I am an SEO expert - Yodel claims that it builds websites that are SEO friendly for their clients. If you view the Yodel website using Firefox click ctrl + U or from Internet Explorer go to the View menu and click on source - now click ctrl+F and type h1. You will see that the Yodel corporate site itself has about 5 h1 declarations in the code - the most basic BASIC SEO rule is that you should have one, yes only ONE h1 declaration per page! This is basic, basic SEO and Yodel cannot even get it right on their own site! What do you think they will do for you, a small business owner, who probably is relying on Yodel to be the expert and to guide you in building your site and performing Search Engine Optimization. This company is a joke. You are better off going with a local consultant than with Yodel. Did you notice that there is not one example of an actual website they have built and optimized on their corporate site?

I have to join with the others who were woefully disappointed and wished they could cancel their contract. When you enroll in their program, you must sign a 3-month contract. If their performance is poor, they will NOT let you out early.

When I talked to their sales rep, I liked the concept: their computer algorithm will optimize the bid position and amount and even search engine for your internet cost per click advertising. I understood that Yodle would mark up each click, but the rep assured me that the efficiency of their system would still result in cost savings. When I was talking to the sales rep, I asked what the mark-up was, but he said it was too complicated to figure out. That should have been a warning. I was thinking they would charge a 10 to 20% mark-up, not a 400% to 500% markup.

In my case, I started with $1, 000 per month, which was about 1/5 my normal budget. Because Yodle was to supplant my own AdWords, Yahoo and MSN efforts, I felt a little nervous about underfunding the program and so voluntarily increased the first month's budget to $3, 000. My average cost per click went from $0.81 when I managed it myself, to about $4.00 under Yodle. I then lowered my commitment to the contractually required $1, 000 my second month. The second month saw minimal improvement in efficiency, to about $3.75.

I tried to cancel but they would not let me out. They said they had the 3-month contract so that their algorithm had an opportunity to optimize the ideal position and search engine. I retorted that I had already spent $4, 000, which was $1, 000 more than the contract called for, and that their computer should learn by the number of clicks rather than by time, but to no avail.

The one nice thing I can say is that the advertising rep (different from the sales rep) with whom I worked was very nice and did try her best to get results. However, the results were just atrocious. I learned, to my dismay, just how many of my existing customers look up my contact information through cost per click...at $4 per call, this was quite annoying. And like the others in this review, I got calls from those trying to sell me things and those looking for a job.

All in all, Yodle was a very poor business choice for me and I cannot recommend them to anyone.