Yahoo Becoming Pro Active... Desperation... Or Good Move? Options

[lee.n3o]

Today I had two calls from a company working on behalf of Yahoo Local Listings... First phone call the chap wasn't very direct and just said they work on behalf of Yahoo Local and tried to tell me how great it would be to get a 'featured' listing and (Would you beleive) they had a special offer on.

Second phone call (A different chap) starts off by saying he's done a search for "a search term" and I'm not on the front page so I'm missing a lot of business - In essence with his help I could (And I quote ) "cut the middle man out" and get a listing in his local directory .. blah, blah, blah

Now I have never had a call from anything related to Yahoo before, all of a sudden I get two phone calls (And the chap sent me an email) - We know local search is the 'in thing' so is this a good move from Yahoo, directly contacting businesses to increase their local search directory? Or a move of desperation...



P.s. What I found funny from the last guy was saying to him.. "Really I'm not on the first page for XXXXXXXX in Yahoo ... Geesh... Let me check Google... Oh there's me!... I'm number one "..

[A.N.Onym]

Maybe Yahoo should get more active online for it? And filter those, who are #1 on Google for the term =)

They'd rather really learn their demographics and target those businesses that match it, too. Does your shop/service match the Yahoo demographics, btw?

Don't think it is a move out of desperation, btw. A move in a good direction, but far from being executed perfectly. These chaps really need to research the topic and business owners before cold calling them, which would make the endeavour unprofitable, though.

Another matter is, if there are 25 pizzas in a city that buy the featured local listing, which do they show at the top? (Maybe I am misunderstanding, and they were talking about paid text ads, instead of business listings?)

The last quote was pretty funny, too

This post has been edited by A.N.Onym: Sep 18 2008, 07:01 AM

[lee.n3o]

Forgot another funny bit of the first conversation as well...

Yahoo Chap: "Can you see the tabs at the top, your listing would appear under that"
Me: "Sorry I must on on a different page I can't see them"
Yahoo Chap: "Oh... Can you see XXXXX Business at the top"
Me: "Yes"
Yahoo Chap: "Ok above them are the tabs"
Me: "Sorry I can't see them, although there is some over lapping text... I'm using FireFox, is that a problem"
Yahoo: "Oh yes theres a problem with it displaying in Firefox"



Anyway... Heres the listings (Not the business sector, I just picked these at random) he was chatting about

http://uk.local.yahoo.com/England/Kent/Int...s-12602173.html

They were trying to sell me an enhanced listing that appeared at the top, and I was allowed my website URL (Straight link - no redirect or nofollows)

This post has been edited by lee.n3o: Sep 18 2008, 08:13 AM

[A.N.Onym]

Hrm. Dont see a direct link there, just info about local cafes. I must be Yahoo Local Featured Listing blind or something.

This post has been edited by A.N.Onym: Sep 19 2008, 12:07 AM

[SEOigloo]

Hey Lee,
So the people really were both from Yahoo? They weren't SEOs trying to sell local search services?

Weird to get 2 calls like that. Sounds almost like you've been put on a do-call list, hmm?

One of the main things that has differentiated Yahoo and Google' Local entities is their approach to local business owners. Yahoo actually has numbers you can call and people you can talk to if you've got a problem. Google is a brick wall, though they did roll out a reinclusion request for Local this past week. That was big news, and a step in the right direction, but very different from Yahoo's more neighborly approach to doing business.

Thanks for posting about this.

Miriam