Why the Yellow Pages are extinct Local SEO Marketing

Its essential for small and local business to basically forget the Telephone Books and start getting more and more online.

A dentist for example was most likey taught to market their business the same way their boss did when they were studying to become a dentist. They rely on the basis, Yellow Pages, Newspaper ads, networking meetings, chamber of commerce and sponsoring some space at the local squash court...

Most of these guys do not have any web 2.0 experience or exposure as they are not making a full time living form online marketing. They are brilliant at their jobs, but they should rely on experts to develop strategies they can follow monthly or to outsource to people who have much more time to do so. Most of these users don't realise that they can be adding great highly revelant content to forums, article marketing and uploading videos. This would help them promote and actually help develop their business.

Many small business owners don't realise the level of profits that online marketing can bring. For Example Let's say you are an Air Conditioner Supplier / Installer and your average customer is worth $3000 worth of business per year. And you use a Telephone Book advertisement for $5000 for a full page ad every year. You assume most of your customers come from this ad each year, so you have never thought to change it or stop running the ad. But your local football club also has your number listed in the business section, your truck has your business painted all over it and your customers recommend your services. So all in all you have no idea who is benefiting from the ad, you or the telephone book company. Now, think about a highly targeted campaign using intelligence that a Search Engine Marketer has access to. He or She has the ability to drill down on certain key phrases that actually will have more people interested in your website. A truly optimized campaign would build a website that has the ability to lead potential customers into a funnel where their only option is to contact the small business as they 'rank' highly in the Google search engine. Perhaps a more cost effective strategy compared to the telephone directory one is to engage a Search Engine Marketing Strategy where $5000 would build you a network of web pages, customer pages, articles on your topic, pictures/ videos of your business or work, etc where your customer can learn to trust and feel like they actually know you before ever meeting you.