Why Isn’T My Craigslist Ad Showing Up
Why is my posting not showing up on Craigslist? – GetHuman
Often times when you try to post something on Craigslist you can run into problems. Here’s how to solve some of the most common problems.
Craigslist is one of the most popular tools for finding jobs and posting stuff. The simplicity of its algorithm makes it easy to make millions of transaction. It can, therefore, be frustrating when your postings don’t show up. There are plenty of reasons why your posting may not be showing. They include the following;
Posting Free Ads
Even though free ads on Craigslist can be very effective, the site does not want you to post them. If they allowed everyone to post all their ads, the site would soon be filled with commercial ads. If Craigslist bots find something that they do not like on your ad, it won’t show up. Another reason why your ad may not show up is if you post too many ads too fast.
Posting Similar Ads
If the ad you post appears too similar to the one you posted earlier, it may not show up. If you want to post a new ad, try to make different from the previous one. You should also consider changing the IP address often. Being blocked for posting similar ads is known as being green ghosted. Some factors may cause you to be green ghosted include;
1. Posting too often with the same IP
2. Using the same title
3. Using the same ad body
4. Using the same email address too many times
5. Using image ads in categories that are disallowed
6. Using public proxies
If you still cannot understand why your postings do not show up, consider the following;
1. If you made a post without logging in to an account, you will receive a link in your email. Use the link to complete the login.
2. Postings expire at some point. Paid postings usually expire in 30 days while free postings expire in seven to 45 days.
3. Automated systems may remove your postings if they do not comply with community norms, site guidelines, or terms of use
4. In your search, you may be using a password that does not appear in the actual post
5. Posts appear in chronological order. When searching, ensure that you look under the correct time and date.
6. Ensure that you are searching in the right category
7. Refresh or reload your page as index pages and search results are periodically updated.
How to Check If Your Ad Is Ghosted
If you cannot find an ad that you posted, it is probably ghosted. Fortunately, it is possible to check whether your ad is live or ghosted. You can do it by following these steps;
1. Copy your post ID from the bottom of your ad
2. Paste the 10-digit ID in the search box on the exact category of your ad. If you cannot find it, it is definitely ghosted.
Another indication that your ad is ghosted is if you do not receive any feedback for it. For a live ad, you should get responses including phone calls and emails.
Fortunately, it is possible to avoid ghosting on Craigslist in a few simple steps. You can avoid being ghosted for using a blocked IP by taking the following precautions.
1. Avoid posting too many ads at the same time
2. Don’t use any auto-posting software
3. Don’t post ads from a public place
To avoid ghosting because of issues with your phone number, take the following steps.
1. Ensure that the phone number you are using has not been blocked
2. The phone number in your Craigslist account should be similar to the one in your Craigslist description.
If you still have trouble finding your posts, contact Craigslist support team for help.
Help from Real PeopleWe partner with a US-based company with live tech support experts available 24/7. Take advantage of a $1 one-week trial membership and chat with an expert With A Help ExpertWhy Did GetHuman Write “Why is my posting not showing up on Craigslist? “? After thousands of Craigslist customers came to GetHuman in search of an answer to this problem (and many others), we decided it was time to publish instructions. So we put together Why is my posting not showing up on Craigslist? to try to help. It takes time to get through these steps according to other users, including time spent working through each step and contacting Craigslist if necessary. Best of luck and please let us know if you successfully resolve your issue with guidance from this does GetHuman Write How-to Guides for Craigslist Problems? GetHuman has been working for over 10 years on sourcing information about big organizations like Craigslist in order to help customers resolve customer service issues faster. We started with contact information and fastest ways to reach a human at big companies. Particularly ones with slow or complicated IVR or phone menu systems. Or companies that have self-serve help forums instead of a customer service department. From there, we realized that consumers still needed more detailed help solving the most common problems, so we expanded to this set of guides, which grows every day. And if you spot any issues with our Why is my posting not showing up on Craigslist? guide, please let us know by sending us feedback. We want to be as helpful as possible. If you appreciated this guide, please share it with your favorite people. Our free information and tools is powered by you, the customer. The more people that use it, the better it gets.
How Long Do Posts Take to Appear on Craigslist?
The Craigslist online marketplace includes more than 60 million U. S. site visitors to more than 100 million new ads posted every month, as of May 2013. This bustling, diverse online classified ad market offers business owners a venue through which to post job openings, buy and sell goods and services, and find everything from companionship to coffee tables. Once you craft a listing, your ad can appear in minutes, depending on the category in which you place it. Paid Postings Craigslist charges $75 for a job posting in its home city of San Francisco and $25 to post in 27 additional areas and cities. Each ad remains on the service for 30 days. Like paid job ads, $10 paid ads for New York City real estate brokers include a 30-day lifespan. In the rest of the 700 cities and areas in which Craigslist maintains local sites, you can post a 45-day job or real estate listing at no charge as of May 2013. You can expect your paid posting to appear within 10 to 20 minutes after you complete it, or 15 minutes after you confirm your email address on a free ad. If you sign up for a free Craigslist account, you can unify and simplify the tasks of monitoring, deleting and verifying your postings in an online interface, and complete the process of confirming a free posting without the need to wait for and respond to a confirming email message. If you post paid job ads, you can apply for an account that enables you to buy postings in bulk, qualify for discounts on San Francisco jobs and New York City real estate, and coordinate postings among multiple users. Therapeutic Services Therapeutic Services postings feature massage providers and spas. These ads carry a $10 fee and a $5 reposting fee, and expire seven days after posting. One of Craigslist’s staffers must read and review every Therapeutic Services ad before it can appear. Reviewers work between 9 a. m. and 9 p. Pacific time, so if you place your ad outside these hours, expect to wait for approval. The site’s pages and indexes refresh every 15 minutes. Once your ad clears the approval process, it appears at the top of the list of postings. Flagging You can post a free Craigslist ad in any of 70 countries. With an emphasis on serving local communities, Craigslist outlaws multi-city postings and will remove ads that violate its Terms of Use. With the exception of Therapeutic Services, all other posting categories rely on volunteer review conducted by site visitors, who can click on any of a set of links at the top of each ad to flag it in violation of various site guidelines. Free ads that receive large numbers of flags disappear from the site through automated deletion. Flagged paid ads receive staff review prior to removal. Along with ads that posters attempt to place in the wrong category or on the wrong local site, flagging also addresses posts that advertise banned items, appear on too many sites or reappear more often than every 48 hours, or read too much like conventionally commercial ads. “Ghosted” Ads Along with community-based flagging, some Craigslist postings fall afoul of a procedure unofficially dubbed “ghosting. ” If you place an ad, receive confirmation of its appearance but can’t find it on the site in the category you selected, you may have tripped an automated alert that results in your ad appearing on the site but not in search results or on the chronological ad list. In these cases, only someone who knows the full link to your posting can find it, which effectively nullifies its reach. Ghosting typically applies to ads that violate the Craigslist rules about posting frequency, or include text and links that look like spam. This automated process also can kick in if you post too many ads that disappear through community flagging. References Resources Writer Bio Elizabeth Mott has been a writer since 1983. Mott has extensive experience writing advertising copy for everything from kitchen appliances and financial services to education and tourism. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English from Indiana State University.
Top 5 Rules to Keep Your Craigslist Ad from Getting Ghosted or Flagged
Allen Cook
Sr. Vice President of Sales at
Published Nov 4, 2014
(What we learned from 321, 021 Craigslist ads)
If your properties regularly advertise their vacancies on Craigslist, they have likely experienced having their postings ghosted or flagged. Having a post ghosted or flagged means that either a user of the site has clicked the ‘prohibited’ flag at the top of your post or that the Craigslist bots have removed your post due to exceeding a threshold in one of their algorithms. These activities are in place as an attempt to rein in the scammers and spammers on Craigslist, but oftentimes legitimate businesses get caught in the web.
Here are a few simple rules to follow when posting to avoid user flagging and/or algorithmic ghosting, presented in order of severity:
1) Don’t post in more than one city from the same email/account
Why? Because Craigslist promotes local connections and a common practice of spammers is posting in multiple cities from a single central location.
What to do. If your email account in Craigslist is and you post in Atlanta, then you should only ever post in Atlanta. Avoid posting in any other city with that same email account. If you must post in another city, use a different email account like
2) Don’t post identical content
Why? Having ads with identical content on Craigslist can get those ads ghosted or flagged because Craigslist forbids posting the same thing more than once.
What to do. Vary your ad content with each post. Alter the titles, the order of the images uploaded, and the body copy every time you post an ad.
3) Don’t post back-to-back ads
Why? A craigslist search results page that contains many ads with similar content and the same contact information looks “spammy. ” Technically, Craigslist even forbids having two ads in the same category, even if you are legitimately selling two different things.
What to do. Allow some time to pass between ad postings. Exactly how much time depends on the individual market. Each market has varying volumes of ad postings. With very active markets, you need only wait a half hour to an hour between postings, other less active markets, you will need to limit your postings to one or two per day. The idea is to let other ads come onto the site as a buffer between your ads.
4) Don’t use “spammy” words
Why? Craigslist is on the lookout for words and phrases routinely used by scammers and spammers. Once again, legitimate businesses can get caught in this search.
What to do. Avoid using words and phrases that tend to be used by spammers such as “free” or “credit card” or “weight loss. ” Avoid using ALL-CAPS in your titles. Also, avoid filling your ad with keywords unless those keywords are included in legitimate sentences and phrases. Finally, ensure that your ads have obvious telephone contact information. People in the Craigslist forums regularly admit that they flag ads simply because they can’t find the contact information.
5) Don’t look too commercial
Why? The Craigslist user community frequents the site because of the “free marketplace” feel of it. Corporations posting using traditional branding messaging do not do as well in this environment.
What to do. Avoid HTML tagging, like bolding and underlining. Avoid posting an excess of photos. Vary the content so the ads do not look too “templated. ”
While the rules of the game are constantly being re-written, if you follow these 5 rules you are much less likely to have your posts ghosted or flagged. Here at Rooof, we have developed a posting tool that incorporates all of the 5 rules in a single browser extension that creates Craigslist ads automatically by pulling data and images directly from your website. There is no need to rely on your already busy on-site leasing staff to create effective Craigslist ads. Let our software do all the work for you. For more information, please email me at
Frequently Asked Questions about why isn’t my craigslist ad showing up
How long does it take for Craigslist ad to show up?
You can expect your paid posting to appear within 10 to 20 minutes after you complete it, or 15 minutes after you confirm your email address on a free ad.
Why is Craigslist ghosting my ads?
Having a post ghosted or flagged means that either a user of the site has clicked the ‘prohibited’ flag at the top of your post or that the Craigslist bots have removed your post due to exceeding a threshold in one of their algorithms.Nov 4, 2014
How do I make my Craigslist ad searchable?
7 Ways to Improve Your Craigslist AdLook at Other Ads – and Take Notes. … Gain Ad Presence – Create as Many Craigslist Accounts as You Can. … Create Many Unique Ads. … Know Your Audience. … Give Your Ad a Make-Over. … Go Old-School. … Include Keywords in the Footer.
