If you run a business then you NEED to be registered in Google Local search.
Remember the Yellow Pages? I’m sure I must have a phone book around here somewhere? Maybe I’m just really “bleeding edge”, but I can’t remember the last time I went to the phone book to find a local business. I just go straight to Google and I don’t think that I’m alone. Seriously, when was the last time you looked for a local business in the Yellow Pages?
Google is now giving preferential treatment in their main search results to businesses that have registered with Google local search. When I say that, I mean that local search results are showing up at the top of the page when you do a search that includes a place name and product/service (e.g. “Calgary Computer Consulting”). You can add your business to Google’s local search results by clicking the “Business Owners: Add/Edit Your Business” link at the bottom of any Google Maps page.
Times have changed. You need to change with them. If you’re not in Google’s local search results then you are losing business right now.
What are you waiting for? Stop reading this blog and go get your business listed!
Update:
Good feedback from a Yellow Pages consultant in North Caroline (see comments below). I should mention that the use of the word “KILL” in the title is intentional hyperbole. You came here and read this post right?
My point is that Google and Yahoo! pretty much own online search. It is the first place that people go on the internet to try to find what they are looking for. Clearly the Yellow Pages aren’t going away any time soon, but the overall utilization of the paper based phone books can’t be going anywhere but down. My parents have gone from 0 internet searches per day in 1999 to 20+ searches per day in 2007. Even my Grandmother has learned how to Google. For people under 35, Google and Yahoo! are the de facto standard for gathering information about products and services from local vendors. I really don’t see how anyone can argue that the paper based version of the Yellow Pages is on the upswing.
As far as the online Yellow Pages options are concerned, I just don’t see how they can compete with Google. Let’s face it, Google gets orders of magnitude more searches than all the online Yellow Pages sites combined. As soon as the computing public catches on to Google local search, it is going to become the first place that people look. Unless the Yellow Pages search directories can get more prominent placement in browser search bars they face an uphill battle when it comes to growing their online properties. To be honest, Yellow Pages should be looking seriously at partnering with either Google or Yahoo! to provide local business search results because there is a search paradigm shift going on right now. The Yellow Pages may be the original search engine, but so was Alta Vista. Remember Alta Vista? You may find yourself saying the same thing about the Yellow Pages in 20 years.
For small businesses with a minimal marketing budget, where are they going to get more bang for the buck? A big Yellow Pages ad or a well orchestrated internet presence? Depending on the type of business, I would argue that the money is possibly better spent on a Google Local entry (which is free), a spot in the Yahoo directory ($300), a Google Adsense campaign, and ensuring that their website is properly optimized for search.
Update to the Update:
I just noticed that search results for Google Local search in Canada are supplemented by yellowpages.ca. Clearly Yellow Pages figured out my point above before I could get around to making it! They are very much in a “If you can’t beat them, join them” situation when it comes to the major search engines.
Update to the Update to the Update:
Turns out Yahoo Business Finder is also powered by Yellow Pages. So yeah. I stand by the fact that I think the paper version of the Yellow Pages is a dinosaur. I’m not at all surprised that they’ve found ways to leverage their position and data by powering Google and Yahoo.
I think you are providing poor guidance to people with your comments.
The print Yellow Pages is far from dead. Adults referenced them over 15 billion times in North America last year. I guess you weren’t one of them? And those numbers are just the print versions. 90% of all adults reference them at least once a year, 75% in a typical month, and 50+% on average month. How about on average 1.4X each week? And let’s remember that not everyone has Internet access to reference those websites you are talking about. Can you really tell me that when you are standing in ankle deep water from a plumbing problem you are going to do a Google search for a plumber???
There is no other directional media that can provide buyers the information they need when they need it about local businesses than the print Yellow Pages. It is truly the original local search engine….
But if you insist, that same Yellow Pages sales rep also has a complete portfolio of local search and Internet based products that they can help any small business with.
Let me clarify a bit. Good comments. Perhaps the post title was a bit extreme.
Would I go to Google to get a plumber with water around my ankles? Probably.
Would my Grandmother? Probably not.
Clearly the Yellow Pages aren’t going away any time soon. And my parents and grandparents will continue to use the Yellow Pages over Google (even that is changing). But in my opinion, the idea of a forest pillaging book made of yellow paper is WAY past its due date. I don’t think that I’m alone here.
Poor guidance? Maybe. All I did was tell them to get listed in Google Local search and that they are losing business if they don’t. Did I tell people not to put a listing the Yellow Pages? No. It’s still a great place to be. However, you can’t tell me that the influence of the Yellow Pages isn’t on the decline.
I did a straw pole yesterday of people I know. Nobody I talked to uses the Yellow Pages anywhere CLOSE to 1.4x per week. And they all acknowledged the fact that they use it FAR less than they did 5 years ago.
In fact, most of them couldn’t tell me the last time they used a phone book.
I’m sure the Yellow Pages rep does have a complete portfolio of search products. But do the results from those products come up in Yahoo! or Google? Do I have to go to their special website to do the search? If so, they aren’t going to get used.
The 3 largest search engines in Canada (Google, Yahoo, Windows Live) all use yellow pages data for their local search. Yellow pages has 1300 sales people on the ground in Canada with relationships with a huge proportion of the 1 million small and medium businesses in Canada. In fact these search engines would have no real service without YP data. YP has the content/customer relationship, the big search guys have the distribution. It’s a symbiotic relationship, and there’s a place for both in the market. I think YP realizes that the value is in the content, and distribution can be paper or online or whatever. Google (or anyone else) will not be able to overcome the personal, on the ground relationships of 1300 sales people.
Yellow Pages in Canada is something to see these days. All reps are trained to handle print and online. Yellow Page reps now also sell Yellow Page branded Search Engine packages on the Google’s and Yahoo’s of the world. ie PPC turnkey packages to SME’s. Imagine a rep force the size of yellow pages selling all this stuff to existing clients.
Coming soon. Check out the new telus 411 category search provided at no charge to millions of land and mobile phones. Call 411 on your mobile phone if you are stuck and need a tow. Yep, no charge courtesy of yellow pages.
Also as said before, the local Google, MSN, and Yahoo business finders would not function very well without yellowpages.ca. Truly ubiquitous.
Pay per call, launched first by yellow pages at least 2 years ago. Try it, 310-YELO free to use, but in the future advertisers can pay for priority placement on 319-YELO.
Will also be able to add rich media like videos, coupons and a whole host of things.
The print yellow is still being used to the tune of 70 million searches every month. If anything yellow pages is likely to eventually be purchased by google, yahoo or MSN.
Thanks for the TIP! I think your pretty much have it nailed. Anytime I need something I go straight to Google and do a search. I haven’t used the yellow pages in years.
Another local competitor that is focusing on this business model (or something very similar) is CallGenie. They’ve signed some resonably sized contracts with some big telco providers locally and in the States to not only provide search info, but also Geographic based results and driving directions to help you get there.
As an ad agency guy who actually sole yp….the point everyone is missing….is the books are drastically dropping in size …My market is 2000 pages less in 5 years….Yp sales people enjoyed a monopoly where they did not have competitors like radio and tv keeping them honest on what their reseach really was….Honestly, yes a plumber has this print source….but i only have to look at one of the largest Security company in Canada Alarmforce…and he stands alone in the yp across the country with no display ads and has grown his business many many times by using a combination of tv and radio to reach the potential customer before they do the search whether electronically or fumble around and look for a phone book….I too am struggling with the values of the hard copy yp….like 12 directories in a market of 2 million people and customers locked in for big bucks in recessionary periods…..With over agressive yp sales people…with no competitor to balance the ethics