17-12-09, 05:14 PM
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Forum Admin - Play nice!
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bills Town, Wark's, UK
Age: 42
Posts: 4,720
Thanks: 856
Thanked 411 Times in 338 Posts
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My Local Services UK FAQ's
Frequently Asked Questions
We want you to take full advantage of your Business Listing with us, so have included some help and answers to frequently asked questions about My Local Services. If you can't find the answer below, then please get in touch with us.
- I have a Free Basic Listing - can I add a web link?
I'm afraid not, Free Basic Listings only display telephone and address information. If you want to display multiple web links, text, pictures and showcase your business, then you will need to upgrade to a Lifetime Listing.
To upgrade simply log in to your listing and you will see an upgrade option in your control panel.
- I've moved address - can I edit my Business Listing?
All listings can now be edited at any time by logging into your control panel.
Although changes will show instantly, it may take 24 hours for your new changes to show correctly on the site, especially if you move to a different County, or change any of your categories.
All Free Basic Listings prior to May 2011 need to obtain a password by following these simple instructions:
First locate your listing (type your business name in the middle search box and select it). Once you have your listing displayed, select the Green Correct or Upgrade this Listing button, and follow the prompts. You will be emailed a listing password and will be able to use the edit listing option in the future.
- Whoops I've lost my password - can I change it?
Fear not, simply log in to your listing with the email address you signed up with. You will be prompted for a password, but simply select the lost password link on that page. Remember you can change your password to anything you like if you go into your control panel.
- I have a Lifetime Listing - how long does it really last for?
There's no tricks here. Our definition of a Lifetime Listing is either the life of your business or as long as the My Local Services website is on the air. We've been going in our current format since 2005, so we have no intention of going anywhere!
All we ask is that you keep your email address updated and confirm once a year that you still want to advertise with us, by clicking a confirmation link in an automated message. See below.
- Why has my Lifetime Listing disappeared?
To try and counter stale listings and to allow for businesses that do unfortunately close down, our system will send you an automated email every 12 months to make sure you're still there, and confirm you would like to continue advertising. All you need to do is click on the link in the email to continue advertising. If you don't, our system will try sending you a further two more emails.
If there is still no response after 90 days, your listing will be removed from our public site and go into our private quarantine database for 12 months.
At any time during this 12 months we can move your listing back to the live database, so contact us if you think your listing has disappeared!
After 12 months in the quarantine, we will assume you are either no longer trading or no longer wish to advertise and your listing will be automatically deleted. After this, you will need to sign up and pay again if you wanted a paid listing with us.
- How do my customers leave reviews? Can I reply to any reviews?
Either send your customers the My Local Services web address for your listing, and ask them to select the big green Leave a Review button, or they can visit the link leave a review.
As long as we have your correct email details, you will be notified every time someone leaves a review for your business and you will have the opportunity to reply.
You can also visit your control panel and select the Reply to Reviews button at any time.
All feedback is screened to try and ensure no slander or misuse, and we have worked hard to try and create one of the fairest review systems around. Our reviews are picked up by Google, and listings with the highest positive feedback will display at the top of our search results.
- Can I increase my coverage and exposure?
Yes you can! A Lifetime Listing will include you in searches for your chosen categories within your postcode area. If you would like to be covered for searches across every town in your region or County, then this becomes a Lifetime Regional Listing, which has a one off set up fee of £15 (including VAT).
If you wanted to be included in searches for the County next door, or in fact any County, then it's just a further one off fee of £15 per County. It's as simple as that!
An example could be a Web Designer in Leeds, who decides they would like to be included in Web Designer searches across the whole of London, which we class as a Region, so this is a one off £15 for Life! You can add a Regional upgrade to your Lifetime Listing at any time by visiting your your control panel.
- Why should I pay for a web link? Other directories give me this for free!
We believe there is a balance between professional advertising, value for money and quality of service. Our key mission is to generate page views for your listing coupled with efficient quality customer service. We are a human edited directory, in other words all listings, reviews and feedback is manually checked by our customer service team. The major search engines such as Google and Yahoo add more value to one way links from human edited directories, as they are seen as trusted resources.
Also 95% of the internet traffic that arrives on My Local Services originates from the UK. As a UK Business Directory, this may seem obvious, but a lot of free link directory traffic may originate anywhere in the world. Not many people in Bangalore are looking for a window cleaner in Peckham!
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't utilise free link directories, just be aware of the quality of the site you are signing up with. eg Do you have to link back to receive a link? If so, be wary, this is an outdated process that won't help you, particularly if you are looking for search engine rankings. Professional and free directory submission should form part of your online marketing strategy. Remember the more quality links you have to your site, then the better your site will be received and rated by the major search engines.
- I've heard that directory web links are no longer valued by search engines?
Some directories, forums and even social networking sites have lowered the perceived value of links by making them what's known as No Follow links (such as this one for example). In other words they are ignored or devalued by search engines and offer reduced or little SEO value.
That's not the full story though, as humans can quite happily click on "no follow" links, so they can have some value. But My Local Services doesn't use the no follow rule for links in Business Listings, so any Links you add will have their full SEO value.
- How do I cancel or suspend my Lifetime, Regional or Free Basic Listing?
I'm afraid you can't suspend your listing, but if you need to cancel it for any reason, just simply telephone, email or write to us with the name of your business and ask us to remove your listing. Here are our contact details and they can also be found at the bottom of every page on our site.
- My Local Services Charity Partnerships.
We have developed a strong bond with the charity sector over the years, and are happy to give complimentary Lifetime, Regional or National Listings to Charities, Voluntary groups, and other Community groups. If you work with any charity organisations please forward our contact details and we would be happy to offer them free advertising and use of our events planners to get their message out.
For charities all we need to see is a charity number. For non profit organisations/voluntary groups, it is at our discretion.
- Feedback
If you would like to contact us, then get in touch. We welcome all feedback, from enquires, further information or criticism, and take all comments seriously.
We are striving to make My Local Services as user friendly as possible, and welcome all of your views. If there is anything you would like to see on the site, something you don’t like, found a link that doesn’t work, or information that is out of date, please tell us. My Local Services is always evolving, and new features or styling are a direct result of your feedback
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