As IF you will ever hear that! Sure, there may be those few that still keep their Yellow Pages or the ‘phone book’ that isn’t on the internet, but do they ever use it and if they do, not sure what for. Ever heard that when you drive a car off the lot that it immediately depreciates? Well, the same for a lot of print things like primary care physician books, tax code (Go ahead and print that bad boy out! Ha), Yellow Pages or the like. However, as for me, my phone book or yellow pages goes straight from the front door to the recycling bin! What about you?
So what’s my point?
Imagine you have the Yellow Pages, which as you know is organized by categories – pizza restaurants, bakeries, auto mechanics, motorcycle dealerships, fitness centers and the like. Now, imagine that same Yellow Pages without those categories! What? How will you find anything you ask? EXACTLY my point! Now, imagine you have a website that isn’t optimized for search engines (more on that in a second), you are in the same boat of the Yellow Pages that is without categories. Essentially, you are lost in a sea of other websites versus being lost with other businesses in the Yellow Pages.
How do YOU plan to be found?
Search engine optimization is the key to being found by searchers (those are the consumers you want to find you). If you think of it this way, it will make more sense… when you optimize your website with meta tags and keywords, you are telling Google, or any search engine, what your page is about and what is important about that page. Google, can then put you in the right category so when a user types in a search query, Google quickly searches its index and provides the user with relevant websites for that query.
Don't get lost in the sea of businesses, be sure you optimize your website. #seo Click To TweetSimilarly, think about this – if you don’t have meta data for your website, search engines create it from your content for you. This is shown to searchers in the search engine results page – viewed as a ‘snippet‘. Who do you think would be better at determining what your page or website is about – you or the search engines? Would it be beneficial to show up under the fitness category if you are a baker? HA! Absolutely not, so don’t let search engines determine what your page or website is about, select that for yourself! Take the power of your website and business.
So, the bottom line is to optimize your website with keywords that are important to that page – each and every page with unique meta tags and titles. Should you need help with your search engine optimization with regards to your keywords, your website optimization and your meta data, please contact me, reach out on social media and ask your questions as I would love to help. Thanks for stopping by!
~Kristen
Great tips for SEO. Question, do you recommend using your city in a tag or just keywords?
I would suggest using cities and states in the keywords when I am tracking them on a report. You would typically use keywords as well as cities and states (hopefully) in your content on your webpage. PPC is a little different.
How true! only my mother still uses the yellow pages… everyone under the age of 60 is pretty much on a smart phone or googles stuff!! hahah – great post! p
Thanks Patricia… some folks are old tried and true. I know most things are out of date when printed, maybe not the phone book, but there sure isn’t a lot of information there, just a partial name and phone number or address maybe?
I forgot all about yellow pages. when you have a smart phone or computer who needs it?
I agree!
I’ll be the odd person out here — I do use the phone book for local information. Not all the phone books that end up on my doorstep, because I get them from three companies and two go in the recycle bin. It’s easier and faster for me sometimes to pick up the book and get the number than to go online. But I agree with your main point — you need to have your website optimized to be found outside your local area.
Thanks Jackie for being honest… nothing wrong with still using them, I just find that I can get a LOT more information from the internet – reviews, driving directions, full names, address, city for the GPS, prices, menus, and etc…
That is a really good analogy. I know that is where mine goes is right in the recycling bin. My hubby can’t figure out why and my question to him was, “When was the last time you used one?” Answer: He hadn’t. So… but I get that it only makes sense, if we are not categorized, we can’t be found!
I’d probably say that they could be used for a craft project or packing material? lol
That was a good way of stressing the importance of SEO. Great analogy.
Thanks Beth
Wow, I can’t remember when was the last time I used a phonebook!!! Thanks for the SEO information!
You are quite welcome!
I never thought about the concept of having keywords picked for me. I probably need to study this further. Thanks for bringing this to my attention
Really? But yea, Google can not only pick your keywords but your title and description for the search engine results. Plus you get to optimize your website at the same time.. win win! Let me know if you need help Lacie, that is my business. 😉
Yellow Pages? What’s that? Lol This is a great simplification of why we need good SEO on our sites. Mine is REALLY lacking in that department and I know it–guess I should go in and fix that lol
Yea, I know… that’s what I thought. Haven’t used a yellow pages in years… maybe even a decade? lol Let me know if you need any help Christine!
Yep, in the same boat. The yellow pages often go straight from the door to the recycling bin. I think it’s one of those things where I think to myself, hmm, I can find it online can’t I? 🙂
I agree Edmund… I can find just about anything I need online. BTW.. welcome back.. haven’t seen you around lately!
My neighbor recently mentioned putting ads in the yellow pages. We start our wood stove with pages from the phone books left for us.
Really… put an ad there… hopefully the price has gone down due to nobody looking at them and plus they have an online version or compliment, but still… there are other print marketing that is much better.
Great SEO tips!
Thanks!