Yellow Book Advertising – Is Yellow Book Advertising Good for Your Business?

Posted by Pixelhead

Sometime ago, when I was considering getting a (sorry for cursing) a job, I had an interview at Yellowbook.com for an account specialist position. The position was primarily for a PPC (Pay per Click) account manager, which I have a bit of experience with PPC, having first experienced the activities involved with a PPC campaign Yellow Pages Phone Books about 7 years ago and I believe the entire campaign was run on what was known as Overture, which became part of the Yahoo empire. The campaign was Bicycle Touring with Baldydog, a bicycle touring equipment company(the original Baldydog), that did not do well at all, and actually wasted a ton of money.

Anyway, back to the authority known as Yellow Book.

Yellow book advertising is a method of advertising that many businesses may decide is an appropriate method of spending their valuable advertising dollars.

From the humble beginnings in Long Island, Yellow Book has grown to be a huge advertising medium. I bet most people have let their fingers do the walking on more than one occasion. Currently though, the old Yellow Pages has seen a serious decline, and is struggling to stay a float. However, it is still a prefered advertsining medium to many of the mom and pops to name a few. I am not going to tell you that it is dieing, and the new Yellow Pages is the smartphone..I am sure you new that.

Possible Ways to Capitalize on Yellow Book

What I am going to give you are four ideas for taking advantage of the declining authority of Yellow Book.

Become a Yellow Book certified SEO Contractor?

Make an SEO training program, and get Yellowbook to market it to their huge customer base.

Link Build and Rank for Yellow Book Keywords such as:
- yellow book
- Yellow Book Advertising
- Yellow Book Advertiser
- Yellow Book Advertising rates
- Yellowpages
- Yellowpages.com
- Yellowpages.cm
- yellowpages.cmo
- yellowpages
- yellowpage
- the Yellow Pages
- yellowpages map
- YP.com map
- yellow pages maps
- etc…
Lastly, go after Yellowpages.com advertising customers who were serviced badly by the old world advertising authority. (there are a lot of them). I have more than a few clients that previously were using Yellowpages.com or Superpages.com, which did provide a website and were being charged on a PPC basis. Several of my clients that previously were with Yp.com, said they had signed an iron clad contract which meant being charged hundreds of dollars a month for clicks that YP said they had recieved..but the calls did not come in at all and the ROI(return on investment) was just not there. On the positive, I have noticed that the sites that my clients were given, were optimized well for local search, but usually the on-page optimization is where the SEO ends with YP sites.

Why Yellowpages Advertising is so Bad

First, I did say that a few of my clients did sign up for and get an actual website. However, the sites were very basic, and were optimized for only their local geographic regions. So showing up in the SERPs for other geographic regions without any further SEO is out of the question.

Secondly, my clients were being charged for clicks, which meant when ever a person searched for say “Exton Home Cleaner“, and the resulting search brought up a Superpages listing, when the searcher clicked on the link, and visited the Superpages page and then hopefully clicked on my clients link, he was charged for a click…whether he got any business or not.

Thirdly, Yellowpages or any of their affiliated sites do not make money if the clients site ranks, only if the YP pages does. So they have no incentive to properly SEO the clients sites.

What Can YellowPages do to Turn It Around

First, they can quit ripping people off for unsubstantiated PPC advertising, by changing their monetization strategies. They already have the ability to build websites, so why not focus on creating a advertising experience that does not take advantage of the small business owner who is powerless to do anything after they have signed a seemingly iron clad contract after being sweet talked by a Yellowpages Advertising sales person who promises the world but delivers little.

Are You a Prior YellowPages Advertiser?

If you are a small business owner who is tired of paying for Yellowpages advertising, and would like to see a higher ROI on their advertising dollars, please leave a comment or stop by Baldydog.com and feel free to contact us for a quote that will enable you to see a significantly higher ROI than Yellowpages advertising.

Do you have a Yellow Book, Yellowpages, Superpages or other type of experience you can share with us?

Written by Pixelhead on July 27th, 2010 with 54 comments.
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54 comments

Read the comments left by other users below, or:

Jack
#1. July 27th, 2010, at 1:31 PM.

Off-line and paper advertising have never work for me. Even TV marketing shows nearly the same results. Most of my business is coming from my website, and even on the web and with some social marketing I am managing to get 33% repeating customers.

Jan
#2. July 29th, 2010, at 1:19 AM.

The yellow pages in Australia is declining very fast. There is no doubt a combination of reasons for this but a big one would have to be overtaken by new, faster, smarter and more convenient technology. Carrying a yellow pages book around does get difficult ~ I used to do it! Sales people run their offices out of their cars.

Another big reason I suggest is because of the small print they now use to fit all the advertisers in and keep the printing costs down. They’ve made the print far too difficult for an aging population to read.

Too many languages. English is the language spoken in Australia and having a few extra pages devoted to 153+ other languages now available annoys the heck out of me ~

Cali
#3. July 29th, 2010, at 9:24 AM.

We have used Yellow pages in the past and have just found it a complete waste of money, I can understand the value for tradesmen, but other industries people just seem to look online these days instead. I can honestly say I don’t know that many people who actually keep them anymore and don’t throw them out.

celine
#4. July 29th, 2010, at 9:51 AM.

Doing SEO really could make a difference than using the yellow pages… social marketing also works well..

Express Medical Supplies
#5. July 29th, 2010, at 1:24 PM.

As someone in the medical supply industry, I’ve always tried to stay away from advertising in Yellowpages. Great post, I wish more people were informed about this.

Melisa
#6. July 29th, 2010, at 5:50 PM.

You would think that, but lots of business owners are intimidated. If they pull their ads completely and they are wrong, they are hosed for the year. Also, sales reps make a big deal about your competition taking “your spot” if you drop out.
Natasha Breckenridge Colorado agent

y4
#7. July 29th, 2010, at 10:06 PM.

I partially agree with you. But, SEO and social media advertising are the better way than the yellow pages.

UK Limited Company formation
#8. July 30th, 2010, at 11:46 AM.

You mention ranking for those ‘yellow book’ key phrases. Whouldn’t that take over 1000 unique linking root domains… running a quick open site explorer search would seem to indicate that…

Thanks!

Online Reputation Management
#9. July 31st, 2010, at 8:23 AM.

As someone in the medical supply industry, I’ve always tried to stay away from advertising in Yellowpages. Great post, I wish more people were informed about this.I partially agree with you. But, SEO and social media advertising are the better way than the yellow pages.

Pedicure Manicure
#10. July 31st, 2010, at 11:18 AM.

I tend to agree. I have not bothered to renew my Yellow Pages add this year as the number of new patients entering the practice via this advertising was too small to justify the cost. My mind was really made up by the very pushy sales women who kept trying to tell me that it was worth spending the money, despite the fact that I keep stats which were showing the opposite. The best bit was when she tried to tell me that I needed to advertise in yellow pages so that “existing patients know how to find me

Karla Campos Lopez
#11. August 1st, 2010, at 2:59 PM.

I believe that instead of focusing on ripping off customers Yellowbook should focus on improving their service and restructuring their business. Promising the world to a customer and not delivering will eventually lead to a company’s failure. This article is a great read, I had no idea the Yellowbook PPC service even existed. Thank you for keeping us informed.

Salsa Mississauga studio
#12. August 2nd, 2010, at 5:06 AM.

Use of Yellow pages are going down. Now days everything is coming online. We can find many business online directories which is easy to use. No doubt is one of the best option to get more customers or clients.

hnonmai
#13. August 2nd, 2010, at 8:54 AM.

SEO and social media advertising are the better way than the yellow pages.

Chris from PinBud
#14. August 3rd, 2010, at 8:24 PM.

forklift
#15. August 4th, 2010, at 4:30 AM.

Yellow pages is very slow in Thailand. Most people prefer google for search any products that they want. Have any idea to approve this business here.

Jenny
#16. August 4th, 2010, at 11:06 AM.

Around the world YellowPages is declining fast to very fast. From my point of view, YellowPages is not a very good tool to advertise a small business.

Silverlight Development
#17. August 4th, 2010, at 11:43 AM.

According to me.. i find SEO and SMO much better tool for advertising than yellow pages.

Freak @ Thermos Lunch
#18. August 4th, 2010, at 6:55 PM.

It all depends on who your targeted audience are. If you are targeting audience where internet usage is rare, it is best to go for traditional media.

Mike Elman
#19. August 4th, 2010, at 10:14 PM.

Do you mean advertise your blog in the yellowpages? Would that really do anything?

Pixelhead
#20. August 5th, 2010, at 12:05 AM.

Mike, no I am thinking more about actual businesses.

vinusha
#21. August 5th, 2010, at 3:38 AM.

Advertisement in yellow pages can be useful in some sections, but it will not do what we expect in all cases. What ever may be the subject a good SEO and internet marketing can do wonders… That’s what my experience taught me.

Emma
#22. August 5th, 2010, at 1:29 PM.

When I worked as freelancer a few years ago, I tried out advertising in the Yellow Pages, but it didn’t work for me – I know since I asked my clients how they found me.
However I agree with Freak, it is also a question of the target group.

Backlinking University
#23. August 5th, 2010, at 5:15 PM.

vansci123
#24. August 6th, 2010, at 7:56 AM.

It all depends on who your targeted audience are.

options trading course
#25. August 6th, 2010, at 11:13 AM.

I used yellowpages before but didnt work.. It still depends on the website traffic. Im planning to make my own local yellowpage site..It all depends on who your targeted audience are. If you are targeting audience where internet usage is rare, it is best to go for traditional media.

Sous Vide
#26. August 6th, 2010, at 11:36 AM.

I had some YELL (UK yellow pages) shares which fortunately I made money on earlier in the year. But looking at the price per share now (23p) and what it was a couple of years ago (£6) it looks like they’ve hit rock bottom with their revenue!

Renee
#27. August 6th, 2010, at 12:39 PM.

Antonio “Chitarra” Orrico
#28. August 6th, 2010, at 10:10 PM.

I’m currently looking for a new place to advertise. Not sure YP is what I’m after. One interesting I saw in my metrics though was the one month I ran lots of ads for my italian guitar lessons site ““Lezioni Di Chitarra”, my optin rate was way better than the months I didn’t run any ads even though I had the same amount of unique visits.

My thoughts at this stage is that when someone clicks on a link they’re much more likely to optin as well.

This could be the “Commitment and Consistency” thing or perhaps that they are just looking for info more than the casual searcher who favors the organic SERPs.

Who knows…

web developer melbourne
#29. August 10th, 2010, at 10:29 AM.

A good rule of thumb is to look at the Yellow Page ad of your closest competitor. If you can afford an ad larger than your competitor’s Yellow Page ad…

Android
#30. August 11th, 2010, at 5:47 AM.

I think we should consider that the traffic coming to a website are good. There are a lot of ways can help you get traffic and we don’t need to think about is it good or not. If you can get the target traffic, get it as much as possible.

Web Redesign Company
#31. August 11th, 2010, at 11:56 AM.

Nice post.. But i think there are more better options available for advertising online.

Sports Archive
#32. August 12th, 2010, at 6:58 AM.

the yellow pages have gone down considerably with their value. i have been using them in my freelance work but its of no use.

Flex Development
#33. August 12th, 2010, at 9:42 AM.

According to my opinion, yellowbook is useful to grow business enviorment. We succeed by connecting our business with the consumers that need their products and services with the help of yellowbook.

young insurance drivers
#34. August 13th, 2010, at 9:31 AM.

any sort of directories i only use for backlink purposes. don’t get hopes up for traffic though well unless you pay for featured review.

ToonBoom
#35. August 13th, 2010, at 8:34 PM.

A long time ago yellow page advertising was good but now the internet is the best place for advertising.At least that’s what I think.

Ryan
#36. August 14th, 2010, at 8:55 PM.

I’ve noticed over the past few years that YP has been moving towards the SEO industry…. but I believe their advice is one of a novice SEO..

point being- print is slowly dying and everyone wants to jump on the SEO bandwagon

Cedar Rapids Homes For Sale
#37. August 18th, 2010, at 7:29 AM.

For small business I think the best way to make their online presence known is through social media marketing, the results are fast and it’s free.

New Jersey movers
#38. August 18th, 2010, at 9:08 PM.

I just throw away my copy nowadays

New Yotk Auto Detailing
#39. August 19th, 2010, at 4:38 AM.

I would be curious to know if the yellow book ppc campaign actually tracked phone calls. In other words, do you get a custom number with your ppc campaign? Furthermore, it definitely sounds like their ppc campaign is fishy, but I bet these users do not get to see the data regarding how many actual calls were attributed to their yp ppc campaign, hence they will never know that it’s not doing anything for them. Having more info/data is key!

wedding planning ideas
#40. August 20th, 2010, at 7:45 AM.

In my opinion its depend on who our targeted audience..but, I want advertise my blog in the yellowpages. Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.

lg washing machine
#41. August 20th, 2010, at 2:45 PM.

We find that the yellow pages work well for local business and small business, but generally that it is declining in the value it gives you.

T. Scott Clendaniel
#42. August 21st, 2010, at 11:49 PM.

Yellow Pages advertising just strikes me as so “last century.” You would think that they would be taking the lead in web advertsing so that they wouldn’t be left behind. Oh well!

Peter
#43. August 22nd, 2010, at 8:34 PM.

There is a very large number of people looking up on the Internet these days. I believe that the yellow pages will eventually disappear.

teamcurtisfamily
#44. August 24th, 2010, at 9:27 PM.

Almost as bad as being paid per impression on Social media sites during the days of bot spamming. Sad that YB would destroy a great name by taking advantage of people online. The saying, “Ignorance is bliss,” comes to mind. Thanks for sharing. Ron

TwentyEleven
#45. August 24th, 2010, at 11:45 PM.

I’m so glad I just read this post. I received a phone call last week from Yell and their proposition seemed quite good. They said that they had changed their policy recently and would be completely open and transparent …..what were they before then?

I’ve spoken to several small business owners who have all said that they have had little or no success with Yell so to see this has basically made my mind up.

Plus they wanted £700. No chance.

Alexandria DUI Lawyer
#46. August 25th, 2010, at 12:36 PM.

In my opinion, yellowpages advertising works best in offline advertising. But when it comes to online advertising, this method of advertising is declining due to other popular methods of advertising like social media.

Mike Arnoel
#47. August 25th, 2010, at 1:11 PM.

I just found out that it was a complete waste of money, I can understand, but the value etc businessman people seem to is that online instead.

Firmenadressen kaufen
#48. August 25th, 2010, at 1:30 PM.

first of all, thank you for the Great Post
I think offline marketing is an important way to do some marketing. Many old customers are not yet in the internet or have got a pc.

So they searching for some stuff in the yellow book.

Mike

one way truck rental
#49. August 25th, 2010, at 4:46 PM.

I agree with one of the aforementioned statements that Yellow Pages works rather well for local and small businesses. If you’re trying to reach a larger audience/demographic/clientele, Yellow Pages won’t suffice.

Local Flower Delivery
#50. August 27th, 2010, at 12:58 PM.

Yellowpages has an obvious decline when used as a tool for advertising especially in online marketing. But there are still people who prefers yellowpages.

Kiscope.com
#51. August 29th, 2010, at 2:04 AM.

Writing a press release is the best way to generate some free publicity. Basically most journalists do not have much time to write stories, so if you can provide them with easily written text it becomes quite easy for them to publish it. But be careful don’t presume that your story will be interesting. The fact that you sell a product is not very interesting. Interesting stories are more likely to be human interest, or about a new business opening. Look inside a publication to see what sorts of stories that they publish and write your press release like one of these.

WWE
#52. August 29th, 2010, at 2:05 AM.

Add on personal profiles of yourself and your business on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Ecademy, Friends Reunited, and Facebook. These will need to be quite subtle – avoid the hard sell. Then start building links in to other people that you know.

Johan
#53. August 30th, 2010, at 6:27 PM.

I have used Yellow pages in the past but with almost no result. SEO and social media advertising works better for me.

mago
#54. September 1st, 2010, at 2:36 PM.

I ve been offered to publish my ads in the yellow book and in the Telmex guide but I sistematically refuse. Google Adwords works perfectly well for my business and I dont think these old printed books can compete with that!

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