Survey raises questions over Yellow Pages relevance

A recent Australian survey has indicated that more than half of Australians would go without the printed telephone directory if given the choice.

The survey, conducted by CoreData on behalf of True Local, revealed almost four in five Australians believe Yellow Pages should ask consumers if they want the directory. Off the 1000 people surveyed, 58 per cent of respondents said they would stop having the Yellow Pages delivered if they had the choice.

Fully 62 per cent believe the directory has a negative environmental impact, the survey found.

Yellow Pages spokesman Stephen Ronchi said the survey was commissioned by online business directory TrueLocal (owned by the publisher of news.com.au)  ”as part of a marketing campaign to discredit Yellow Pages” and dismissed the survey results as “underhanded”.

Nonetheless, where there is smoke there is fire.

Consider how much you use the Yellow Pages these days, either at home or work, and then weigh it against your use of search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. According to Tourism NSW 97% of searches start with a search engine, and Google is by far the most widely used in Australia, which is why they recommend their members maintain well optimised, informative websites.

There has definitely been a major shift away from relying on Yellow Pages directories in the last decade as Google has become ubiquitous. The rise of smart phones will see the need for well optimised sites become even more crucial, as potential customers will rely on online searches for everything, anytime and anywhere.

So if you are still spending more on Yellow Pages than you are on a professional Inbound Marketing strategy, it might be time to think again. The CoreData survey illustrates the overwhelming ambivalence towards telephone directories in 2009.

If your potential customers aren’t relying on Yellow Pages, why are you?

How does your website rate with search engines and as an inbound marketing resource? Find out by running it through our Free Web ANLYZR.