SuperPages
Open An Account With SuperPages SuperPages.com is one of the many examples of former print-based Yellow Page Directories taking their business online. Depending upon where you live, a different Internet Yellow Page (IYP) property may have become the major way you search for phone numbers. SuperPages.com, however, has taken the extra step to become a prime mover in partnering with search engine networks, consolidation with other yellow page companies, and now even entering into the pay-per-click search engine business themselves. Yellow page properties in general have been quite successful in persuading their current print customers and those who don't want a printed listing to accept an online listing. Prime considerations include a lower cost overall, the ability to quickly change your listing should you move your business or change phone numbers, as well as the integration into the mapping area of search engines. SuperPages’ homepage has all the attributes one might expect from an IYP expansion – still emphasizing its “phone” affiliation, but gradually beginning to look more and more like other search engines with its addition of shopping sections. The basic search box is keyword based, with “keywords” being categories of products/services, rather than a typical search box. Local search options are offered, or you can search by distance or run a map-based search, but the focus is that this is the IYP section of the page. Just below is the shopping comparison area, divided into “Merchandise” (which has price comparison and reviews of products), “eBay Marketplace” (which takes you to an intermediary page of info about eBay), and “Web Search” which is the more typical search engine approach. Many other directories are only a click away and special offers from Verizon of course are featured. There is even a SuperPages.com Toolbar you can download and add to your browser. Although the PPC model involves the advertiser choosing categories they wish to have their ad appear in, there is also bidding for position. The top 6 six ads on a results page are pay-per-click (the first 3 are for national/regional/metro-targeted ads and the next 3 for local-targeted PPC ads). Monthly spends can be set or a maximum for the whole course of the campaign. A category lookup tool can help an advertiser find the most appropriate categories to place their ad in. An ROI calculator is also available. PPC ads on this search engine have the added benefit of including a link not just to your website, but also include options to add links to a map, your phone number, your email address, and a business profile (in place of a website if you are not online). If the user clicks on more than one of the links in your ad during his/her visit, you will only be charged for one click. Your ad will appear in their partner network, for which they provide online yellow pages and local search services for, which currently includes MSN, AskJeeves, Lycos, Dogpile, InfoSpace, among others. Relevancy used in ranking appears to center more on location than similar search engines, although relevance to the search term(s), keywords, content and bid rank is also considered. An emphasis on location for relevancy is SuperPages.com's advantage if you are targeting a local audience – using the theory that users further along in the buying cycle who want to buy locally are more likely to use SuperPages.com. As they put it: “Our focus is on local and national businesses offering product and services, which is very different from other PAY PER CLICK providers that are mainly focused on virtual businesses selling products.” Although you may not at first think of an IYP turned search engine as a first choice for PPC advertising, and the cost is relatively high, many people do use local SuperPages as their online telephone pages source. Although SuperPages.com is a little cumbersome to use for a web search as a starting point (couple of extra clicks needed to get there), its prominence as an IYP will help its PPC side to grow over time. However, the integration of PPC into an IYP-based search engine will not be an easy feat to accomplish.
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