Someone from Yellowbook called my attention to another piece (Net Magellan) that exposes the results of SEO-IYP analysis and testing. This article uses four queries, on 28 US directory sites, across “274 cities/regions with a population greater than 100,000 people.”
There isn’t a single master ranking that appears, but you see how the sites comparatively rank for the different queries.
Read the article to discover the rankings, but they come out somewhat differently than Andrew Shotland’s list.
Screenwerk 
August 17, 2009 at 3:18 pm
That is terrific research as is Andrew’s. To the extent there are differences in the two analyses–so what. Different phrases/different metropolitan regions -> different results.
The structure of the analyses in both cases is excellent. As a small business operator these are exactly the types of research that helps one decide where to put web advertising money.
On top of that both pieces of research point out that superpages is doing something worthwhile relative to the other directories. On the other hand a directory such as dexonline can do a bang up job in a certain region.
Very worthwhile reports.
August 17, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Ash Nallawalla (say that 10x fast) uses a much smaller keyword set – only 3 categories v. 20 for my analysis – and I presume that he was also searching from Australia, so he is may see some variation in the results v. someone who is searching the U.S. – so while we may not be talking apples v. oranges here I think we are talking Fujis v. Granny Smiths (or perhaps Pink Ladys or maybe McDonalds Apple Pies).
It’s interesting to see the bloggers who have started mashing up the data I have published. Here’s one who did his own additional research on the florist category:
http://www.floristseo.com/seo/iyp-local-florist-directory-rankings-in-smaller-markets-2009
And Greg, please make sure your Yellowbook pal drops me a line. I am pretty sure I can help him make next year’s list 😉
August 17, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Just as Andrew notes, Nallawalla’s sample set is limited to fewer categories, though more metro areas combined with those categories. Nallawalla does also note that he didn’t intend to duplicate the sample survey out of professional courtesy.
Earlpearl states that it’s worthwhile all the same, which is true. There’s very definitely a number of ways to assess SEO effectiveness/success.
I generally prefer to use a much broader sample set with a few of the most common local query phrase formats across many more metro areas and many more category/business-keyword combinations, in order to gain a more representative sampling.
Even so, I believe that Andrew’s report is likelier to reflect results that would be much closer to what we’d find if we did expand out the sample query combinations, and that his report is likelier to better reflect the relative market share (in terms of traffic referred by search engines), at least for the top ten in his list. Andrew’s sample query format is the query sequence more commonly used in the U.S., and testing across a number of top metro areas for top yp category terms will give a moderately good sample of what we’d find with more expanded querying.
What Nallawalla’s testing does show is how specific business verticals and geographic regions frequently will have specialty vertical sites that perform better than IYPs for their related keyterms. This is important for search marketing consultants to grasp when working on behalf of local companies or IYPs. IYPs must win the broad, macro game without obsessing overmuch over specific search combinations, while small businesses desiring highly specific referral traffic need to focus efforts on integrating with the particular IYP and vertical directories which are ranking well for their region and/or category.
I’ll probably comment some on Nallawalla’s blog post further about all this.
August 18, 2009 at 2:36 am
I suspect their are many, many other methodologies that could be used – and all would produce unique results. Here’s what really matters, and what I’d love to see some research on: which IYP property delivers the most accurate, geographically relevant search result? I’m talking about complete local listings and advertisers, not national results above local listings, etc.
August 18, 2009 at 2:47 am
I did such a test across six directory sites two years ago. The results were never published but it involved several US geographies (large and small) and hundreds of queries. The overall winner was Yahoo Local.
August 18, 2009 at 9:34 am
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August 18, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Very simply as a small business operator this kind of thinking and methodology would guide me in choosing 1 or more directories/IYP’s with regard to paying for some IYP type of web advertising, should I decide to go that way.
Then I would call up a bunch of them and try and negotiate for better prices. Thanks for the analyses. 😀