I was recently thinking...If I needed a service in my city such as a plumber or dentist where would I look first? My first thought would be the yellow pages (online). I dont think I would go to Google and search for service + my city. How about you?

The reason I thought of this is because it may be more cost effective for a business to pay about $50/month for a premium yellowpages listing than to pay for full SEO. Any thoughts?

You really check the YP 1st?

I dont think I have EVER checked the YP online except to scout for leads. Also the Google KW tool pretty much tells you how many ppl search for the term every month, there is little mystery to it, the accuracy "may" be in question but that is about all.

Yes,when I am looking for a service I need done by a local company I check YP online.
I recently put a brand new business online and listed it in YP. It got several clicks from the YP in the first few days.

No chance I am going to YP. It tells me literally NOTHING about the business, unless there is a link there to their website - in which case I would have likely found it in Google anyway.

YP is not providing anyone value other than itself, and marginal value to it's advertisers. All is IMO.

i actually have an online local business and I can tell you I get alot more leads from google local places then yellow pages. We are talking about something like a 30 to 1 ratio.

That's gotta be a rhetorical question...

Yeah, OP, you're in the minority.

However, $50 / month to catch the leads that go there is obviously worth it. For any business, if they get 1-2 clients per year out of it, they're money ahead.

It sounds like the sales pitch that YP gave me when they were trying to get me to sign up!!