Comments on: Does IYP market share matter?

By: earlpearl

earlpearl — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:04:49 +0000

Andrew’s comments are very insightful and reflect a strategy that could be brutally effective, incredibly cost effective, and sharp/sneaky to boot.

Have the entities such as the IYP’s with large and expensive salesforces bring in the small businesses…..and then have Google negate the importance of that by both dominating the serps with 10 pacs and possible different algo’s that push competitive sites to the top of organic rankings.

Ugh….I don’t think I want to be an IYP.

Thanks for the insights, Andrew.

Dave

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:48:30 +0000

Hi Tim

I agree wholeheartedly. Google is good at the “recovery” side of the directory equation but lacks in the “discovery” side. There is a lot that can be added to make local really local. Whenever I travel Yelp is my first stop for food advice, particularly in SF.

I don’t know if Google could do what Yelp does but they can suck so much air out the room that Yelp or similar offerings might not survive.

Mike

By: Tim Flint

Tim Flint — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:06:50 +0000

I agree. I think that particularly when it comes to a “directory” the battle has been won. But, when it comes to serving niches and communities there is still a great battle to be had. Yelp, is a great service and creates a community atmosphere which Google and Yahoo do not, when it comes to local business. This is not to say that Google and Yahoo couldn’y over whelm this space by adding in similar features to Yelp.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:55:58 +0000

Hi Andrew

Thanks for the perspective…I hadn’t thought the dynamics through to the contradiction between Google and the YP’s but what you note makes lots of sense.

Mike

By: Andrew Shotland

Andrew Shotland — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:21:57 +0000

Right on the money Mike. And you didn’t even factor in that the non-SEs on the list already get most of their traffic from G & Y. If you want to get really black & white about the whole thing, it’s in G’s interests to drive traffic to the IYPs so that they can in turn bring the SMBs online. Over time the SEs will gradually choke off the traffic (can you say 10-pack?) so that the IYPs have to increase their SE ad spends and expose the SE brands/services to the SMBs. It will take a long time for this to happen but it sure seems like this is the path we are on.

The YPs can still thrive in this situation by moving farther downstream in their service offerings to the SMBs than G or Y will.

By: MiriamEllis

MiriamEllis — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:18:12 +0000

Makes sense to me, Mike. I guess it’s the same phenomenon we all started to understand years ago with organic search. It might be good to be listed in a niche directory, but it sure wasn’t going to get you as far as ranking well in Google.

Neat post!
Miriam

By: earlpearl

earlpearl — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:14:45 +0000

I thoroughly agree, Mike. The volume of traffic on sites is enormously skewed toward organic search results in the Search engines and of that predominately Google. The difference is astonishing.

Big advertising campaigns in any of the alternatives, simply result in spending money with few results.

By: Steven Brier

Steven Brier — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:00:47 +0000

Mike – three cheers for over-the-top cogency and clear thinking