Local Search and Yellow Pages

Local search seems to be the new buzz in Internet advertising. Finally, locally based companies can advertise effectively on the Internet. Before local search, small and home businesses that did business in a specific geographic location had to spend a pretty penny on advertising in Yellow Pages. Yellow Pages weren't a great option as it is difficult to measure a return on your investment and listings are in alphabetical order. Companies starting with A B or C will get more inquiries than those starting with X Y or Z. Regardless of where your company was located within the Yellow Pages you pay the same amount as every other advertiser. The Internet wasn't a good option in it doesn't scale to local geographic locations until now. People are becoming more savvy in their internet searches and finding that the more specific you get with a search means the more relevant results. Internet companies offering Local Search now concentrate on offering users a more efficient way to find local products and services. Like older search algorithms local search enables search engines to take a location and a product or service and match the results accordingly.

The Yellow Pages still has it's place in some markets but the majority of small businesses will find it cost effective to advertise through local search on the Internet. Sites utilizing a healthy mix of both will benefit as some visitors would rather browse a directory than quarrying a search.