We’ve all been victims of FUD – fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s a shady tactic and one that I hope most people see through.
But about once a year, towards the beginning of the summer, the Yellow Pages rep comes calling to my clients. Some of my clients have been advertising with the Yellow Pages for years and are seeing less and less of a return on their (rather significant) investment. They’re thinking about having a smaller ad, or no ad at all. Yellow Pages does not release demographic statistics, but it’s common knowledge that consumers 30 and younger generally search online or ask their friends for business recommendations.
The Yellow Pages reps always tell my clients the same stories but they’re getting more insistent in recent years. Their FUD runs along these lines:
1. We are the only authorized Google AdWords reseller in Canada.
There’s two parts to this. First, it implies that being a Google AdWords reseller is better than a consultant who works with AdWords. That’s absolutely not true. You do not receive better rates by working with a reseller – if anything, it costs more and they provide you with less reporting. Secondly, they are not the only authorized Google AdWords reseller in Canada.
2. Having a listing on the Yellow Pages will improve your rank on Google.
Nope. Check out a Yellow Pages listing. You’ll see that the link to the website is actually something like http://www.yellowpages.ca/gourl/http://www.yourcompany.com – that means that the link actually is a redirect from the Yellow Pages site, not a true link to your site. It may pass along some link value but it’s of low value.
3. The Yellow Pages website gets more traffic than Google!
Absolutely not. I think the below chart (from Alexa, a well-regarded provider of competitive website statistics) will paint the real picture. I’ve included canpages.ca for comparison purposes.
4. We have special ways of making your site show up on Google – no one else can do that.
They’re talking about pay-per-click advertising here. I’ll tell you their secret – they’re using the local business options available to any AdWords advertiser. Nothing secret there, just knowing what boxes to click.
And worst of all…
5. If you cancel your ad with us, your ranking will go down on Google.
An absolute lie. Ask them for proof – how will this happen? Ask for specific examples. In my experience, I have not seen any detrimental ranking effects when a client has canceled or downgraded their Yellow Pages listing. If anything, they can improve their reach because of the money they saved!
I’ve been discussing these issues with other web developers on Twitter for a couple of weeks and if the folks at Yellow Pages even noticed, they haven’t said anything. If Yellow Pages was as web-savvy as they claim, they would have picked up on the Twitter mentions by now and gotten in touch.
I’ll save the importance of monitoring Twitter for another post, but if you’re not paying attention to what is being said about you (or your competition) on the web, you’re missing out on serious opportunities. And it says a thing or two about your ability to compete on the web.
I don’t think Yellow Media is going down anytime soon. They are an invisible local advertising behemoth with 1.5 million business listings under it’s belt that are ready to be serviced for hyper local online advertising. They also have over 2200 media consultants spread out across Canada selling the same online media services that you offer. By this I mean, pure SEO/SEM, “groupon type” coupons, website design services and HD video advertising that gets SEO’d across the web. Print is becoming a secondary issue as they morph into what is already Canada’s largest Internet company. Not even Google can field that many expert media consultants. I also find it quite interesting that the Google Maps in Canada would be quite useless without the Yellow Pages feeding them 99% of their listings with the most up to date information on them.
Take a look at their smartphone apps for Iphone, Blackberry and Android. Most people in Canada with a smart phone now use this free app. The Ipad app is amazing. With one touch you can get all the local advertising that you could want. Apps like POYNT also use Yellows database of information.
This has become one of my top apps on my iphone and ipad. Cheers!
@ Bob
“Most people in Canada with a smart phone now use this free app.” in reference to the YP app.
You sure about that? Got any data to back this up? I’d be very happy to see this so i could advise my clients on the this
Also, i agree that YPG isn’t going anywhere, and they do supply Google Local Business with data, but i just cant go along with business practices like this. FUD is never the way to go and as in Internet company, they should be the first to know.
Ahhh, Dana. I’m glad to see another has picked up the gauntlet and is valiantly fighting for the defeat of the yellow bullshit.
My particular favourite is when Yellow Pages reps claim to have “merged” with Google. I contacted Google directly about that one. I thought it would be funny if I asked them for the official press release about it.
I have written 2 blog posts now on this crap and tweeted incessantly. Yellow Pages did actually contact me after I left a comment under a press release about YP on MarketingMag.com They absolutely do not monitor their social media but they do check up on their more prominent press releases.
Check out my latest post on SEO benefits (or lack thereof) to having a Yellow Pages ad. You may get a laugh out of it and it might be of interest to your more nervous clients.
Does Online Advertising in YellowPages.ca Improve Google Ranking? http://bit.ly/emVa6E
Keep up the good work. Nice to know we’re not alone. And it’s great to know that Yellow Pages is soooooo clueless about SEO, articles slamming them rank instantly. How do you think I found you?
Thanks for the great comment – I enjoyed your blog piece as well. Nice in-depth analysis.
@Bob.
No YPG is not going down anytime soon. They’ve amassed a fortune off the backs of SMBs.
Yes yes, at one point they did provide them with a return however their greed and ego made them complacent and caught them asleep at the wheel.
You do know that everything you mentioned that they do “for” these SMBs, websites, HD video etc- ALL belongs to YPG and not the business owners. So they again strong arming the little guy into staying with them, having them become dependent on them and thus providing the fuel for their continuous FUD tactics.
They have the business listings, I get it. I use Poynt and its a great, useful tool. However, it wasn’t YPs solution and by no means is it generating SMBs any sort of relevant income.
They call themselves Canada’s largest Internet company? They’re a print company still trying to become an internet company, plain and simple.
They could have easily, EASILY become a credible and valuable asset to SMBs across Canada if they weren’t so greedy. No reason why Yellowpages.ca couldn’t have taken on the form of a Yelp! No reason why they couldn’t have white labelled their HD video and given the client’s ownership, no reason why they couldn’t have been designing real websites for them and doing SEO, no reason why they couldn’t have created a proper PPC program that drove and tracked results to their client’s ACTUAL websites rather then directing people to their print ads on yellowpages.ca.
They spent billions of dollars (2.5 to be exact) to acquire Superpages in 2005 (?) simply to gain a monopoly on the Canadian market with directories. Talk about shortsighted. Now they’re desperately trying to position themselves as an internet industry authority by preying on the uninformed local business and preying on their reliance on them. “Canada’s largest Internet Company” that can’t properly run PPC campaigns and doesn’t even monitor Twitter? Humorous.
They have the means to be a GREAT asset to the Canadian internet industry and Canadian businesses. The ability to be a respected internet company but like anything, you have to earn it. YP is simply trying to buy it. Get rid of the old (*cough, Marc Tellier) and inject some fresh thinking and new approach to selling.
My 2 cents.
Cheers