There's an interesting article by Kris Oser this week over at AdAge.com that explores the growth of local search and why it's still important to include online yellow pages as part of any online advertising strategy.

With more and more searchers looking not only for product reviews and pricing information, but actual outlets for purchasing, the past year has seen an explosion in the local search market. Google and Yahoo! have both hyped new local search features and Overture has introduced "Local Match," which allows PPC advertisers to geographically target their keyword campaigns.

The entry of traditional yellow page advertisers into the market with programs like Verizon's SuperPages has spelled an increased level in competition among traditional yellow pages and established search giants like Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL.

Oser explains that yellow pages, despite being late to the market, have a distinct advantage over the major players due to an extensive network of local sales staff scattered across the country. Local advertisers are also far more likely to have experience with yellow page listings and to already be working with an agent as part of their current advertising campaign. According to the Kelsey Group, small to mid-size businesses spend roughly 46% of their advertising budget on yellow page listings and only about 3% on search engine marketing.

The full article, titled "Online Yellow Pages Beat Search Engines Locally" is available at the AdAge.com Web site.