More people than ever before are now searching online for products and services that they want or need.
This begs the question for a small business owner whether to advertise with Yellow Pages or go online or perhaps both and the answer to this question largely depends on what sort of business you are in.
If I want to hire an excavator or similar business or trade for example, I personally would go to the Yellow Pages as I know that there are not a lot of these type of businesses with an online presence yet but times are changing.
With the rapid increase in smartphones and other online devices, more people have the ability to search online for a product or service than ever before. The ability to search online is easier than it has ever been. Looking for a photographer, Civil Celebrant, fishing guides, boat charters, dinner for two, or just about any other service or product, the way to go is online.
There are many advantages with a website compared to a Yellow Pages advertisment and below are a few of them.
- Cost – Your Yellow Pages advertisement is very expensive for just a few words and perhaps a small picture. With a website, there is little or no practical limit to the available content that you can have.
- Effectiveness – There is no effective and easy way of measuring your return on investment with Yellow Pages. A website can easily have very effective measurement and tracking of visitors and conversions.
- Changes – You can only change a Yellow Pages advertisement once a year whereas a website can be changed whenever it is needed.
- Targeted search – With the Yellow Pages, you need a different advertisement for each category that you want a presence. A website can easily be designed to be found in multiple categories on a search.
- Availability – Your website is available worldwide. The Yellow Pages is only available where the Yellow Pages book is distributed or found.
- Content – Basically unlimited with a website, very small with Yellow Pages.
- Interactivity – Your website is usually interactive with such things as contact forms, online sales, surveys, social media, polls and many more.
