Those numbers are obviously
quite a bit less than the
current value of print
Yellow Pages. Paradoxically,
only about 35 percent of
local SMEs advertise in the
Yellow Pages, which makes he
conceivable advertiser base
for local paid search
potentially much broader.
Local Search and YP Moving
Toward One Another
What's interesting about
paid search and the Yellow
Pages is the way in which
these seemingly unrelated
industries have been moving
toward one another. At last
August's SES conference in
San Jose, I heard a panel of
search engine executives
liken paid search to Yellow
Pages. And like Yellow
Pages, paid search is in
fact a "directional medium,"
which delivers qualified
leads (consumers who are
"ready to buy") to
businesses that are ready to
sell. This has been the
value proposition of print
Yellow Pages since the dawn
of time.
However, one of the problems
from a consumer standpoint,
as Danny Sullivan has
repeatedly pointed out, is
that local search has
provided a relatively poor
user experience to date. Yet
despite this, search engine
data reflect that anywhere
from 5 percent to 30 percent
of searches have a local or
geotargeted dimension and
somewhere in the
neighborhood of 10 percent
are local "commercial"
searches-people using search
to find information that
will ultimately lead to a
buying decision. That means
something on the order of 80
million weekly local
commercial searches are
taking place in the U.S.
Those looking for local
pizza restaurants or
dentists or hair salons on
search engines have to date
had to confront the
limitations of unstructured
Web search and wade though
link after irrelevant link.
Internet Yellow Pages, by
comparison, offer more
relevant local business
information because they are
built on structured, local
data. But they too have been
hampered by a
less-than-optimal user
experience based on
different factors (i.e.,
non-intuitive organization
and the absence of genuine
keyword search
functionality).
What search engines such as
Google and portals such as
Yahoo! and AOL are doing to
address these local search
deficiencies is integrating
more structured content (ala
Yellow Pages) into Web
search results. For example,
Google has very recently
added structured Yellow
Pages data (business names
and phone numbers) to its
Search by Location beta
test. Formerly, search
results were based
exclusively on Google's
algorithm. However, the
inclusion of the new
structured data, together
with some additional
enhancements, have
tremendously improved the
usability of the
application.
Yahoo! began several months
ago to include Yellow Pages
listings in certain types of
search results and point
users to its Yellow Pages
and city guides in response
to explicit or "implicit"
local searches (e.g.,
"restaurants"). More
recently, AOL created an "In
Your Area" tab and began
aggregating and integrating
structured local content
from its Yellow Pages,
Digital City and Moviefone
properties under that tab
and into search results. The
Dulles, VA-based company
also introduced "SmartBox,"
offering suggestions via a
drop-down menu from the
search field, in order to
"disambiguate" local
searches and drive users
directly to specific content
areas such as Yellow Pages
We hope this article
provided you with valuable
information, which will help
you to make more informed
decisions. Please get in
touch with us at
sales@webesolution.com
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