Consider the rotary phone. It had a familiar, sturdy design. It entered service in 1919, with a demise beginning in the 1970s. Its nemesis was touch tone dialing provided by a keypad instead of a dial. Its primary legacy is that phone numbers are still “dialed”.
Now consider the phone book. Official versions date back to the 19th Century. Printed phone books, though still widely used, are now in decline. This trend has accelerated over the past few years, including a key moment in 2007 when, according to Google Trends, the path of descent for “yellow pages” was crossed by an ascending nemesis: Google Maps. Business listings in search engine results as well as improvements in local search have effectively pushed the printed phone book aside, its popularity and usage dropping like a brick.
What does this all mean? Online local business listings are becoming the de facto standard. Rather than taking time to find the cumbersome phone book, individuals will jump on Google or Bing and perform a local search on their smartphone. Businesses that focus on building an effective local listing will move to the forefront and have a prominent position in the search engine results pages.
As for the latest issue of the phone book, it’ll look just fine tucked underneath that old rotary phone.
Google cites three “key processes” in delivering search results. Anytime an SEO effort is underway it’s important to ensure that these three areas are properly addressed.
Think of investing in SEO like buying a nice new pair of leather shoes. The largest investment is the pair of shoes (like the SEO setup fee), but the monthly management is like polishing and repairing the shoe. By taking care of your shoe, they stay useful and nice.
SEO clients may start to see results quickly, but improvement is usually gradual. Ethical optimization is obtained by using techniques that can take time to build and to respond. Proper setup and initial service is vital, but ongoing monitoring, measuring, and adjusting are also important. Quality SEO companies agree that the process takes time before results appear, at least two or three months, and is generally not an “overnight success”.