So, first up is the Infographic on the recent report on Small Business Optimism from the folks over at VistaPrint…you can find the details here, eh.

After their survey from their own customer base, it appears that a full 88% of micro-businesses are planning on spending more money on marketing initiatives in 2011! And a further 34% of same respondents reported that they are expanding their use of social media via Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIN too!

VistaPrint, if you don’t know, is the best online hub to buy any business marketing materials from and yes, we are a client but no, they didn’t pay or offer us a thing to have this blog feature done on their services….they’re just that dang good, eh! Oh, if you’re looking for a ‘graphically’ minded blog to read every so often, then I can also say that this one at their micro-business site is pretty good too, eh!

And on to our second noticed item this week…over at seojobsfinder.com…a site that we drop into daily just to keep “tabs” on who’s hiring in what market and for what kind of positions…i.e. I’m not looking for a job, but this kind of “background” competitive intelligence can add to your own abilities I’ve found over the years. Anyways, we noticed this advert immediately, eh — for new Search Marketing Strategists – for the YellowPages Group….over at their own SEO division at www.mediative.com. First, this is not new, as most of us Canadian SEO types blogged about it months and months ago, i.e. that the YPG had spun off this new division as their “Performance” partners, charged with the duty of providing services, such as SEO, SEM, social media marketing, and location-based marketing. Seems appropriate, I’d surmise as the real value of the actual Yellow Pages print directories dimishes with every year…and yes, I blogged about this  months ago too! This job appears to be both “in-house” and/or “telecommuting” able too…in any of their offices in I believe Vancouver, Kelowna, Toronto or Montreal. The listed job criteria look respectable, the skills/tasks seem fairly well matched…I did note that they requested that candidates must “stay abreast of the latest trends in the industry” which is a very practical and important skill that I mostly never ever see mentionned. I have to think that such an advert will get many responses, and I’d love to hear back from anyone who does apply just to find out what kind of hiring process and testing procedures that YPG will put you through….so if you try for same please do come back to comment here, eh?

And then lastly today, is the notice that I’d like to point out about the great site that offers up solid, reliable SEO knowledge over at DIYSEO.com. Now normally, I drop by once a week as they used to generate great infographics on all things SEO, and do some reading and assessment and then if the piece was “solid” enough for my readers, I’d blog about their latest offering. I don’t know if that publishing process is still in effect, but what I noticed yesterday in the early am, was that all of a sudden, they’ve started to blog daily almost, with great SEO info and it’s “tiered” info for beginner, intermediate and advanced SEO practitioners. I very much liked the one that was titled “Is there a Google Certification?” and the general myths that this post blew away – and the further links and URLs to other great learning centres too! All in all, nice to see DIYSEO, and I’ve upped my visits to daily for awhile….

So, Friday…and it’s another week done. Our client serps did NOT vary with the recent Google algo wave/churns and for that as always, we’re both thankful and feel very justified in never ever risking serps for them one and all, eh!

In what seems to be the latest move by YPG, this will allow ANYONE to build their own applications and mashups by providing dynamic local business data for their website — not a bad idea in our book!

Need content? We’ve got it.

• YellowAPI delivers access to over 1.5 million Canadian business listings.
• Access enhanced information; videos, photos, ad thumbnails, and more.
• Geo-localized listings for map overlay and proximity search.

The Right Information.

• YellowAPI.com content has an unparalleled level of authentication, with direct feeds from Canada’s two largest telephone companies.  
• Content is added and updated on a daily basis, providing the most accurate source of Canadian business information.
• YellowAPI.com content has an unparalleled level of verification. Yellow Pages Group’s sales force, one of Canada’s largest, works directly with businesses advertising within the company’s network of properties, ensuring information integrity.

Okay, so you’re thinking hmmm…okay, so if we use this new YPG API, what’s in it for us? Their answer is succinct, but fairly straighforward –

• Monetize Mash-ups
  • YellowAPI.com gives developers opportunities for additional revenue streams, based on their ability to drive quality traffic.

• Simplicity
  • No need for multiple API registrations, YellowAPI.com offers a one-stop-shop for Canadian local business search content.
  • YellowAPI delivers local search content to users without having to create a directory.

• Made by Mashery
  • YellowAPI has partnered with Mashery to bring this new business search and location-based service (LBS) portal to the community.
  • Built upon their deep knowledge and best practices of the API community, developers will find the all tools they need in one single place.

Okay, we’re looking into this already for a client….and I’d think many of us SEO/web developer types are too….and I’m going to bet that others who may just be interested in other YPG groups like redflagdeals.com or autotrader.ca just might be of the same frame of mind too, eh! Think about this — direct access to the YPG content with the ability to monetize that content….

If you believe in the growing potential power of LOCAL data…then this just might be the API wagon to jump on, eh!

Okay, just found this new video over at youtube

It appears that the folks over at YPG, have noticed that their advertisers are dwindling…that they’re buying less page space and even opting out all together!

You will also perhaps need to know that the YPG just recently have also changed their printing mandate for the old-school yellow pages themselves and have made the white pages with all our residential phone numbers NO LONGER sent to every single household.

In major cities, as shown in this PRelease, if you want a set of the white pages, you will need to call and ask for same. No charge of course, but no longer will that door-stopper be dropped off on the front porch, eh!

“An increasing number of Canadians, particularly in urban areas, use our online and mobile resources YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca to find residential phone numbers,” Marc Tellier, president and CEO of YPG, said in a statement . . .

That move is expected to result in a reduction of more than five million copies – about 3,500 tonnes of paper – a year across Canada.

In the affected markets – Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, the Ottawa-Gatineau area and Quebec City – delivery of the Yellow Pages directory will continue on an annual basis…”

So, back to the SEO idea being floated by these “marketers.” It appears that if you are a yellow pages advertiser, they will, for a fee of course, offer up a “leads page” and will offer up webspace, with products, services, maps etc. etc. — all keyed to try to gain you leads. Leads from the content that you will provide of course, and then pay them to put up on their page….say, I wonder.

So, what if you do this for say a year, your SEO campaign via the YPG is working … and then you cancel your yellow pages…hmm…yeah, I wonder then what’d happen to that ”leads page” and your resulting traffic…

Don’t you wonder too?

I’ve already blogged here quite a few times on the YPG and their marketing of the yellow pages and their online directories to Canadian SMBs here  and here and here too. If you need some background then on this kind of corporate BIG firm thinking from a marketing viewpoint, then I’d suggest maybe that you click those links to read up on same.

To make my point here, I’d offer up the following evidence….

In their own words, the YPG folks have stated this new thrust into SMB marketing via full page adverts in major Canadian dailies, in the following pull-quote –

Yellow Pages Group has launched a new business-to-business print campaign in Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto that touts its Video Broadcaster online tool to potential advertisers.

The full-page yellow ad that ran in today’s The Globe and Mail uses the tag line “We’re being watched” and drives small and mid-sized businesses to GetFound.YellowPages.ca where they can learn how the tool works and how much it costs.

Web banners and big boxes are also running on Yahoo.ca.

As you can see, they clearly state that their new site at getfound.yellowpages.ca offers up a full explation of both the program and the costs. They offer up a step-by-step program too on how to get a quote and sign up too.

So your video will be inserted into your yellowpages.ca site, and be available for all to see IF and WHEN they come to that link from a yellowpages.ca business search.

They also note that the “link” to your video will be “shared” across Social Media outlets too like FaceBook and YouTube for example. So, yes, I went there too to take a look/see…and honestly, I was impressed with the quality of the video I saw as well as the pricing, yet to me, that’s not the point.

So what is the point?

Well to me, who’s also involved in SMB marketing but from an online SEO slant, I already know that adding video about a client’s business can help turn web traffic into conversions. This is a given. But the mere addition of a video, even a great, well written and produced video to site without the SEO to get traffic to come to view same, is the “cart before the horse” type of strategy…IMHO!

To date, the company has made more than 15,000 videos for businesses across Canada.

Yellow Pages’ network of sites attracts over 9.6 million unique visitors each month, Marsolais said, adding that consumers are visiting the site to research potential purchases, which could translate into sales for the advertiser.

Well, yes, surely 9+ million visits a month is a fair bit of traffic…but when you compare same to any of the top search engines, who do about 10 billion searches a month, you can see that this is a teensy teensy bit of traffic. Yet, it is enough to think about attempting to get some conversions out of, for sure, and yes, it’s shopping traffic so the conversion rates are higher. But really, is this kind of addition of video or even still pix going to draw traffic?

Not in my mind it’s not. The only way we’ve ever found that such marketing tactics work for a SMB owner is if there is traffic to view same. Traffic that is in the “buying” frame of mind, who’ve found your site among others after a search and are comparing both tangibles concerning products/pricing that you offer on your site as well as an overall “feel” that they’ll get from a website visit. Videos can help, sure…but ONLY if there’s traffic…and until the YPG can add SEO to your monthly bill, I think that such a foray into online videos is like a wasting-of-time-idea, eh!

In fact, to just think back a couple of days, I’d say that our Canadian newspapers have a much better “shot” at marketing SEO to their advertisers than the YPG does to theirs….but the truth of that opinion, lies in the near future, I’d say.

You? What do you think of such SMB marketing tactics by old-world entities like the YellowPages Group?

Seems that the YP group, has commissioned a recent study by the research folks over at Burke and comscore, that is showing that the total number of yellow page paper and online requests hit 16.9 BILLION searches. That’s about 46 million searches a day or 1.9 million searches an hour, eh…and that’s a LOT of searching!

So what, you’re asking? Well, my point is not that total number of searches, but in fact what % was online versus what % was a paper yellow pages search…and it’s these numbers that have me a bit – well — a bit curious!

You see, the report clearly states this –

You reading this like I am will mean that the paper yellow pages searches outnumber the online ones by about 3 to 1…ie about evertime I search for something online in the yellow pages, there are three other folks using the paper yellow pages….and that’s what has me curious. Why is that?

Maybe it’s our client roster. Maybe it’s my family, friends and all my online social friends too, maybe it’s my age….but after asking pretty much everyone I know, not a one uses the paper yellow pages still. Not a one. Not occasionally. Not seldom. Not ever. Anymore. Not a single one. Everything is done online via their desktop or laptop or smartphone…but never ever via paper!

So, if my own research shows that paper is dead…how come Burke, who were the marketing firm who surveyed over 8k respondents got such a high response rate of paper yellow page searches? That’s the part I don’t understand. Course, I did nod my head, when I found that only 20% of those 8000 queries were done through a phoned survey and the other 6000 were done via online forms….that made me once again, proud to be an online-kind-of-guy. But that was only a small smile, I had….as the vast difference between what I see here in our own region is not showing up similarily on a national basis.

So let me ask you all….which do you use — either the paper yellow pages or online yellow pages when you need to look up something? Please just post your own comments here below – and if you’ve friends/family/client research on same, just add that here too!