I got sight of some interesting statistics last week showing that peoples use of the yellow pages is dwindling at its fastest ever rate.

The fact given was that the number of people using the book on a weekly basis has dropped by over 20% in the last 4 years.  Interestingly yellow pages advertising rates don’t appear to have changed.

yellowman

So is it worth being in Yellow Pages?

As with every form of advertising it all depends on your return on investment. On that basis you shouldn’t do yellow pages unless:

  • You monitor where your leads come from
  • You monitor how many of these leads turn into customers
  • You look at the lifetime value of those customers

Once you have an understanding of how much your yellow pages customers are worth to you its a far simpler decision.

What about Yell.com?

Yell.com is a good site for local search its worth appearing on there but:

  • It will not give your own site any google friendly back links
  • Its going to be under serious threat from Google Local which is free
  • Its going to be under increasing pressure from other free providers

Despite this exactly the same rules apply its all about your return on investment. Spend a pound, get more than a pound back in profit then go for it.

Google local

Here’s an example of what google shows you if you search for decorator in Northampton.

googlelocal

This ones easy, its free, it gives you a really high position on google and its easy enough that you can do this yourself. You can do it here

Have you had any good or bad experiences with Yellow Pages. I would love to hear them, or you can tell us about them here

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2 Responses to “Are Yellow Pages on the slippery slope?”

  1. Nick 27. Aug, 2009 at 8:43 am #

    Yellow Pages is always a talking point. The book still has it’s users in the older generation but it’s fading away and not being replaced. Yell.com is a handy resource which I have used for local tradesmen but never anything else. It’ll be interesting to see how Google Local fits into this and if they can get the quality content they need for it to work.

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  2. Pete 07. Sep, 2009 at 5:52 pm #

    I haven’t used a Yellow Pages book in years, but I agree with Nick that the older generation do, and for a lot of people, this is the only way they ever find a local company. Yell.com I use on a daily basis though, but often for companies I know the name of, so free results are included in this. Google like to try to do everything better and cheaper than the competition, but I think it will take them a while to dent Yell.com’s market share.

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