Is The Yellow Pages Obsolete?

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The Yellow Pages was the media source of record, when it came to a source for businesses to advertise their phone numbers and addresses. This is where shoppers and potential customers in the community came to find information about a new business that they might like to patronize. The book was and is made literally out of yellow pages. This four inch volume had listing upon listing of business information. It was a great resource for the 20th century, pre-internet and Google days. The system didn’t work out for all the business owners, because only the business owners who had large advertising budgets were able to get a listing that advertised their business, instead of listing just the business address, and telephone number. There was nothing to set a business apart, or to make it stand out if the business owner didn’t have a large enough advertising budget.

But now, business owners can thank the Google gods, because they can get their own Google local business listing. These business listings are otherwise known as Google Places. This Google tool offers the same access to a business listing that the Yellow Pages did previously, but since these are optimized on Google’s search engine, a local business owner can get the same exposure online that was previously reserved for big corporations, and for franchises with huge advertising budgets. A professional SEO company knows exactly what to do in order to make a Google local business listing rank high for their clients.

The SEO professionals understand the keywords that will help a Google Places website get found. This website offers everything that a potention customer would want to see. It offers the business name, the address, telephone number, and a link to the business website, if there is one. Then, there is a map that offers a shopper a geographic read, so that they will be able to find the business with certainty. But just in case a person still has problems with the map, there are links on the webpage that offers directions also.

There are also ratings, a comments section, a photo section, and a video section that can be set up to help to optimize a Google local business listing. All of these tie in the website with all the online resources that the business needs. It’s a business owner’s dream come true! So many people have seen explosive increases in revenue, especially when they can hire SEO professionals who can get their clients to the top of a search engine ranking.

So, what about the Yellow Pages? They still exist, but who know for how much longer? Why would anyone want to pay for a last century product, when they can hire SEO professionals who can utilize the power of Google, and their knowledge of keywords to help a business person make the revenues they desire.