As high speed internet becomes the norm, the thick Yellow Page directories are fast becoming doorstops. More and more people are searching for local businesses online, and they're finding your competitors.

Getting found in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) used to involve "submitting" your site to the search engines. Now it's the "directory listings" that will become critical. Search engines are now focusing on what they call “local search”. Look at http://local.google.com and at http://local.yahoo.com as examples of what the future will bring.

Search Engines are pulling these local listings from the national online directories, and there are dozens to choose from. Here’s a link to a list of most of them, http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php, but don’t leave yet.

That list is long, and only a few directories will do you much good anyway, depending on the industry you're trying to promote, and the competition. I've listed myself with many of the online directories and I see my website statistics that tell me where my traffic comes from. The best ones for your business will vary.

Customers can find you in the directories, but it’s important to note that a directory listing can help you in more than one way. An important aspect of your SERPS is the “incoming links” to your website. The number of links there are, how relevant the linking page is, and how popular the linking website is, are all factors in determining your SERP rankings. Therefore, having a listing (with a link) in a popular directory gives your site more credibility, and ultimately better SERPS.

Probably the single most important directory you've never heard of is called InfoUSA. Right now, Yahoo, AOL, the SBC Yellow Pages, and Switchboard are all getting their local listings from them. You can list there for free too, at http://www.infousa.com.

The online yellow page directories are also creeping into the SERPS. To get the best ROI (Return On Investment), the four best online Yellow Page directories to start with are the Verizon Superpages, the Yahoo Yellow Pages, the MSN Yellow Pages and the AOL Yellow Pages. There are six other major online yellow page directories too, poised to take over different regions of the country. In an effort to establish dominance, some of them are free right now, and all of them offer an incredible bargain compared to the print directories that are sitting in your closet or drawer.

I still maintain that for most businesses, the most cost effective way to advertise is with Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. I wrote an article on this several months ago, called Marketing your website. The industry is still in its infancy, and there's not much competition yet. As PPC prices rise, these online directories will become a more cost effective way of getting the SERPS you need to succeed.

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