Yellow Pages Are What? Google’s Got Some Suggestions

Yellow pages aren’t dead. Those not adapting are dying. I haven’t used YP for over 6 years and maybe as long as 8. Get’s fuzzy after that long.

What many of us online proponents need to remember is that a YP ad can still be a profit-positive advertising tool for some industries. Those seeing less return on their YP ads should be more aggressive with testing their ads and make sure a compelling ad is published in the first place.

If the mainstream consensus is going one direction that may mean there is a huge opportunity for those who go the other direction.

With that said, I counsel my clients who are not seeing a positive return on their YP ads to move the multi-thousand dollar a month investment into other marketing channels.

Thanks for the fun post, Andrew.

OMG – I really had to laugh
I don’t think the YP are dead, however since Google is as close to God as one can get online – who knows!?

(and now I must go and make sure I do this to my own name just to make sure I am not dead too)

I knew I was in for it when I purchased the http://www.ReachLocalSucks.com domain name a few years ago!

Great post for the day Andrew!

Jan, In God We Trust! Check out my latest blog comment titled: In Google We Trust. And YES, it was posted prior to your comments, lol! http://dallasgoogleguru.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/in-google-we-trust/

The yellow pages are not dead. They are now only around 10-30 percent of local advertising search budgets, both online and offline. The crazy thing is…… Local Dallas area business owners are giving the crony yellow pages the lion’s share of ad dollars. This is changing, and so with it we hope the business model of the yellow pages companies. (for the sake of the thousands of people employed in the yellow page industry)

Cheers folks!
Mike Stewart
http://www.DallasSEOguru.com

The amount of people still using the print yellow pages is enormous. yes, it is slowly declining but still a trusted source.
Perhaps you haven’t used the print yellow pages in quite some time (nor have I) but substantially more people than you’d think still rely on it.
Accordinly to a recent Forester study, it is the #1 source they “trust a lot,” compared to other sources of advertising.
All that being said, Yellowpages.com and its network are expanding, growing and doing what they can to adapt to the movement to online resources.

great chuckles there, Andrew! I’d add the following too…try “google makes you…” and “google is…” for a hoot too!

🙂

Jim

Google can predict future :))

Google is The Future……. and Apple is right next to them!

Hi,
I think there are still various people using yellow pages.With both traditional and online yellow pages, you can attract new customers, establish your brand, and provide current customers with information about your business. But with online yellow pages, you will have an even greater opportunity to sell products and services

@8 ps3 spiele
I’m wondering what you mean by “with online yellow pages, you will have an even greater opportunity to sell products and services”. why is the opp greater online? You have the same opportunity to sell, just to a different type of person that prefers IYP over print and that doesn’t make them a more qualified buyer…

Hey Jason, ps3 is a comment spammer that I missed deleting yesterday. He’ll probably answer your question by trying to sell you some acai berry weight loss thing.

Andrew,
I will keep an eye out for the weight loss tips. 😉
Have you seen this in your market? I did a quick post just now at http://www.localsearchpilot.com/local-search/google-local-listings

Nice. Tweeted http://twitter.com/localseoguide/status/6240485250

Here using g.ca, we now see the 7-pak is back, but only using the older interface – try this one to see what I mean…

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=Hamilton+accountants&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&rlz=1R2GGIE_en&aq=f&oq=

No blue markers, no ads as yet either…wonder how long till rollout up here in canuck land?

🙂

Jim

I would have to agree with G on this. While watching a video on social media last night, the presenter asked the audience of about 50 people how many of them had used the YP’s in the last 30 days. There were about 3 hands that went up. He then asked how many had used Google in the last 24 hrs, there were only a couple of hands that didn’t go up.

Sure, this is no scientific study, but with smart phones and the growing dependency on the web, especially by the up and coming generations, the yellow pages will have to act quickly to change their business model to be able to survive.

@ toledo seo
out of curiosity, what was the age range of the audience?

Here is the link to the video. No selling, just info. Hope Mr. Shotland doesn’t mind.

I would guess late 20’s to late 50’s?

http://vimeo.com/6906777

@ toledo seo thanks for the link, just curious if you were there or if you watched the video.

I would guess that not many raised their hands because the rpesenter said “i rest my case” but how did you determine that “There were about 3 hands that went up. He then asked how many had used Google in the last 24 hrs, there were only a couple of hands that didn’t go up.”

@ jason hyman

I would call that a literary embellishment on my part.
When it comes to blog comments I tend to paraphrase.

As you said, the obvious point was that there were far more Google users then Yellow Page users. And since it wasn’t a scientific study and I’m not promoting a sale, I wasn’t worried about being factually correct.

@ toledo seo I’m with ya’. just making sure i didnt miss anything. I get the point though. thx for clearing it up.
keep posting good links, etc.