In yet another slap in the face for Yellow Pages advertisers, the new “Purely Mobile Business” solution from yellowpages.com.au is another example of Yellow squeezing every last dollar out of their client base. Yellow’s previous premium online solution, the “Gold Online Solution” entitled advertisers to across the board top positioning for every search term within there selected capital city for their industry. Towards the end of 2009 these listings were shifted to the right hand side, which reduces click through rates. 2010 has seen the introduction of “Purely Mobile Business”, which enables these advertisers to regain their left hand side listing at more than 5 times the price of the original “Gold Online Solution”.

This up selling is in keeping with Yellow Pages past tactics with their print publications. Starting with quarter page ads, then introducing half page and finally releasing full page ads at 4 times the price, consequently forcing advertisers to upgrade to stay ahead of the competition. Continued increased ad sizes has meant advertisers have needed to increase advertising to prevent being leapfrogged by the lower placed advertisers. Whilst “Purely Mobile Business” is not currently available in all classifications we will continue to monitor the developments of Yellow’s latest premium products to provide an insight into how these changes will affect your small business website.