Problems With Yellow Pages Websites & Internet Marketing

The yellow pages business is dying and the phone companies are using Internet products to replace lost revenue. Their Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), template websites, “click programs”, and other gimmick products are riddled with performance problems. The faults and problems with phone company websites and Internet marketing services are something that business owners should know.

Here’s an insider’s view of the yellow page business – Yellow Pages advertising was once a necessary evil for business owners. The phone companies exploited this and squeezed as much revenue as possible from their advertisers. Marketing programs and pricing structures were rolled out that almost forced advertisers to spend more and usually penalized advertisers for downsizing their advertising programs. Products were introduced to create new advertiser-to-advertiser competition with the sole intent to make an advertiser spend more money to keep a competitive presence. Reps are trained in how to “pitch” products to make the biggest possible sale. Sales reps rarely understand the costs or effectiveness of other advertising options and they almost never present fair and objective comparisons that encourage advertisers to spend money elsewhere. The bottom line is that phone companies are experienced in printing phone books and extracting revenue from their customers. They are not experienced in comprehensive Internet marketing and website development. Now, about those problems

Websites –
NOTE: You are locked into long term contracts with limited design and development options.
1) Website designs are “sold” to customers requiring monthly payments for as long as you want the website. The truth is that you do not own the website and it will never be paid off! Over a ten year period you may pay over $30,000 for a website that you would own for $4,000 by using a true web development firm – and you can easily reach your contact at a web design firm.
2) Phone company websites are typically bland templates built out in a production environment that stresses quick completion to start your billing. Aesthetics are sacrificed for speed. Content is created without any real research on the client’s industry, competition or local market situations.
3) Phone company websites do not include true search engine optimization techniques which means that theses sites will hardly ever rank well in competitive headings.
4) Phone company websites do not offer many high value options like multimedia creation, searchable catalogs, e-commerce, website analytics, link building, custom design features.

Search Marketing –
NOTE: You are locked into long term contracts regardless of your satisfaction level. It is in their interest to keep your Internet presence dependent upon using their search marketing products. The performance reports have no backup data, are developed to help with renewals, and do not verify ROI.
1) Submissions to search engines and portals is minimal if done at all.
2) “Click Packages” that hype a number of clicks to your website. This does not equal sales and in many cases you may not have control over the keywords selected to generate clicks.
3) No creation or implementation of critical search engine support elements.
4) No critical support services for link building, press releases, blog development, etc.
5) No support for submissions to vertical directories and other online listing opportunities.

Internet Yellow Pages –
NOTE: Over 85% of all searches happen on Google, Yahoo and MSN. The minor remaining percentage is divided between thousands of vertical directories and Internet Yellow Pages are not your best bet to market your website. It can be very expensive and extremely aggravating.
1) Priority listings get the most calls however they are usually extremely expensive (poor ROI).
2) Specialty products like Tile Ads usually perform horribly despite their prominent placement.
3) Geographic Market exposure is often very limited. Large market customers lose the most here.

If you’re tired of yellow pages books and want to leverage the power of the Internet you should employ the services of a true Internet marketing firm. An Internet marketing firm can provide you with objective advice on search marketing and provide cost effective solutions – not expensive, long term contracts. In any event you should carefully explore your options and avoid these problems in Internet marketing.