Here are some recent stastics about the Internet Yellow Pages for TMP Directional Marketing, a respected agency that specializes in Local Search:

The internet as a whole is the source most often used to find local business information. However, the print Yellow Pages is the single most used source. Ironic, isn’t it? 90% of the people they surveyed “still find print Yellow Pages a valuable resource”. As their primary source of nformation about local enterprises, 33% cited the printed phone books (both white and yellow), 30% choose the Search Engines, 17% go directly to the Internet Yellow Pages, 13% use local search sites and 7% have another means of finding that data.

Once people have found what they are looking for online, 8% did additonal research offline and 14% performed additional research online. 39% visited a business they found and 39% placed a phone call to a business. Nearly 80% those searching call or visit the business and 61% make a purchase!

If you’ve read very much that I’ve written, you know I don’t put much stock in statistics. However, if only half of these numbers are true, it still makes a very powerful case for making certain that you are well represented in all of the places online and offline where people are looking or information about your business.