Many people make the mistake of failing to properly optimize their Yellow Pages adverts for the Web. Today, Yellow Pages remain just as powerful as ever, but many business owners have failed to learn the new techniques that can make you get more traffic, more calls, and more revenue than your competitors.
Years ago, business owners would ask their customers where they heard about their business. To this day, many website contact forms ask customers where they heard about the business, and will give them a choice of Google, Yellow Pages, TV adverts and so on.
Now tracking has got much more sophisticated, but many businesses are failing to track everything they can, and they are relying on information from customers. With free tools like Google Analytics, you can see who has visited your website and where they came from. If you sign up for YellowPages United, you can login to their website and instantly see how many people have visited your business’ page. This allows you to get a true picture of the effectiveness of each advert.
If one publisher is driving more leads, you can spend more money and get more attention. And if one publisher is not delivering enough sales, you know that you shouldn’t renew your contract.
“I know half of my advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don’t know which half,” said John Wanamaker. Now you can know exactly which half is working, and use this information to constantly optimize where and how you spend your money.
While it’s easy to know exactly how many sales you get from a particular source of advertising, there are other advantages of Yellow Pages advertising that are harder to track. Google’s local search algorithms look for citations of businesses in Yellow Pages and other directories, and they count each citation as a vote in favor of the business – the more citations, the better the business ranks. So, each listing gives you a better chance at ranking higher in Google for local searches.
To optimize your Yellow Pages listings, make sure your data is up to date and accurate. This, of course, makes it easier for people to find your business. But it also makes it easier for Google to give you more traffic, because incorrect and inconsistent entries may not count as a citation towards your business.
Ask your customers to review your business. Some Yellow Pages websites rank your business according to how many positive reviews you have, so reviews could make you appear higher up in their listings. After you work with a customer, you could send them an email with a list of websites where they could add a review. Keep in mind, reviews don’t just lead to higher rankings – they also give potential customers confidence in the service you provide.
Make sure you have a modern and effective website. Some local businesses have yet to get a website at all, and the vast majority of local websites are infamously bad. To find the best web design firm, try to find the best websites that are used to promote local businesses in your area. Then, find out who designed the website and work with that company. It’s also very easy to work with a web design firm over the phone and email, so don’t feel restricted to choosing a local company.