in terms of traffic. Craigslist has revolutionized the classified advertising market with its free listings for everything from real estate to jobs to you catch that? “Free” and “traffic. ” They go vertisementContinue Reading BelowLet’s be clear, though. Craigslist does make money. And sometimes you do have to pay — like for job ads in big there’s a ton of free going down on can we learn? Give things away for free. It’s not going to make you poorer. In fact, it will probably make you richer in the long nclusionYou may not make the world’s next Craigslist, and that’s okay. That’s not really the goal. The goal is to learn from one of the world’s most popular aigslist is doing some things right, and with a bit of strategic imitation, you can do these things right, are some other Craigslist SEO tactics that you can use?
5 Ways Craigslist Can Boost Your SEO Strategy – CyberMark
If you’re trying to get the word out about your products and services, you want to connect with people who are in the market for your kind of wares. Try turning to the classifieds, which are primarily visited by people searching for that certain something. Specifically, look into adding Craigslist, the Internet’s answer to the wanted pages, into your Internet marketing cording to, this ever-popular barebones online classifieds receives more than 50 million unique visitors per month. The site is divided into metropolitan areas and product categories, allowing you to target interested locals. Moreover, listing on Craigslist is inexpensive; actually, in most cases, it is free. Here are a few tips for using Craigslist as part of your SEO keywords in anchor text. Using keywords within the anchor text of your Craigslist ad helps in the same way as it does with regular SEO and inbound marketing campaigns. When the search engines see keywords in the anchor of inbound links to your website, this will give your website a boost for those keywords. Also, the closer to the top of the page the links are placed the better. With strategic linking, you will get not only direct users from Craigslist to your website, but you’ll be able to track how many leads or sales are coming from Craigslist. Also, if you’re looking to get new site content Googlebot crawls Craigslist frequently, so if you link to new information on your website it should get indexed by Google quicker. Optimize the content of your as with regular SEO, keywords and keyword proximity to links may help give you a boost. Having your targeted keywords in your copy will also help visitors who search Craigslist find your often – but not too heavily used categories in big cities, Craigslist ads more than a few days old tend to stop garnering traffic. Keep your product fresh in customers’ minds by re-posting your ad about every three days. Re-posting also helps with your SEO. But be careful not to over-post. Craigslist’s algorithm may delete you for posting too HTML tags within your metimes, Craigslist ads can rank in the search engines. To help your ads rank, use HTML tags to better optimize it. Use H1 tags and add your main keywords within the H1. And, as mentioned above, make sure to use keyword-rich anchor text. By using HTML tags, your Craigslist ad will also look more professional, which may help convert visitors to you’re selling furniture, don’t post ads in the Lost and Found Pets section. The search engines will give you a bigger boost if you are in categories that are the same theme as your website. Over-using this kind of blanket marketing strategy not only takes away from your legitimacy as a seller, but it can get your ad deleted. Post only in categories relevant to your products and CyberMark on TwitterFan CyberMark on FacebookFollow CyberMark on Google Buzz
7 Ways to Improve Your Craigslist Ad – Zen Den Web Design
MARKETING & BRANDING
By: Chad Bell
Craigslist can be a great source for new customers once you learn to create and manage your ads effectively. Zen Den’s Craigslist ads prompt at least 25 calls each week and the majority of these calls become solid leads.
So how can you generate a solid stream of leads from your CL ads? This article outlines what we do here at Zen Den to create effective ads.
1. Look at Other Ads – and Take Notes
Pay special attention to those ads that are offering similar products or services to yours. This will help you generate ideas for your ads as you learn what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. There is a lot of poor marketing and advertising out there. If you pay attention, you can avoid becoming a contributor.
2. Gain Ad Presence – Create as Many Craigslist Accounts as You Can
The frequency at which you are able to post your ads increases with the number of accounts you accumulate. Keep them at the top of the daily posts. In order to post an ad in the services section of CL, you must create an account and verify it with a phone number. The problem is you can only have one account associated with each number, so you will have to get creative here if you want to have more than one.
3. Create Many Unique Ads
CL prevents you from posting identical ads. But don’t consider this as a drawback, as it allows you to experiment with your ad copy. Take advantage of this feature by taking different approaches to pitch your products or services and then post these ads in separate categories. Alternatively, if you have little time or resources, you can still create several ads for each of your CL accounts by slightly tweaking the copy of your original.
4. Know Your Audience
Create a great title for your ad by including words that Craigslist users use in their search. Don’t use all caps, I know its tempting, but I feel that it is more effective to only capitalize the first letter of each word. And avoid unnecessary use of keyboard characters.
We’ve all seen this before: “!!!!!!! THE BEST COMPUTER REPAIR!!!!!! ”
Now compare that to: “Quality and Reliable Computer Repair Service”
One of these communicates professionalism – I’ll let you decide which.
5. Give Your Ad a Make-Over
Utilize the images and HTML options for your ads. You can easily give your ads more pop by changing the font size, type, and color. More importantly, including your business logo and other relevant images from your website will strengthen your brand recognition and identity.
6. Go Old-School
If you want serious inquiries, then you have to encourage them to call, not just send an email. We learned this the hard way from the 50+ emails/day we used to receive inquiring only “how much for a website”. We found that it was almost always a total waste of time to respond to this type of inquiry, so why not eliminate it if you can?
Here’s how:
Check HIDE in the ‘reply to’ field when creating ads. Then, prominently display your phone number in the ad. You can also include a clickable image that links to your website, and create a contact form that requires a name and phone number. So, if a visitor wants to contact you they have 2 options: call or fill out the contact form on your site. These tactics serve to weed out non-serious inquiries. Remember, it’s about quality, not quantity.
7. Include Keywords in the Footer
When creating our ads, we first brainstormed a bank of keywords using tools such as the Google Keyword Tool and Wonder Wheel. After determining which words CL users are likely to use when searching for web services, we reduced the font size and then placed them in the footer of our ad. By incorporating these tags, our ads will get caught in a much wider search net than it would have otherwise.
One of the huge upsides to Craigslist is that it doesn’t cost you anything. But along with that comes the downside; greater user-volume. In other words, you’ve got competition. So, whether you are selling cars, offering massage, or teaching music, your ads need to stand out from the crowd. Take the extra time to create better ads and the effort will pay off. As always, if you have anything to add, agree or disagree with anything we write here at Zen News, leave us a comment!
Frequently Asked Questions about craigslist seo
Is Craigslist good for SEO?
Using keywords within the anchor text of your Craigslist ad helps in the same way as it does with regular SEO and inbound marketing campaigns. When the search engines see keywords in the anchor of inbound links to your website, this will give your website a boost for those keywords.
How do I optimize my Craigslist ad?
7 Ways to Improve Your Craigslist AdLook at Other Ads – and Take Notes. … Gain Ad Presence – Create as Many Craigslist Accounts as You Can. … Create Many Unique Ads. … Know Your Audience. … Give Your Ad a Make-Over. … Go Old-School. … Include Keywords in the Footer.
Is Craigslist advertising effective?
With a little preparation and a consistent posting and testing strategy, Craigslist can be an effective source of clicks and leads for your business at little or no cost but it shouldn’t be the SOLE marketing you do, Google is still the leader and the #1 most visited site on the web, it’s where most people who want to …