How to Write an Effective Gumtree Post
Gumtree is a UK-based classifieds site. It’s mostly popular for it’s Jobs and “rooms to lets” sections, but there are also categories for advertising “stuff for sale”, and most importantly for people like us, “Business Services”. While there might not be an abundance of people actuvely seeking business services within the Gumtree site, the posts on there seem to rank well in Google, and get indexed very quickly. This means it’s possible to literally “cheat” your way onto page 1 of Google in a very competitive niche market, for free! Here’s a few tips to help you write an effective Gumtree post that will stand a good chance of performing well in the search engines, and ultimately, with a bit of look, send some business your way.
In the title of the posting, use the actual keyphrase people are going to be using to search for you, but try and disguise it in a sentence that makes sense. As an example let’s say we’re a wedding cake shop. People might search for “wedding cakes birmingham”… A good Gumtree posting title which incorporates that search keyphrase might be The Best Wedding Cakes in Birmingham. Also don’t forget to specify Birmingham in the location box - ignore the “Suburb only” bit, Gumtree rarely checks that.
When Google comes sniffing round Gumtree (this usually happens once or twice per day), it’ll read the title, and then the location, and from that it will “work out” what your post is about. This can be a very effective way to get on page 1 or 2 of Google very quickly. However the work’s not over yet… You need to write a brief-yet-informative post that conveys the key facts about what you’re offering, plus it needs to re-inforce what the post is about in the eyes of the search engines.
In the first paragraph, use the title again, but in the context of a longer sentence. This helps to confirm to Google what the post is about, and therefore rank it as a relevant piece of info on the topic. For example…. Established in 1996, Joe Bloggs and his team of expert cakemakers have built a reputation for making The Best Wedding Cakes in Birmingham. If you do this, Google will be in doubt that your page is about wedding cakes and that you’re based in Birmingham.
To summarize (plus a few extras)…
1. Use keyphrase & location in title
2. Use broad location (i.e city name rather than suburb) in Location box
3. Re-inforce title by using the same phrase again in the first paragraph
4. Use short “bullet points” to give the reader the info they are looking for - this is the stuff that makes them pick up the phone/visit your site/email you.
5. Don’t waste time, bore or confuse the reader by going too in-depth - save the details for when you’ve got them on the phone!
6. Last paragraph should be a “Call to action”. I.e “Call us today on…” or “visit our website today at http://www.weddingcakes.com“. Try to incentivise them calling you “today” by adding a time-limited offer, or “limited places available”, “book early as places are filling up quickly”, “last 5 tickets left” etc. People do respond to this kind of gentle pressure.