Craigslist Guidelines

Market Leader recommends that you adhere to the following guidelines. If you do not follow these guidelines, Craigslist might delete your posts and block you for spamming. Remember the goal of your post on Craigslist is not just to promote the listing, but also to get people to visit your website and sign up.

• Use the content provided.
  
  Do not change the link code that is in the body of the post. Without this code, the post will not drive people to your website. The system auto-generates parts of the content, such as the title and parts of the body text, to help avoid repetitive, spam-like content that deters visitors. Experience has shown that the simple posts provided by the system are effective. They do not use complicated HTML, do not provide full home information, and do not add all pictures. Omitting some details encourages people to visit your website and sign up to get more information. You might make slight changes occasionally but make sure the content and wording are appropriate. Market Leader strongly recommends using the structure provided because it has been proven to work.
  
  
• Do not over-post listings.
  
  If you post the same listings repeatedly, or post too many listings in a row, Craigslist might delete your posts and block you for spamming. Craigslist automatically deletes posts after a certain number of days. When you fill out the form to post on Craigslist, you are notified, "Your ad will expire in X days." Plan to re-post your listings in X days to ensure you keep getting traffic from Craiglist, but do not post it more often than the expiry period. If Craigslist sees that you repeatedly post the same house, they might delete the listing and block you from making additional posts.
  
  
• Make sure you post in the right Craigslist area.
  
  The Open Craigslist to Post button takes you to the appropriate Craigslist page. If for some reason this button leads to an incorrect area or is not working, contact the Customer Support listed on your website. Only post in "Real Estate for Sale" in the proper geographic area.
  
  
• Fill out the form properly.
  
  Make sure you put the price in the "Price" field, the city in the "City" field, and so on. Craigslist uses the fields to match posts to searches. People can only find a post if the fields contain correct information.
  
  
• Do not show (i.e. always hide) your email address.
  
  If you neglect to select the hide radio button, Craigslist visitors can contact you directly instead of signing up as a contact on your website. Market Leader cannot track the success of Craigslist posts unless contacts visit your website from the post.