Merchants that take out enhanced listings on Yahoo! tend to improve their impressions and clicks by 2X, and increase their all-important ranking on the page, said Yahoo! Local GM Paul Levine, in a Small Business Commando Tele-Seminar that also featured Kelsey Group’s Matt Booth (yes, I helped).
Levine said there is nothing mysterious about the relationship between rankings and buying enhanced listings. The inclusion of custom information in the profile, including photos, custom tag lines etc. simply make many listings more attractive for consumers. In fact, Yahoo! is emphasizing its wide array of integrated social tools (Flickr, Delicio.us, etc.) as a major differentiator.
“It is an opportunity for merchants,” said Levine. “The more they participate, the more likely they are to be on the first or second page” of listings. “The onus is on the merchant to get the message out. Consumers want to find what they are looking for quickly,” he added.
In addition to enhanced listings, which cost $9.95 per month, Levine said that Yahoo! Local’s “featured listings,” which have six positions at the top and bottom of the page, with 50 percent rotation, has really improved traffic for merchants. The north listings at the top are 50 percent more expensive than the south listings. They are priced from $50 to $300 per month, based on position, region and category and are offered via both self-serve and channel partners.
Looking ahead, Levine said he envisions more of an emphasis on geotargeted and mobile products. “The litmus test is when it becomes easier to SMS than to call 411. That’s the point when you’ll see people really use these services.”
Thanks for the write-up on this, Peter. Quick question on that very first sentence … are they saying the $10/month enhanced listing in Yahoo Local also helps their organic ranking? If so, I would assume just in the organic local rankings, yes? Any clarification would be helpful – thanks again!
Matt: Paul Levine is saying that the features associated with enhanced listings are so attractive that they typically double usage, and drive up organic rankings.
It has been widely whispered, of course, that people “buy” better rankings on Yahoo! While he didn’t explicitly say that there was no connection between better rankings and being a paid customer, he definitely seemed to imply that it is not a matter of paying.
There is a difference in definitions of organic local rankings and organic directory listings
When a person is talking about the local search world. There are organic website listings and there are organic directory listings (not sure if these are the exact terms)
The enhanced listing product can help your rankings in the directory listing just by the fact that you are offering more content, this content allows Yahoo! to assign your business listing some relevancy outside the category or SIC your business falls into.
As with most things in the search world more relevant content equals higher rankings. Whether that is for your website or your business directory listing.