Does everyone remember these?
Once upon a time, Phone books, particularly the yellow pages, were the way consumers searched for, and found, local businesses.
Today, even those industries that have historically been the most “yellow page” dependent, are moving online.
White Pages = NOT Optimized for Search
As a refresher, the white pages included all of the local listings – personal, as well as commercial – in alphabetical order by name.
If you already knew the name of the business you were looking for, you could find its listing (address and phone number) in the white pages.
In today’s world of search engines, having a website that is not optimized for search, is like being listed only in the white pages. If the searcher already knows about your company, and is searching for it specifically, he/she will be able to find you.
However, if the searcher of old was unaware of your business, but looking for the services that you offered, your business needed to be included in the yellow pages to be found.
Yellow Pages = Optimized for Search
The yellow pages were (and still are) organized by categories that you could select to be listed under – for marketing, the categories might include Marketing, Advertising, Internet Marketing,etc. Within each category, participating businesses were listed alphabetically, but could be optimized for better results.
