Yellow Page Optimization

How many AAA companies do you know of? AAA insurance did it most notably with insurance. Insurance is competitive. You need any angle you can get. I think the roots of search optimization can be traced to this. This is the mindset. This is the school of thought in action. Gaining an advantage in the alpha-sort (thanks to Michael for the the techie-marketing terminology) is one of a handful of ways that you can increase your advantage in the world of optimization. This is beyond SEO – this is a marquee example of the school of thought that sets good SEO’s above those who still work on meta tags and creating reciprocal links. This is the school of thought that gives creative thinkers an advantage in any marketplace that they dive into. If you can’t figure out what I’m talking about – keep writing those title tags and meta descriptions. If you can, keep it at the forefront of your thought process when implementing creative campaigns – just be sure to spread a little link love if you engage in a little "yellow page optimization". Despite the simplistic nature – it so often gets overlooked. Keep your eyes peeled. Opportunities abound (and that doesn’t mean you need to post ‘em to the world the second you find them either:) **Despite the fact that I like this simple technique – it might also be a good label for the really BASIC optimization that most folks think of when they hear SEO (metas, titles, kw copy, etc.) – It could also be the type of people you’d FIND if you looked in the yellow pages under “search engine optimization” (yellow page optimizers). Hopefully it’ll take on a bit of a double meaning for people that “get it” – kinda like “Forget about it!”

Todd Malicoat

More information about Todd Malicoat aka stuntdubl.

http://stefanjuhl.com/ Stefan Juhl

Hehe, back when I first started my company I picked a name for it that started with a number just because of the advantage in alpha-sort listings – I got pretty decent traffic from directories and the like so it was well worth it in my opinion. Unfortunately I got tired of the name, its lack of brand ability and the problems in telling it over the phone…
http://www.toprankblog.com Lee Odden

That’s the thing about better SEO, “creative thinkers” and also not spewing every little thing. Good advice Todd.
http://web-professor.net webprofessor

You know this one technique is honestly still one of the best. I am reminded of it everytime I see my blog listed on a site in the W section… all the way at the bottom.
http://www.seodisco.com/ kid disco

To post and gain notoriety… or not to post and take full advantage…

What to do… what to do…
http://thenewSEOblogatImpact-Direct contentmuse

YES!- I just took on writing blogs for my company and the old writer was formatting the blogs a la summarizing another blog (recently this one- based on my tip-off) and creating a link to it. Well he is dead now and I scratched his name off the authorship of the blog and put my name on top. Ingenuity is the greatest attribute to have; you can wrap your head around anything (that shouldn’t be the problem), but how to make it ‘spicy’ is the secret ingredient that many are willing and able to whip up.
http://www.seopractices.com 101 Seo Basic Practices

What about this one Todd: “101 Seo Basic Practices”, thanks for the tip, is always good to read you.
http://www.superrichguy.com Jason

Todd, great post, I had tried that in directorys a while ago but saw no real effects to doing the 101, i see lots of people still do it on the yahoo group links….
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Gordon

Todd, I’m reading between the lines on this one and agree with you completely based on my some past success in this area….(unless you weren’t writing between the lines in which case I’m way off base…)

keep up the good work.
SHOEGAL

Todd, on yellow page websites the featured(paid) advertisers aren’t listed alphabetically. They are listed in a tier base structure by date contract was signed, item and or dollar amount spent. I am not sure if you are saying they are listed by alpha numeric order like the print.
http://www.yourmessageconsultant.com Michele Tway

I found your site for the first time today. I realize this post is over a year old but that is why I felt compelled to leave a comment. Like many other golden ideas, I suspect this one has lost much of its punch. Many yellow pages/directories no longer list sites alphabetically. After the 10th or even 20th listing forcing strange combinations of letters and numbers to get listed first, many yellow page website owners resorted to other listing criteria. And, to be honest, when I come across a link where they have used A’s and numbers in an odd way, I write them off as spammers.