Yell.com

[the locksmith]

I subscribe to "Locks & Security Magazine" and found quite a large article in the most recent addition titled "Locksmiths Forced to Re-consider Traditional Advertising as Yell Announces New Strategy".

(Many of us were looking elsewhere anyway and we weren't being forced ! )

I had a look at their own press release website and the following link is the full version of the article.

http://www.yellgroup.com/english/media-pressreleases-2011-yellannouncesnewstrategy

Reading between the lines I think it means the end for the Yellow Pages book (which has been on the cards for a long time) but I think they have probably missed the boat as far as what they are embarking on now is concerned. There are plenty other companies already doing some or all of what they are proposing.

I got a lot of business from Yellow Pages over the years but haven't bothered with them (or the Phone Book) now for the last two years.

 

[Normansmith]

No matter what these traditional advertising companies do to re position their companies, the offerings by Google, Bing And Facebook for local searches will, in the end be the winner. They control the searchers. So Google places, Bing local and Facebook places will be a cheaper option for the local business owner, with the potential to reach more customers.It is also more targeted than a classified ad can ever be !

 

[MASSEY]

Reading between the lines I think it means the end for the Yellow Pages book (which has been on the cards for a long time) but I think they have probably missed the boat as far as what they are embarking on now is concerned. There are plenty other companies already doing some or all of what they are proposing.

You read between the lines and come to the conclusion that the yellow pages is going to become extinct

 

[Codefixer]

I've recently noticed Yell coming up a bit more at the top of Google for some local terms and although they are less than competitive they are not insignificant terms.

So if I was chasing keywords and yell had the top listing, I'd maybe consider a listing in Yell on that page subject to the advertising costs.

 

[MASSEY]

I've recently noticed Yell coming up a bit more at the top of Google for some local terms and although they are less than competitive they are not insignificant terms.

So if I was chasing keywords and yell had the top listing, I'd maybe consider a listing in Yell on that page subject to the advertising costs.

This has been for i'd say the last 12 months now. I thought they were doing something funny like backlinking to their pages. For local terms you can get on the first page by using all the free resources like articles and free directorys but to bump to the top organic position you have to source a couple of quality. That is still a lot cheaper than yell, they want ridiculous cash.

 

[the locksmith]

You read between the lines and come to the conclusion that the yellow pages is going to become extinct

Yes I know ... there I go pointing out the obvious - but if you were to listen to the guff that the reps come out with you might think YP was going to be around for ever ! They are still desperate to sell space on a book that is smaller (so small you can't actually read some the adverts) but still at the same price.

I haven't donated any cash to Yell for a couple of years now. Oddly enough a web page they produced for me a couple of years back is still up and running. It was supposed to be "super optimised" for google etc. Needless to say it is only found if you know what to put in to find it and quite honestly the content was barely in English.

Their share price rallied to 11p thanks to the announcement of their new tactics and subsequently plummeted to yesterdays 4.5p.
I might buy them a 2p.

 

[Codefixer]

The more placements & listings up the top of Google the better.
If it's piggybacking of another site then why not provided the price is provides a ROI.

Any ideas on the prices they are looking for? I heard they were looking thousands for a quarter for a local solicitor listing (atleast that's what was passed on to me).

 

[popunder]

You read between the lines and come to the conclusion that the yellow pages is going to become extinct

I spoke to someone nearly 5 years ago who had been at a Yell top-brass meeting and their strategy even then was to phase out the book by 2018.

The way they're going the whole company might be phased out by 2018.

 

[UKSBD]

They say within 4 years over 75% of their business will be online as apposed to 25% now

 

[aicomms]

There was a story on real business last week regarding a recent IPSOS survey which found there is around 40% of SME's in the UK which have not got a website and do not believe they should have one, for one this is a massive market for people to start to exploit.

To me that is a massive amount and the people like yell and phonebook should be targeting them people because they are not moving with the times and are willing to throw away money to people like yell when no body even reads the F**king thing anymore.

The only chance these directory websites have is to become ranked high in Google etc but i heard somewhere that Google is trying to stop them ranking so high because the content is not actually what the person who searched wanted, for example in you type in cheap office supplies you will be expecting a couple of online store to pop up so you can browse around and buy if the price is right, using a directory your adding a step so you search and then the top link is a yell page you click it takes you to there site and then you either have to click another link to get to the online store or if the company does not have premium listing there is no link to the site so they have a big struggle ahead.

Thanks
Ai Communications Limited
aio-m.com

 

[PlymouthOnline.biz]

Hi OP

Going through Yells figures, They did have a drop in revenue from £409mil to £313mil and their advertisers dropped in the UK from 335,000 advertisers to 283,000 advertisers.

Their online market has increased from £176mil to £179mil

If you like to read the report visit http://www.yellgroup.com/files/8J2L24/2011+yell+group+plc+annual+report.pdf

 

[MASSEY]

There was a story on real business last week regarding a recent IPSOS survey which found there is around 40% of SME's in the UK which have not got a website and do not believe they should have one, for one this is a massive market for people to start to exploit.

To me that is a massive amount and the people like yell and phonebook should be targeting them people because they are not moving with the times and are willing to throw away money to people like yell when no body even reads the F**king thing anymore.

The only chance these directory websites have is to become ranked high in Google etc but i heard somewhere that Google is trying to stop them ranking so high because the content is not actually what the person who searched wanted, for example in you type in cheap office supplies you will be expecting a couple of online store to pop up so you can browse around and buy if the price is right, using a directory your adding a step so you search and then the top link is a yell page you click it takes you to there site and then you either have to click another link to get to the online store or if the company does not have premium listing there is no link to the site so they have a big struggle ahead.

Thanks
Ai Communications Limited
aio-m.com

People do still read the book but the numbers are getting lower every year.

To me it looks like yell are going to try and emulate bt customer street and they offer crap sites and crap seo.

I can see google doing something that will see web directories getting lower ranked, they just need to work out which way will get less peoples backs up.