• by Ross Fadner , December 13, 2004

The Yellow Pages Association, in conjunction with several online media companies, is expected to unveil "Local Search Guide," a new information hub for local search advertising, this morning at the Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference.

Joining the Yellow Pages Association in the initiative is audience measurement firm comScore Networks, local research firm The Kelsey Group, and the search marketing trade association SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization).

The new online local advertising resource will include information about online directories, major search engines that also provide local search services, and search advertising tools provided by companies such as Yahoo!'s Overture and Switchbaord.com.

Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association, and principal sponsor of Local Search Guide, said the association hopes to create a central resource to capture developments in the rapidly consolidating local marketplace. "There are an awful lot of marketing opportunities between interactive yellow pages providers and local search companies," he said. "We thought this would be a good opportunity to give our members a starting point for local search information." Norton said the Yellow Pages Association will act as central architect of the guide, responsible for pulling all the partners together.

Supporting partner comScore Networks will provide rankings of the top 30 Internet Yellow Pages, search engines, and top search properties by specific media. comScore spokesman Graham Mudd said the company will provide MediaMetrix data from its global panel to rank the top properties in their respective categories by the number of unique visitors each receives per month.

The Kelsey Group, which performs local market analysis for advertisers, publishers and agencies, will help with management strategy for the local search guide, and will also author several columns containing recommendations about online local advertising products and services.

The Kelsey Group's Charles Laughlin said the Local Search Guide would help local advertisers unfamiliar with online advertising get their feet wet. "This could be one resource for them to find out who the providers are in this space, what certain terms mean, etc." he said.

Barbara Coll, president of SEMPO said the search marketing trade organization is involved because "we represent the services industry; we are the people who will help sell local search to our clients." Coll added that local advertisers tend to be service-based companies. She said she expects SEMPO members and sponsors to be interested in the Local Search Guide.

"What we saw was an open space no one was filling," added Stephanie Hobbs, vice president communications for the Yellow Pages Association. "We are looking for information from a variety of consultants," she said, adding that there is a real demand from the local business community for information about the burgeoning local search market.