Comments on: Local Search Queries on the Rise

By: Thomas Garrison

Thomas Garrison — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:53:59 +0000

In an attempt to update some local search data I came across your site. Your information confirms data I collected for 2006, which is that local searches are climbing fast and ‘not’ including the traditional yellow pages or other well-known directories. Instead, locals are looking for ‘local’ directories, or directories that provide results with truly local businesses. This prompted me to create http://www.CityDirectoryOnLine.com which has no intrusive advertising and completely local results. I believe local searching should be just that. Further, I created the site so that every U.S. business could create or edit their own listing 24/7, and include up to 5 images. The traditional paper directories that are kept in a closet, drawer or simply tossed in the trash are no longer the first choice in finding a local business. And, local searches are still on the rise.

By: Matt McGee

Matt McGee — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:04:58 +0000

Haven’t seen any updates on these numbers yet, Bob. Sorry…

By: Bob Sommers

Bob Sommers — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:14:09 +0000

Hi Matt:

Do you have the most current local search statistics? Thanks a million.

Aloha,Bob

By: Local Search Queries Increase: Can You Be Found? | ineedhits

Local Search Queries Increase: Can You Be Found? | ineedhits — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:13:25 +0000

[...] 0 Loading … An interesting post from Small Business SEM shows that overall, local search queries have been on the rise in both [...]

By: Russell

Russell — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:03:59 +0000

Its not a question of a lack of traffic on iyp’s. You can verify the traffic of any iyp independently on alexa or quantcast. The problem for some companies may be this:
Lets say your client is a plumber in New York and you try to list of yellowpages.com with one of their premier services. The chances are that the national plumbing companies who list with yp for hundreds of thousand of $ per year will dominate the first page of listings. Most searchers as you know wont go beyond the first page. That means even though your client is on page 2 or 3, he wont get much traffic.
Thats where the smaller iyp’s come into play. They have significant traffic collectively and its much easier to beat the nationals for the first page listings because they arent often even clients of the smaller iyp’s.
When you say that you think the reason for the lack of traffic is in fact poor search functionality, you are partially right, but the real problem is a lack of data. If the data on businesses is in their database then its easy enough to serve up a good query result. The problem with poor data is caused by businesses who dont take an interest in and ownership of the data that search companies have on them. A simple example is that less than 5% of US business have even claimed their listing on google local even though its free. If companies arent actively marketing themselves as any business should be, then its hard to improve local search.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:22:10 +0000

We have multiple clients using Internet Yellow Pages and the results (so far) have been lackluster.

Generally speaking, I agree that local search is where things are headed. But, there are still targeting issues (that if improved would result in further increases in local search). I suspect that this is one of the reasons the IYP sites don’t do better (if they truly get the traffic they claim to get) – their search functionality is weak (in many cases).