Choose Your Own Adventure with Yelp’s Local Search

David Mihm recently wrote an interesting post calling out Google on its lack of organic results above the fold. Google has always prided itself in providing it's searchers with the most relevant search results, and they have done an excellent job for a very long time. However, I find it very hard to believe that it is merely a coincidence that Google feels that results that make them money are more relevant than those that don't. Take a look at the screen shot below to see exactly how little space Google has given to organic results.

Over the years, I've seen the area designated towards organic results shrink and shrink. It is yet to be seen, but it is my belief that if Google continues to make revenue a priority over user experience then I believe users will quickly find alternatives for their daily searching activities.

One of the companies poised to take advantage of this exodus is Yelp. Yelp business listings offers searchers a clean easy to use interface that allows the user to decide how to determine relevance. Yelp doesn't guess that you might want the closest restaurant or that you might want the one with reviews. Instead, Yelp gives the searcher the option to choose for themselves. And take a look at the results page on the same exact search for pizza. Look at how much of the page is designated towards organic results. Almost all of it.

The flexibility and freedom that Yelp gives its users makes it a great option when searching for local businesses. Not to mention their mobile app which makes finding that delicious hole-in-the-wall restaurant easy as the pie you're going to enjoy there.

Yelp isn't the only local search destination looking to capitalize on Google's greed. There are dozens of local search engines and directories like Yelp business listings whose number one priority is helping searchers find exactly what they are looking for. Do you know how your business looks on these sites? Check for free here!