Online Search Beating Yellow Pages

I recently came across an article showing a survey that had online search (31%) beating Yellow Pages (30%) for the first time in history.

Here are all the results:

A comScore study sponsored by TMP Directional Marketing finds that search engines have become primary sources for seeking local services (31%) — followed by Yellow/White Pages (30%), online Yellow Page-type sites (19%) and then local search sites (11%).

We’ve always advised local businesses to cut down on their Yellow Pages expense by using a smaller ad with their web site address in it. You can provide a lot more information at much less expense using your web site.

Doing a little research brought me to a Search Engine Land article summarizing some of the Local Search seminars at the Search Engine Expo (SMX) West.

The article has some great tips for optimizing your local business search listings, including claiming your listing at the Google Local Business Center, listing with other data providers, creating locally oriented web site content, starting a local blog, and more.