Which do you use first when searching for a local shop or service? The Yellow Pages or the White Pages?

It all depends on what you’re searching for, right? If you already know the name of the business, it makes sense to flick to the appropriate ‘white’ page. But if you only know the name of the service ‘yellow’ is the way to go.

This same rule is applied to Google everyday by millions of users across the world, often without a second thought. One might search for ‘4 wheel drive cars’ or ‘Subaru Legacy’. ‘Backcountry packs’ or ‘DaKine’. Maybe even… ‘Web Design’ or ‘Tactic Group’.

So which approach is typically you? Yellow or white?

Today I came across this post by Seth Godin entitled ‘How to make money with SEO’ – sent to me by my esteemed colleague Doug (thanks for that mate and sorry to steal your thunder). The title did nothing for me so my initial impression was not one of shock and awe, but the first couple of paragraphs certainly got my interest:

There are two ways to use SEO to help your organization. One is reliable and effective, the other is a glorious crap shoot that usually fails but is wonderful when it works. I’ll start with the second.

The most common way to use search engine optimization is to find a keyword (like “plumbing”) and do whatever you can to ‘own’ that word on Google. This is Google as the Yellow Pages (with free ads).

The Yellow Pages are terrific for plumbers, because if you need a plumber, that’s where you’re going to look. Buy the biggest ad, be the first listing, you get calls. Google is a revelation because it’s a super Yellow Pages and it’s free! The problem: how to be the first listing, because being the 40th listing is fairly worthless.

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Some end of the week inspiration today, in the form of a quick talk about the power of design. If you don’t work in the news industry, and think this isn’t relevant to you – hold your horses, this is well worth spending six minutes of your Friday to watch.

In this short film from TED, Polish designer/art-director, Jacek Utko, presents a case-study on how good design boosted the the flagging circulation of several eastern European newspapers. His story goes beyond graphic design.

While Jacek is talking about design in a very visual medium, I love his sentiments on going beyond visual design, changing the look of the newspapers and transforming the experience. The business and financial gains he shows are astounding!

Via 37Signals.

Today I’ve got a cracking quote to share, and hopefully a little food for thought to go with it.

I’ve just started reading the copywriting guide ‘Words That Work’ by the political consultant and speechwriter, Dr. Frank Luntz. As you’d expect from a book on this topic, the main theme is masterfully condensed into the strapline “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear”.

I was barely three pages in when I read a passage that really caught my attention:

“The key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener’s shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart. How that person perceives you is even more real, at least in a practical sense, than how you perceive yourself.”

Even though the words above are about speechwriting the advice is just as valid for crafting web content. Further than that, it applies well to other aspects of what we do as web designers and publishers.

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A few days back I wrote a post about brand monitoring and how negative customer comments posted on social media platforms are not always a bad thing.

Yesterday, I spotted this post from Darren Rowse (producing the goods again and again) reviewing a new reputation management tool called Trackur. Here’s a snippet of what Darren has to say about it:

“Trackur is an online reputation monitoring tool that has been developed for companies and individuals wanting to take a serious look at what is being said about them in the blogosphere. I can also see the possibilities for using this tool for higher end bloggers who want to track what’s being written about them and/or their niche topic.”

Whilst this may well be too heavy for many of our readers, I think you may find it interesting that such tools even exist. A much lighter alternative is Google Alerts – worth a look if you’re concerned with what’s being said about you across the all-mighty vortex of the World Wide Web.

Last week, amidst the delivery of a web marketing pitch, I was asked about the negative branding impacts social media could have on ones business. The client was particularly concerned with the open interactive company-specific groups, like those becoming common place on Facebook.

I addressed the concern by discussing constructive feedback and by pointing out that complaints or negative comments made by customers are not always a bad thing. On the plus side, they provide the business with an opportunity to respond publicly and they often bring up concerns that the management may not have been previously aware of. David Alston, a guest on Lee Odden’s Top Rank Online Marketing blog summed up the social media complaint responding benefits (wow, that’s a mouthful) very nicely in his last post Top 10 Reasons for Monitoring Brands in Social Media.

“A complaint is an opportunity to demonstrate problem-solving abilities. A posted complaint may also draw out other comments from people with the same concern, which provides an opportunity to reach out to them as well. And who knows, impressing customers with great customer service may generate some positive posts about how you resolved the problems.”

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