Directory Focus: Mastering the Search Trifecta

SEO and SEA talk, but IYPs do the walking Search is one of the industry's most discussed subjects these days, and for good reason. It's impossible to deny its power and growth potential. But for all that search does to build brands in the online marketplace, consumers still overwhelmingly choose to shop and spend locally: in stores, offline.

According to comScore Networks, only 6 percent of consumer retail spending last year happened online. So how does search fit into the picture? If search-engine optimization (SEO) brings users relevant search results that educate them about brands, and search-engine advertising (SEA) influences and informs shoppers about retailers and service providers, then what actually brings customers into stores to buy?

Internet Yellow Pages, or IYPS, don't seem an obvious part of the search process. But IYPS can seal the deal. They serve as highly visible, cost-efficient, relevant, and targeted online fixtures in the final phase of the buying cycle  the purchase. They also boast another key feature: prime placement in search engine results.

To understand the synergy between SEO, SEA, and IYPS, think about how search engines work. They build their businesses and their consumer credibility by offering relevant search results. Relevance also happens to be profitable. Advertisers pay more to show up on the first page of search results through keyword auction platforms, where highly defined, better-performing keywords typically come at a premium cost. In return, consumers get more targeted and relevant results. It's a symbiotic relationship.

Now add a geo-targeted modifier on a search term  something most likely to happen toward the end of the purchase cycle, when a consumer is ready to buy. Take, for instance, "Cars in Dallas." This may increase bid rates, a benefit to the search engine. Advertisers see higher conversion rates, and users get local results. It's a win-win for everyone, especially the local IYP advertiser, whose company, phone number, street, and sometimes Web address feature prominently on the first page of the search, displayed alongside optimized results and bid-winning advertisers. IYP listings get prime placement.

Not only that, but the search engine reinforces its credibility by providing this specialized local data, having enhanced the user's experience by providing the ultimate in relevant information. After all, if you're looking to buy something, what information could be more relevant than a location close to home where you can get that product in your hands?

Thanks to recent alliances and partnerships, IYPs feed local business information into geo-targeted search results, making them a common fixture among those top search results. SmartPages.com, YellowPages.com, and RealPages.com came together to form the YellowPages Network, aligning themselves with Yahoo Yellow Pages and Yahoo Local. MSN Yellow Pages uses information from SuperPages.

The latest partnership allows Google spiders to search an advertiser's business profile in SuperPages for natural rankings. It also allows advertiser's business profiles to be ranked on AOL and Ask, powered by Google. These dramatic changes make it possible for IYP results to appear where they should: front and center among the search engine results of a geo-targeted online search.

Considering the costs of investing in Yellow Pages and IYPs, placements garner phenomenal ROI  prime placement on the first search results page  and the same tracking and dead-on measurability that defines directional marketing. According to the Kelsey Group, IYP usage increased 20 percent in 2005 alone. Search optimization efforts and search-engine advertising continue to grow at a dizzying pace. The time to take advantage of the synergies between SEO, SEA, and IYPs  solidifying search marketing's role in pointing consumers to your client's door  is now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Relevant Posts

Black Hat SEO You Might Be Using That Can Lower Your Ranking

Sometimes people vanish out of the Google index and don't know why. Usually, they come to an search engine optimization (SEO) company like ours when they want to find out. Over the past few years, we have discovered several common inadvertent (or advertant "worked at the time) "black hat" techniques that tripped people up in the search engines. What is "black hat SEO? For the uninitiated, "black hat" refers to practices that are designed to get rankings in the search engines by using unapproved or unethical methods. The usual goal of this type of optimization is to get high rankings for popular search terms, then monetize the traffic that comes in, regardless of the site's relevance. In the early days of search engines, it was common for webmasters to trick people by placing irrelevant sites into search engine results. Many of the sites presented had adult themes which were not requested by the user. Part of Google's early credibility came fr
Read more

Simple SEO Tips To Increase Search Engine Ranking

Though there are many controversies going on with respect to Page Rank, many of us are interested in increasing the page rank of our website. Tell me who doesn´t want a good PR for his site? It´s a dream to every one of us to increase the Page Rank of the website from 0 to 5. Let me point out some of the important measures to be taken by the website owner in attaining a decent Page Rank 5. These Search Engine Optimization tips not only help in increasing the PR but also skyrocket your SERPs. 1. Least Competition: As a budding webmaster, you should first concentrate on the least competitive keywords. Later on, you can shift to the average and high competitive keywords. Identify your keyword competition by putting the keyword in inverted commas " " . This will exactly determine your keyword competition in your favorite search engine. 2. Search For Relevancy: After preparing the site using the least competitive keywords, search for relevant key
Read more

Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing

This is where the famous terms SEO and SEM comes into consideration. SEO simply stands for "search engine optimization" and SEM for "search engine marketing"; a balanced and passive-aggressive implementation of both strategies can certainly sky-rocket a webmaster's advertising or affiliate income. Besides search engine placement, webmasters gather in a certain community or discussion board to discuss several other topics such as advertising networks, on-page as well as off-page optimization, services, etc. There are millions of web pages available on the web but only a low percentage makes it to the top of the search engines such as Google or Yahoo for a specific term, and this is often one concept which confuses new webmasters. Ranking high in a search engine in particular doesn't mean ranking for every single imaginable keyword in a niche. It simply means that due to well done on-page and off-page optimization a site or a page within the site, mold cle
Read more

Managed Search Engine Optimisation

With managed search engine optimization, you are generally making yourself more attractive to search engines like Yahoo and Google. When people use these search engine, they enter in useful and common keywords. What if you could be sure that every time they wanted a service like yours, that your site popped up? There are many techniques that people can use to make sure that their website will beat the others in terms of who ends up on top. One way that is growing in popularity for many online businesses is the use of a glossary or index of information. They write articles or throw up an industry-specific list of terms. This serves two important functions. First, people going to their upholstery cleaning mn will be rewarded with information, causing them to realize that the site itself has a lot to offer. Second, and more important in terms of managed search engine optimization, it can be seen that there are a wide variety of key words that can be put into a glossary. As you can see, m
Read more