Updated: Apr 10, 2025
Author: Tony Waldegrave
There's a view amongst some NZ businesses that having a listing in Yellow Pages will help improve your website's organic rankings in Google.
Its fairly tough for businesses to understand and to determine what is important when it comes to optimising a website and to achieve good traffic generation from Google. It was definitely easier in those days when all you needed to do to get your phone ringing was to book your yellow pages directory listing.
Here's the short answer: A Yellow Pages listing offers minimal SEO value - and definitely not enough to justify an expensive subscription if rankings are your main goal.
We would advise strongly against purchasing links or getting involved in link exchange programs.
Google uses hundreds of signals (over 200, in fact) to decide how websites rank in search results. These include technical factors, content quality, backlinks, user experience, mobile-friendliness, and more.
And here’s the thing: Google’s algorithm is getting smarter every day — especially at ignoring paid and unnatural links.
A quality linking profile will need to be earned over time and cannot be purchased.
So while backlinks (links pointing to your website) still matter, they need to be earned, not bought. Paid directory listings, like Yellow Pages, are typically seen by Google as low-value or neutral links — offering little to no boost for SEO.
If you have a brand new domain, then its probably worthwhile to list your business on free directories to help your linking profile get established.
But for SEO impact, focus on quality over quantity when it comes to links.
Get your website technically sound
Do talk to an SEO expert about your website to make sure it is coded well, fast, mobile-friendly, structured correctly and is search engine friendly. (A good SEO audit will tell you if you're on the right track.)
Content is not just a part of SEO; it's now the main event!
SEO should not be viewed as a one-off paid for exercise like getting your roof painted.
Read our article on content marketing – this provides a very good overview of why and how you should go about creating a plan to create and publish content. Creating content should now be included as a key part of your businesses marketing mix.
Avoid shortcuts
Don’t buy links or sign up for sketchy link exchanges. These are red flags for Google and can hurt more than help.
Follow SEO best practices
If you’re managing your own site, start with the basics.
Read our SEO guidelines for on-page search engine optimisation.
Work with experts
SEO can be time-consuming and technical. If you want results faster or don’t have the in-house expertise, talk to a team that knows what they’re doing (hint: us 😊).
If you want a more detailed perspective on the latest SEO factors that influence rankings, we recommend reading this research published by Search Metrics in the USA.
👉 Need help with your SEO strategy?
Contact the team at Adhesion for a no-obligation consultation. We’ll help you understand what matters most and build a plan that works for your business.
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