Avoid Craigslist Flagging: 10 Important Rules to Follow

Posted at April 1, 2020 6:18 pm by proadmin

Craigslist is a classified website that is very popular among buyers and sellers around the world. It is used as a central database for classified ads. It is also a forum for the business community. There are some items that are always fixed for this database. These are for sale advertisements, job opportunities, individual ads, and subject-wise forums. For its popularity and accessibility, every marketer’s try it to get a quick sale from here.

Everyone face it…

I assume that you also try it for your products or property. You may write your ad copy for hours, and when you going to post it on craigslist, you may see that your ads are flagging within a few moments. So, It could be a challenge for you to post an ad without getting flagged. It’s a big problem for individuals who just start to post. ads. We are going to describe how to avoid craigslist flagging and get the maximum ROI.

What is Craigslist Flagging or Ghosting?  

Ad flagging or ghosting refers to an unseen or removed post from craigslist. It is only visible to you but not visible to the website users. You will get your post flagged when a user clicks on the ‘prohibited’ flag at the top left side of your post. Or, if a craigslist bot removes your post due to their specific rules and algorithm.  

Why Craigslist flagging occurs?  

For moderation:

Sometimes, your ads can be flagged by the moderator community of CL. They are some users who review posts and looking for any content that violates the terms: https://www.craigslist.org/about/terms.of.use. If they find such kind of ad, they are immediately flagging it from the upper left corner of ad content.

Paid ad flagging service:

Some paid ad flagging services, who flag the ads for their customers. They are flagging all similar contents of their customer’s business competitors. So that their customer’s ads will get the highest view from users.

Automated Algorithm:

Sometimes craigslist use their own automated and manual flagging tools to remove ad contents. It can happen from time to time, especially for aged contents.

It takes time to building trust:

There are rumors in the CL community that if your posts are getting flagged and removed for sometimes, it will reduce the flagging rate in the future. It takes time to establish the trust of a CL account. Flagging rates go lower for aged accounts.

Here, we are going to give you simple know-how to create a successful live ad for craigslist.  

#1. Write a clear and unique content for your ad

The tone of your ad content should be very clear and easy to understand. Use a lot of white space in your content so that, it can be easily readable. Present only relevant and useful information and carefully use important keywords. Make a good combination with your ad description and keywords.

Craigslist has a big space for ads to write it creatively. So, try to be artistic enough when writing ads. Well written ads get better responses than poorly written ads. Ad content is the most important part of advertising. If you have errors in this part, your ads can be getting flagged by the community members.  

#2. Use a clear and authentic picture

The proverb says a picture is better than thousand words. Your ad viewer will first see your pictures. So, it is very important to use an authentic and original picture for your ads. You can hire a professional photographer or graphics designer to get some photos for your ad. If you don’t have enough budget for hiring professional photographers, you can use a high-quality stock image instead. Always gives authentic and true information on your ads.  

#3. Write unique and engaging titles

The title plays a vital role in SEO. It is true for Ad posting too. Your viewers will first read the title before opening the ad. So it is very important to write a unique title for your ad that makes them click on it. Sometimes community members flagged an ad for the title if they found it spammy and plagiarize. So, it is important to write a unique and engaging ad title.  

#4. IP rotation for every ad

Posting different ads from the same IP address sometimes creates a big mess. There is no ad poster that doesn’t face the IP related problems on Craigslist. So, for every post, you can use an individual IP address. Residential and local area IP address is the best solution to avoid IP related flagging. Try to use a good broadband internet connection with high speed. It can also help to avoid the ad flagging.  

#5. Take time to post in the same city/category

If you want to post the same item, again and again, wait for at least 48 hours. If you change everything but your price range is the same/identical, it could be assumed as the same item. So, it’s better to wait for sometimes to avoid craigslist flagging. 

#6. Don’t post the same content

You should avoid the same ad content, title, and description. Also, don’t use the same set of photos. Use no more than 8-10 photos and rearrange them each time.  

#7. Don’t post for advertising

Remember, Craigslist is a marketplace where real-time buying and selling occurs. You will not get any advantage from your community, so don’t promote it. Instead, you can improve your ad units to attract buyers. Try to make your ads specific to attract the right buyers. If your ads are not specified about what it is selling, it can easily get flagged or removed from the community.

#8. Avoid the filthy and sales words

These languages can be used in craigslist, but it looks spammy and often a reason to flag by the moderators. Because a serious seller can’t use this type of language for their items. So to avoid craigslist flagging you must use moderate language.  

#9. Describe the key information of your item

There is no specific rule to write your ad contents. But it is very necessary to describe the key information of your items to selling it fast. Community moderators can flag your post If it is not descriptive enough.  

#10. Keep it simple

Make your ad content as simple as possible. Using more than one font or various font sizes, Different types of font style and unnecessary capitalization can be hard to read. Over-style may lead to more security measures and attention from the community moderators.  

In a nutshell…  

If you successfully follow these rules, you can live any ads without flagging or ghosting. If it is hard for you and you want to avoid craigslist flagging, you can hire a professional Craigslist ad posting service to make the process simple and straightforward. In Proadpost, we have a dedicated team to follow every step from above to make your ads 100% live. If you want to save tons of time for posting ads, we offer a premium quality service for you. Call us or contact us to learn more.