YP Partners With Uber to Bring Cars to Your Door

In the platform’s first API integration with a local search site, Uber is now featured on the directory listings in YP’s app.

YP has entered into a new partnership with Uber that will allow searchers to summon a car straight from the search directory’s listings.

When you look up a restaurant on the former Yellow Pages (YP), beyond checking hours of operation and directions, you’ll see buttons for booking a table or viewing the menu. As of today, there’s a third button that gives you the option to order an Uber to that specific restaurant, complete with an estimated fare.

For Darren Clark, chief technology officer at YP, these integrations – others include Fandango and GrubHub – are about bridging the gap between people searching for something and actually doing it.

“We’re working really hard to get past the click,” says Clark. “That’s important because it’s still going to be currency for a while for how people interact with businesses, but we’re trying to get to transactions, appointments, real-time messages between consumers and businesses.

“If we get lots of conversions and these connections get really rich, advertisers are going to be more concerned with the actions people took, rather than if they just saw the ad,” Clark continues.

Each month, more than 70 million people search YP’s listings, the majority of which are local businesses, who have the most to gain from this partnership. YP was always a point of discovery for SMBs – according to Clark, the directory is particularly popular with travelers – but the convenience of the Uber button makes conversions that much more simple.

According to Joe Graisbery, owner of RPM Services, a Florida company specializing in Internet marketing and Web design, the easier call-to-action could also up YP’s appeal for search marketers.

“SEO firms will be scrambling for best tactics on how to rank within this niche to service business owners who use Uber to reach their customers,” Graisbery says. “To me, what will be profoundly interesting is to see if other business types will be able to utilize Uber’s added search presence for a new type of marketing synergy. The implications of this change could potentially alter the search marketing landscape.”

Graisbery believes this integration, Uber’s first with a local search site, can help further raise the platform’s profile above competitors like Lyft and Curb.

Despite negative press around sexism and a lackadaisical attitude toward protecting customer data, Uber still dominates the ride-share service market and continues to pop up everywhere. In recent months, the ride-hailing platform has also teamed up with Spotify, Starwood Hotels, and Breathometer, a breathalyzer company whose app features an Uber button as an alternative to drunk driving.

This article was originally published on http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2403241/yp-partners-with-uber-to-bring-cars-to-your-door.