"Together At Last" - Search Engines and Internet Yellow Pages

It's widely known that the demand for 'local' search is growing, and growing fast. According to a recent Kelsey Group survey, 27 percent of total user search behavior is for local information, and approximately 45 percent of local searches had a buying intent. This figure calculates that almost 1 out of every 8 searches are done for local buying intent. That's a lot of searches. Both search engines and IYP's (Internet yellow pages) have already spent millions of dollars to provide the best results in local searches. In late 2003, Danny Sullivan and Search Engine Watch put a great 5-series Local Search Series article seqeunce about the advances different engines, IYPs and other companies have made to become the local search leader. At the time, they knew they needed to work together (as they point out in their Local Search, Part 4 article), but they were going for the same audience in different ways. They didn't play well together in the same sandbox.

In one corner, you have the IYPs. They have tremendous sales forces with impressive stats that sell targeted local traffic to potential customers. This is the 'push' marketing model.In the other corner, you have the SE's (search engines). Their search engine algorithms let you type in geographical areas for the phrases you search. They then do their best to provide relevant results in their rankings and have the ability to target only local audiences in their pay-per-click (PPC) offerings. This is the 'permission' marketing model. Soon after the Search Engine Watch articles were published, search engines and Internet yellow pages started working very well with each other. You start to see IYP results more heavily in search engines. You also start to see improved internal IYP searches, as well as pay-per-click ads appearing in IYP search results.

Internet Yellow Pages
For many IYP's, you're now able to see detailed internal searches as well as PPC ads from Google, FindWhat and others. If you run a regional Google AdWords campaign, you can cost-effectively be seen on IYPs such as Real Pages and Switchboard (as long as you utilize Google's content network). A lot of internal searches are performed from these IYPs, and the ads are usually displayed by the results.

For example, if you run a Google PPC campaign, your ad can be seen on the Switchboard search results. Here's a Switchboard result for the term snowboard equipment in Seattle.

Search Engines
For quite some time, IYP result pages have come up toward the top in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This is partly due to IYP's making sure all their pages are search engine friendly. If you're a local company, this could be a great way to generate targeted traffic.

Here's an example of a Google search for advertising agency Minneapolis. As of this writing, Verizon SuperPages IYP results are at the top. Depending on your location and industry, different IYP's such as SuperPages, Switchboard and others quite often come up at or toward the top. These may be good IYP's to utilize local advertising efforts.

CitySearch
CitySearch isn't an IYP, nor is it a search engine, but it's worth a mention. They have put a lot of effort into local search and have built up quality partnerships with companies such as MSN and ask.com's local program. Not only that, Google likes to spider their result pages. You can have an local ad in CitySearch and there is a good chance Google will spider it and rank it favorably.

Example, here are a few Google searches where CitySearch results (as of this writing) appear on the first page - including businesses with and without websites:

pizza joints in seattle
day spa miami
martini bar minneapolis

When creating a CitySearch ad, it helps to have a company profile they let (and suggest) you write, or a rating or review from the CitySearch editorial staff.

Costs and Returns
Whether it's pay-per-click campaigns on Google, Yahoo and MSN, advertising on IYPs or Citysearch, or building an SEO program, there is going to be an investment. Luckily for local businesses, the returns versus the costs can be much more effective than it was even just one year ago.

Localmn customizes your local Internet marketing strategies depending on your needs and budget. To find out more about your small business web possibilities, email founder Paul Jahn.

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