Yellow Pages Vs. The Internet.

Your competitors could be making a killing from a tiny Yellow Pages Listing, while your hugely expensive  display advertisement becomes less and  less effective in generating  business for you.

What you are about to read will probably shock you, and then delight you as you realise that you can take advantage of something that almost none of your competitors know anything about.

Here’s the old mantra that  we hear repeated endlessly. (Especially from YP consultants wanting to sell us bigger display adverts)

“A bigger Yellow Pages advert will bring you more business.”

But over the  past year or so, you could be finding that the phone isn’t ringing as much for your business. Even if you bought a bigger advert.

There’s a reason for this. Internet Searches.

How the Internet Smashes the Old Advertising Rules

People aren’t using their paper directories any more. How often do you still use yours? Ask your friends – Do they use a directory to find goods and services?

Or do they use Google.

This Graph Is a Wake Up Call.

Latest research from the US shows that all age groups up to 65 years old now use the internet in preference to paper directories.

The blue parts represent internet searches. The yellow parts are printed directories (ie Yellow Pages)
Yes, the survey was done in the United States. But it would be a brave person who said that these results wouldn’t apply in Australia.

Our statistics could be the same now, given the penetration of the internet into the Australian lifestyle, where 72% of households now have internet connections. (ABS, 2009)

So if you believe that an increasing number of Australians are using the Internet to search for goods and services, the following discussion is valid.

Your Expensive Yellow Pages Advert means NOTHING  on the Internet.

The trend towards internet search means that fewer and fewer people will ever see your  prime position display advert in the printed directory.

They will instead see a Google Local Search box at the top of the screen, which normally contains the names, addresses, phone numbers, and website links for seven businesses.

These seven businesses will receive the majority of enquiries from internet users.

Because they are perceived as being the most important, because they are at the top.

Just like the business with the biggest display adverts printed in the directory are seen as the most important.

Here’s the punch line:

The businesses appearing in the Search Results  have NOTHING to do with the size of the listing that was purchased.

This is REALLY IMPORTANT to grasp, so I’ll put it another way.

If you have a huge listing, you won’t necessarily appear on the first page of search results. You could be on page 3. Or page 27. where NOBODY will ever find you or your business.

Do you reckon this would explain why you’re getting less calls, despite buying  a larger display advert?

On the other hand, a business with  a tiny three line listing could be on page one of the search results.

DO This Test NOW.

If you advertise in the Yellow Pages in Australia, do this little test. (I’ll wait)

1. Open up Google and do a search for your business category, and your location.

For Example,  Assume that you are a plumber in Dandenong, Victoria and you wanted to check out your local search listing.

Open up google, and search for plumber dandenong

You’ll see this  Local Search Results box at the top of the page.

It has maps, and up to seven names, addresses, and phone numbers of businesses in the areas you specified.

Now, if I was a plumber who had paid for a full page advertisement, I’d be pretty annoyed if my name wasn’t on this list.

And if I was a plumber with a small, 3 line entry, I’d be very pleased.

2. Check the results for your own business type and location.

Were you shown in the results?

If not, it’s very likely that you are losing customers to the businesses who are displayed there.

Not On The List? I Can Help.

The businesses that appear  on the list are there not because they  paid Yellow  Pages the most for their advertising.

They  are there because Google thinks they are the best examples for that category.

You can research Google Local Search and find out all the things you can do to make your business move higher up in these listings .

Or you can engage me to do it for you.

The cost of this will depend on your business category, and the “strength” of the businesses currently shown on the first page.

Because hardly anyone knows about this at present, you have a change to take first page position – or even the top position – at a cost that is a fraction of  your yellow pages display listing costs.

In many cases, you could appear on the first page for under $1,000.

And have a higher internet visibility than a business who had spent $100,000 or more on a full page advert.

Contact Me Now.

I will only work with one type of business in any one location, so if you want to find out more please me an email telling me about your situation.

Or ring me on 0417  010   575

Eric Graudins
Eric@TheInternetBloke.com

Case Study on Local Search

You now know the basics of how Local search can help your business.

If you want to know more about how it works, here is a small case study. You can repeat this yourself for any category and location you choose.

I’ve chosen Furniture Removals and Storage, because there are 7 full page advertisements in the phone directory. So, if the old visibility rules apply,  you would expect these companies to come up first in the online listings.

Starting Page  444 of the 2010 Hobart Yellow Pages-

Full page adverts for Grace Brothers, Bells Removals, Wridgeways,  Chess Price, Watkins Removals, Radcliffe Transport, and Easy Move.

This is a competitive category.

7 full page advertisements. That’s a LOT of advertising dollars.

A Google search for furniture removals Hobart shows the following local results:

Here’s the size of their advertisements in the printed Yellow Pages:

1. Pickfords – half page
2. U-help -  half page
3. Budget rentals – 3cm column listing
4. Grace removals – full page
5. Storage Tasmania – simplest line listing
6. Radcliffe – full page
7. Wridgeways – full page.

The companies on the first page of this  local search results will get the majority of calls from the Google results.

It’s interesting that 4 companies with full page advertisements do not  appear on this list. And that 2 companies with tiny listings do appear.

Remember: For more and more people, these companies will be the only ones that they see when they search for a removalist in Hobart. They won’t bother looking at the paper directories, or click through to the “More Results” link which shows  the 46 removalist companies on another 5 pages..

If I were one of those 46 other removalists, I’d sure as hell want to be on that first page.

If you want to be on the first page, you have 2 options.

1. Learn all about Local search optimisation, and push one of the existing removalists off the first page.

2. Engage a local search consultant to do this for you.
I offer this service, and in most cases can get your business onto the first page of the local search results for under  $1,000 (sometimes under $500, depending on the strength of your competition)

Sometimes there are strange things in the promotional world that sometimes allow those with a small budget to leap ahead of the big boys? Well, this is one of them.
It may not be fair that a business that pays for a one line ad is more prominent than a business paying tens of thousands for a full page advert.
But that’s the way it is.

I hope you can see the implications of this.

If you have spent tens of thousands of dollars on a full page listing, I’ve probably ruined your day.

You should go and do a search right away to make sure that you appear on local search for your service and location. If you are not, you will certainly be losing businesses to your competitors who appear there.
If you’ve been wondering why your market share is falling despite you buying bigger adverts, you’ll now understand one of the reasons.

If you are a smaller business with a tiny directory, you should be jumping  for joy.
Because this is your chance to steal a lot of business from the big players in your field.

Go and check your local search listings. Does your business appear on the first page?
If not, you need to do something about it.
Or face losing more and more business as more and more people start using the internet to search for their goods and service providers.

Unhappy with your Local search Result?
Contact Me NOW.

If you think that your business would get more calls if it was in the top local search listings for your business and your location, contact me now.

I can get your business onto the first page of the Local search listings.

For most business, I can get you onto the first page for less than $1,000
(And generally, this is a one off cost – unless your competitors lift their game and start optimising their sites.)

But for the moment, this is unlikely. Because  nobody knows about this yet, and those businesses who do this now should make a killing.

(Note: due to the nature of Local Search, I will only do this work for one type of business in each local area. Otherwise a conflict of interest will exist.)

So go and check your local search results.
If  you’re not happy with them – contact me ASAP to discuss your situation.
Before your competitor does

regards,
Eric Graudins
0417  010  575

Eric@theInternetBloke.com

There are thousands of sales letters, forum posts, and gushing articles written about someone achieving the miraculous feat of being listed on Google’s Number One position for some keyword phrase.

The writer then usually goes on to say that this is especially miraculous, since there are several million other pages competing for that keyword phrase – and THEIRS is at the TOP!

Then come lots of comments from other people, congratulating them on this marvellous achievement.

Or you’ll see some dodgy Search Engine Optimisation company promising to “Get you to the top of Google in 7 days for only $99″

And the scary thing is that they CAN.

WOW! Order the champagne and dancing girls, it’s party time – because huge amounts of money will surely start flowing from Adsense earnings.

Well Sorry guys, but I’m going to pee on your parade.

Just the fact that you are on top of the Google listings is USELESS. Unless it’s for a term that a lot of people are searching for.

And because they say “Number 1 out of millions of pages” can also be misleading – because they will be giving you the number of pages in a broad match search, instead of an exact match search (Google these terms if you don’t know the difference.)

Now where was I before I started raving on – oh yes! -

Getting number one position on Google is DEAD EASY.

I’ve done this myself, by just making some posts on a few websites.

Go on – check it out if you don’t believe me. Do a search on Google for:

rex the performing ferret.

At the time of writing, the top 2 positions for this term are for an article on Hubpages which is MINE!! MINE!! MINE !!!!

So that must make me a search engine champion, who is about to make a squillion dollars !!!

Sadly, No.
Because being on the top of Google doesn’t mean anything in this case. Because nobody but me – and those who read my articles – will ever search for that term.

I’ve written a short report about keywords and how they work. It’s easy to understand, and will give you a good basic grounding in the topic.

You can download it at TheInternetBloke.com/Keywords.pdf

( There’s no email address, pint of blood, or anything required.. Just download it and read it. And you’ll never be conned by those dodgy SEO messages ever again.)

Cheers,

Eric Graudins.

Hi,
If you don’t know about Google Local search, prepare to be amazed.

Your fingers are still doing the walking, but these days it’s more likely on the internet than flipping through the pages.

Here’s a video I made which explains how Local Business Search works.

To give this even more impact, imagine that you are a visitor to Hobart who wants to get some wine. So you pull out your trusty iphone, go to Google and search for Hobart bottleshop.

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