Local Biz Bits
Local Search Marketing Information for Small Business

Today we will hear from my good friend Dick Larkin of WebListic, Inc. an Internet marketing firm focused on local online advertising.  I asked Dick for his thoughts on IYPs today and small business. I asked Dick basically 4 questions and he put 1 great response to them all.  I asked:

• Who are the players in IYP?
• Why should (should not) a small business participate in IYP?
• Where do you see IYP going in the future?
• Any particular resources or site would you recommend for folks to get more info?

Here is Dick’s response (unedited ):

Thanks for the great blog Larry.  I appreciate the fresh approach to local online advertising and marketing and your street savvy approach.

Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) are near and dear to my heart.  As the former publisher of WorldPages.com and having acquired the YellowPages.com platform from AT&T, I can attest that IYP can provide great value to local advertisers and national advertisers seeking to reach a local audience.

To define IYP, it’s typically a directory that provides listings and enhanced information on a broad base of geographically targeted businesses.  In other words, it’s an online version of the phonebook.  Basically, if a directory provides phone numbers and addresses for all listings, you can be pretty sure that it’s an IYP.

So, the real questions are:
A. Who uses Internet Yellow Pages and
B. Does it make sense to advertise in IYP?
 
A. From a numbers perspective, IYP usage is a tiny fraction of overall web search.  A recent comScore report showed that 800 million unique users searched an IYP in the first quarter of 2007, a 21% increase in the number of users over the same period in 2006.  Overall searches per user dropped, but it is impressive to see that kind of growth in usage.

To put it in another way, there are more searches on Google in a few days than there are in all the IYPs combined for a year. However, the QUALITY of users on IYPs is much higher than of general web search.  I define quality as how close the searcher is to making a buying decision.

See, it’s easy to fire off a few hundred searches on Google before taking any action. However, on a typical Internet Yellow Pages, you have to enter multiple pieces of information (keywords, location, state, etc.) which is more time consuming, and also filters out searchers who aren’t really interested in finding a local business.

Someone searches an IYP when they’re serious about local information.

B. Advertising advice on IYP:

Here’s the secret to advertising on an Internet Yellow Pages. 

Top three positioning is the only thing that matters.

Our extensive studies of IYP usage found that users are linear in their behavior.  They start at the top and stop after viewing a few search results. If a business is not found in the top few results, the user makes another decision and moves on.

So, only advertise in an IYP when you can be reasonably assured that you will get top three billing most of the time.  Anything else is wasted money.

Some of the big name IYPs charge large amounts for positioning outside of the top tier, and I find it highly unlikely that the advertisers receive maximum value for their investment.

The largest IYPs are:

The local results within Google
Yahoo Local
Local.com
SuperPages.com, published by Idearc (formerly Verizon)
YellowPages.com, published by AT&T

Most print publishers have their own IYP as well.

======================
Thanks Dick,  some great food for thought!

The Internet Yellow Pages are not dead and probably will not be for some time, despite what you might have heard.

The Kelsey Group posted Why Internet Yellow Pages Can Compete for Local Search last month.  In their article, they provided five reasons why they feel that IYPs will grow faster than local search over the next few years:

• Large sales force
• The print publishers are continuing to improve their online offerings
• They provide white and yellow page listings which you  really can not get elsewhere
• They are enhancing their IYP product search features
• Have an opportunity for growth in searching via mobile phones

For those who like statistics, you can check out comScore Reports Growth in Internet Yellow Pages Searches: Yellow Book Network Shows Fastest Growth in IYP Search Queries Conducted

Finally, I found a nice article over at YP Talk: The Future of Yellow Pages by Charles Laughlin. I will let you read it, but he concludes his article, with the following. (Note the terms he uses, many of those we just covered here at LocalBizBits) (emphasis is mine)

“We’ll see more print niche products, building around high-value verticals. We’ll see more hyper-local print content and hybrid print products (combining Yellow Pages and classifieds, magazines and so on). We may see directories stripped down to the highest value headings and then published with greater frequency. We will certainly see more product development energy devoted to online offerings. Most publishers will have a free directory assistance product or will partner with a free DA provider.”

The online Internet yellow pages (IYP) are another major component available to the small business owner to promote themselves locally on-line. If you are looking for a good site with information and links to some of the major Internet Yellow Pages, check out Local Search Guide.

Their own q & a about the site says “The Local Search Guide is an Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) and Search Engine Who’s Who. Updated frequently, this objective resource profiles IYP, Search Engine and Search Tool companies’ Local Search capabilities.”

I found their IYP section as well as the whole web site, very informative and easy to read/navigate. They have a nice list of sites, articles, directories for your review.

What to bring you attention to an article there by Greg Sterling, called Internet Yellow Pages Central to Local Search. I won’t copy the whole article but he concludes by saying:

“Internet Yellow Pages publishers are rising to the challenge of these new market dynamics. They have become important partners for search engines and others seeking to reach local advertisers. And the directories themselves are an increasingly important channel for advertisers, both national and local, to reach local consumers. Internet Yellow Pages have emerged as central players in the new interactive local media marketplace.”