Get Out Of The Yellow Pages And Online

November 27, 2014

If you’re still paying for a listing in the Yellow Pages in 2014 then it is time to reassess how you’re looking to be found by your potential future customers.

Most people these days will discover business and products through an online search, within the UK the primary search engine of choice is Google. The first search engine to great users of Chrome, Firefox and Android phones it can be the biggest draw of traffic for most businesses and if you’re not on Google you may as well be nowhere. In comparison most Yellow Pages can be found lying around in land-fills or collecting dust in a cupboard with a selection of pre-Just-Eat takeaway menus. The days of the Yellow Pages are clearly dwindling as the books slim down from their inches thick tomes to svelte books.

People expect to be able to put your business name into Google Maps and be instantly directed to your business, find the latest reviews of your homemade Spicy Tomato Soup on Yelp, and know if you’re even open this time of night. If they’re not able to do that, then it’s highly likely they’ll go elsewhere that has got themselves set up online and instantly available to be found.

Making sure you’ve claimed your Google+ Business listing so you can fill all this information out, getting yourself on the likes of Yelp, TripAdvisor and more is key too. Making sure you have a website that you can show off all your products and services, with lush colourful images, and a way to be contacted, potentially capturing emails for that newsletter for your new product line, is key for small businesses. Surveys this year show that 45% of UK small businesses still lack a website of any  kind, with only 10% on mobile optimised websites. If you’re one of these small businesses you’re likely loosing business to the other 55% with sites. Without an online presence, where a large majority of people make the first steps in buying a product or looking into a service is to research their options online, is just leaving business on the plate.