Yahoo! Search Blog announced Local Featured Listings - advertisement that targets local search and appears in the highlighted top or bottom of the page whenever visitor searches for similar business in your area. Amount of Featured Listings is limited to 6, so I gotta buy a couple tomorrow for my brokers and hopefully HomeGain and the gang won't buy them all :) The "best" part about it is that Yahoo! charges flat monthly fee - it's a little confusing though, since in the blog they mentioned that it cost $29.95/month and the official rate card says from $15 up to $300 a month depending on the business region and category it is in. I think small businesses will like flat fee and the options Featured Listings provide:
High Visibility - A Featured Listing guarantees prominent placement — but with just six listings on the first two pages of search results, inventory is limited!
Customizable Info - Your Featured Listing includes your tagline, customizable links to coupons or special offers, and a designated business details page.
Control - You choose the categories and regions associated with your listing. And unlike standard search results, you can adjust your listing messaging any time.
Easy Setup - Setup is simple. And there's no need to worry about things like keywords or bids.
Convenient Billing Options - Manage your spending with flat-rate, monthly payments starting at less than $25/month, depending on your business category and location.1 Click here to view a rate card.
Ability to Track - A Featured Listing provides detailed reporting data so you can know exactly how many people have seen and clicked your listing.
The last (and most interesting for me) option that comes with Local Featured Listings is Free 5 Pages Web Site for Your Business:
As an additional benefit when you sign up for a Featured Listing, you can get a free 5-page basic web site customized with your company logo, text and links to other sites. Templates and a web site wizard make it easy to build your site.
The free web site feature is currently in beta.
This might be a very beneficial option to get a couple of pages on Yahoo (authority) web site with your own content and links to MLS Search, Property Listings and other landing pages where you can generate leads on your site. I noticed that my abandoned Yahoo 360 blog ranks for a couple of more or less competitive keyphrases, so I wouldn't expect any less from Yahoo Local Featured Listings either.
Make a note on your TO-DO list for tomorrow, otherwise it might be too late.