You all know what the Yellow Pages are. After all, you grew up with them. You even saw your Mom using the Yellow Pages as heavy weights to weigh things down in the kitchen. Yellow pages have come a long way and their transition from an off line resource to an online source of vital business information is no longer a myth or mystery. Before we tell you how you can use a listing in the online Yellow Pages to boost traffic to both your brick-and-mortar store as well as your e-commerce enabled website assuming you have either one or both, first a very thin slice of history for old times sake.
A Quirk of Fate
The first Yellow Pages were published in 1886 when a printer, Reuben Donnelly, in Wyoming, USA, ran out of white paper while printing a telephone directory. He decided to use yellow paper instead of white paper. Subsequently, yellow paper was used for commercial listings while white paper was used for non-commercial phone book listings. The Yellow Pages industry witnessed exponential growth with companies such as R H Donnelley, DEX, Yellow Book, AT&T Real Yellow Pages and a few others.
The Online Incarnation
The term “Yellow Pages” is now used universally in online spaces for online directories of businesses. Besides being categorized according to product or service, these are also classified geographically. Yellow Pages classify businesses by annual business volume, age of business, specific products and services that are available or other criteria common to all businesses. The best and only way to leverage the power of online Yellow Pages is by listing your online company in them. Since online Yellow Pages are geo-centric right down in some cases to a particular city, the best way to locate a Yellow Pages directory for the address displayed on your website is to search for them on the major search engines. Search for the name of the city followed by the phrase “yellow pages.” Take advantage of all the free listings and pick the paid services that interest and impress you the most. Visit alexa.com or compete.com to get an idea of how much traffic a paid service is receiving before you pay for your listing. Each time a listing goes live on a Yellow Pages website, you get a back link to your website which is good for Google page positioning.
Yellow Page Listings Drive Traffic to your Website
List your online business or non-profit organization on a Yellow Pages website and you will notice a gradual boost in traffic figures. There are other advantages as well. You can modify your online listing 24X7 which you couldn’t do in the offline version for a whole year. Yellow Pages websites are fully searchable which means that shoppers can land on your website without even knowing that you exist. Many online customers search by category so be sure to list yourself in all the applicable categories.
Google’s Contribution to the World of Yellow Pages
Google’s take on Yellow Pages is a tad different. You can list your online business for added visibility in local search results through Google Local as long as you can tie your online company to a physical address. You will need to go through a routine verification process after which your company will be displayed prominently in local search results.
Resources for your Company
Some leading online Yellow Pages:
internetyellowpages.com
yellowpages.com
switchboard.com
superpages.com
onlineyellowpages.com
To list your company in Google Local:
www.google.com/local/add
Remember, Google Local should first be available in your nick of the woods in order for you to apply.
