With so many phone books out there, it can be hard to choose which ones are worth being listed in. These days, most of them not only have a print version of their book, but also have an online presence. This also gives the advertisers more options, such as having a video clip attached to their online listing page. Today I will review the top 3 on my list: YellowPages, Canpages, and Goldbook.
Yellow Pages

Probably the largest, most recognized and therefore most expensive directory out there for both print and online advertising. They now have Canada 411 and other directories which enhances their presence. Even though they are a valuable directory to be in, I wouldn’t go ahead and dump all my advertising dollars in this one. Only if your budget is big enough, they might be a viable option.

Alexa Ranking for www.yellowpages.ca is approximately: 5,500

Canpages

Their print portion is growing quite rapidly across the nation. Their online portion is quite unique. You can get a free online link throughout Canpages, without paying for an online listing. This is the only one of the 3 that gives you a free online link when you get your business in their online directory…so in terms of getting stuff for free, Canpages ranks number 1. They do offer a sponsored listing, which may or may not be worth it. I found that in some categories, the competition is so slim, that a regular free listing will do, especially if your company’s name is closer to the start of the alphabet.

Alexa Ranking for www.canpages.ca is approximately: 12,000

Goldbook

Probably weaker than Canpages in terms of their print distribution, but stronger in terms of their local online presence in southern Ontario. They were purchased by The Toronto Star, and are affiliated with many other local newspapers and search sites. You will find their search bar on www.thestar.com and many other local sites, which helps attract many users. Goldbook charges $25 for a listing, and $5 for every additional link. They create a content page for your business, which seems to be more search engine friendly compared to the short abbreviated listings in other directories.

Alexa Ranking for www.goldbook.ca is approximately: 65,000

Don’t rely on just one of theses directories. Ideally, if you can be in all 3, than you’ll be way ahead of the game. If you can’t afford that – start with the smallest package from one or two directories, and work your way to larger ads. Test the directory first, before you dump your whole advertising budget with one vendor.

Social Search Engine Optimization, or simply Social SEO has become the new buzzword for search engine marketers.  According to various SEO professionals – directory submissions, link building and other SEO practices are slowly becoming a thing of the past and we must begin moving towards new strategies, if we plan to stay competitive. 

Ideally, you can still carry on traditional SEO strategies, but also incorporate new ones.  If you want to compete in tomorrow’s SEO world, than social SEO might be your best bet.  Social SEO can be defined as a method used to promote your site by creating awareness on social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Youtube or bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us and Digg.  Social media types include forums, blogs, message boards, wikis and pod casts. 

Anyway you can create a ‘buzz’ around your site, you are surely guaranteed to bring in traffic.  If you have good content, people will link to you.  You can even consider Social SEO as a form of link building.

Best way to start your Social SEO campaign is to register on sites such as Facebook, MySpace and create a company or website profile.  Add pictures, write descriptions and put links up to your website.  You can also register at bookmarking sites and ’tag’ your own website.

Just remember, the more profiles you have, the more you ‘tag’, the more traffic you will get…and ultimately, the higher your search engine ranks will be.   

If you want to be instantly found on the first page of the search results and start driving traffic to your website before your SEO campaign kicks in, than there’s no doubt about it – a sponsored link campaign is the way to go.  Sponsored link campaigns, also know as PPC (pay-per-click) is the process of bidding on keywords / phrases that allow search engine users to come across your website in the search results.  Similarly to any auction, the higher you bid, the more you get.  In the world of sponsored links - the more you bid, the higher your placement will be.

Most search engines have some form of sponsored link programs.  The 3 most popular ones are Google Adwords, Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing), and MSN.  My personal favourite of course is Google Adwords.  As many are aware, Google gets the largest share of searches, so that’s one good reason to start your sponsored link campaign with them.  Other reasons include: they have a great adwords program, quick response team (good customer service), and they have an extensive help guide.  There are also a lot of resources out there to help you jump start your Google Adwords campaign.  One that is highly recognized in the industry is Perry Marshall’s Literature on Google Adwords.

Optimizing a sponsored link campaign is very important, in order to achieve the best results.  As a marketing company, if I was targeting multiple keyword phrases and all my adds looked like the one bellow, we would not be getting the desired results we were hoping for:

Ex. #1

WebStar Multimedia Inc.
Toronto Internet Marketing 
Online Services for GTA.

Instead, it would be smarter to target different keyword phrases, and optimize a separate ad for a particular group of keywords.  For example, if we wanted to target the phrase ‘Toronto internet marketing’, we might make an ad such as the one bellow:

Ex. #2

Toronto Internet Marketing
Web Design Services, SEO,
Copywriting & Much More.

If we were creating an add specifically for the keyword phrase ‘web design’, than our ad would probably look something like this:

Ex. #3

Web Design Company
Toronto Web Designers,
Flash, CMS & More…

By optimizing your campaign, you will surely increase your ROI.  Make sure that your also sending your users to the appropriate pages.  You should not be sending your online visitor to the same page every time.   You should have targeted pages that will convert your reader into a customer.  

At the end of the day, if all this is not for you, and you don’t have time to manage your own sponsored link campaign than you can always hire a company that knows what their doing!