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http*//www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/online/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2091081
....Of those, 25.1% said they were either seeking merchants "near home or work," researching a local purchase or actually buying a local product or service.
"We had calculated the number of local commercial searches at about 10% of all searches being conducted," Greg Sterling, director of The Kelsey Group's Digital Directories: Interactive Local Media Continuous Advisory Service, said in a statement.
The survey also showed that 64% of respondents said that search engines were the "main way" they find things on the Internet, commercial search results were rated as "good" or "excellent" by 80% of respondents, and 44% are performing more local commercial searches than one year ago. All the respondents said they had made at least one online purchase in the past year. ...
[edited by: pageoneresults at 12:47 pm (utc) on Feb. 18, 2004]
[edit reason] Delinked URI [/edit]
You will find that all major newspapers have a) a major IYP affiliation or b) an agreement with a data provider such as Acxiom or InfoUsa ~ which are the leading back fill companies for IYPs.
It is not so much that the newspapers haven't woken up, as much as it is that no one has really woken up. Here is one of the latest from our friends at Kelsey:
Local Search Now 25% of Internet Commercial Activity [biz.yahoo.com]
We talk SEM all day here, but little talk is directed to the IYPs who now occupy significant SERP positioning. My friends at Switchboard and Superpages are the core beneficiaries. But look for major strides from YellowPages.com and others in the near future, as well as some significant acquisition activity. For newspapers you are talking about stickyness and content, for IYPs you are talking about distribution partnerships, and as far as the major SEs are concerned, they will not let either happen without getting involved.
We talk SEM all day here, but little talk is directed to the IYPs who now occupy significant SERP positioning
I couldn't agree more.
IYPs send a decent amount of highly targeted traffic. Conversion rates for IYPs are higher than any other net based marketing we do.
I think some of the initial prices scare people, as a superpages.com national listing can range from 24k and up a year, and that's cheap compared to yahoo's iyp prices.
AOLs state listings are still very cheap - and I think people are really missing out with them - although their national listings are no cheaper than superpages (which is going to a ppc model in 2 weeks).
However, when the total traffic and conversion rates are analyzed, for many companies, its definately worth the spend.
I'm just suprised there isn't more discussion about all the IYPs around these boards.
I think some of the initial prices scare people, as a superpages.com national listing can range from 24k and up a year.
This will all change with their new PPC structure [webmasterworld.com]...just wait 2 weeks and you will see it.(march 1st)
Don't users of IYP indexes usually expect a store front to exist?
no- that is what national, regional, and sponsorships are for.
Beyond IYP, IAC, Google, and Overture/Yahoo there are other non-search players jumping on board to list service industries- the field is expanding horizontally.
