Yellow Book IYP Traffic Surges

Yellowbook.com is gaining ground in the U.S. IYP arena. Online measurement firm comScore Networks issued a “year in review” press release this week in which it noted that Yellowbook.com was one of the top-gaining properties of 2007. In December 2007, visits to Yellowbook.com jumped 137 percent to 10.4 million visitors, compared with about 4.4 million in December 2006.

This surge in traffic is a real boost for Yellow Book, a division of U.K.-based Yell Group. As its organic print revenues have slowed (the natural consequence of getting big in a tough market with limited expansion opportunities), the pressure has grown for Yellow Book to adopt a more ambitious strategy for generating online revenue growth. In comes Pat Marshall in mid-2007 with the task of making Yellow Book as much of a player on the online field as it has been in print.

The surge in traffic is not game, set, match, but rather an indication of progress. Still, Yellow Book and its owners in the U.K. have to be encouraged.