Top Florist Directory Rankings 2009

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Inspired by Andrew Shotland’s recent review of the top IYP sites based on rankings across various cities (referenced in an earlier post), I decided to run my own test on a number of popular florist directories. I borrowed shamelessly from Andrew’s methodology, so I’ll give a quick outline of my approach before giving you the results.

Top US Cities

  1. New York
  2. Los Angeles
  3. Chicago
  4. Houston
  5. Philadelphia
  6. Phoenix
  7. San Antonio
  8. San Diego
  9. Dallas
  10. San Jose
  11. Detroit
  12. Indianapolis
  13. Jacksonville
  14. San Francisco
  15. Columbus
  16. Austin
  17. Memphis
  18. Baltimore
  19. Ft. Worth
  20. Charlotte

Queries

  • <city name> florist
  • <city name> flowers

Of course there are many other terms that drive traffic to florist sites, but these are the most relevant for directory-style sites.

Search Engines

We ran the queries on Google.com and Bing.com. Although the Binghoo merger hasn’t taken effect yet, Bing will be powering the Y! results, so I’m already considering Y! to be a non-factor for the purpose of this little experiment. We like to think long term here, especially on Friday afternoons.

Scoring

Each directory was awarded points based on the ranking and the search engine. As Google gets more traffic (just a bit) a ranking on Google is worth more than a ranking at the same level on Bing. A higher score is better – not ranking in the Top 20 results is worth 0 points.

Top Florist Directories

Here are the top directories and their scores:

  1. Locate A Flower Shop: 1,134
  2. Find A Florist: 473
  3. Flower Shop Network: 471
  4. Local Flower Shop: 179
  5. FTD Florists Online: 137
  6. iLocal Florist: 0
  7. Local Florist: 0
  8. FloristDEX: 0
  9. Direct2Florst: 0

Summary

It’s important for us to note that these queries were run on the 20 largest cities in the USA, which draw the most competition from local florists and affiliate marketers. Florist directories in general tend to achieve better rankings in smaller markets with fewer active competitors. Odds are that a city with a few hundred (thousands, even?) florists will have a few active online marketers, whereas a small town may have one or two, with the rest of the florists relying on wire service products and/or directories.

Obviously, the Flower Shop Network and Teleflora’s Find A Florist site are benefitting from hosting client sites and capturing some extra link value. FTD’s performance is disappointing, though not surprisingly so.

What Did We Miss?

Are there directories we should add to the testing? What about creating a list of mid-sized cities for a second round? What queries would you like to see us testing?

Update: 4:30pm

As per Cathy’s suggestion in the comments, I re-ran the test to include the Top 10 IYP sites from Andrew’s study. Here’s how the Florist Directories compare against the IYPs.

Here are the top directories and their scores (IYP sites are in bold):

  1. Locate A Flower Shop: 1,134
  2. Yelp: 1,060
  3. Citysearch: 682
  4. Superpages: 605
  5. Find A Florist: 473
  6. Flower Shop Network: 471
  7. Yahoo Local: 300
  8. Local Flower Shop: 179
  9. FTD Florists Online: 137
  10. Insider Pages: 125
  11. Area Connect: 114
  12. Magic Yellow: 13
  13. BizJournals: 7
  14. Yellowpages.com: 4
  15. iLocal Florist: 0
  16. Local Florist: 0
  17. FloristDEX: 0
  18. Direct2Florst: 0
  19. Switchboard: 0

I imagine Yahoo! Local might perform better if more SMBs actually tended to their listings … 🙂

14 thoughts on “Top Florist Directory Rankings 2009”

  1. Cathy

    Terrific post. Very useful data.

    I’m curious if you saw a pattern in how the top directories performed vs the top IYPs from Andrew’s list. With the IYPs, the listings ‘above the fold’ are generally not local businesses and are instead, out-of-town affiliate resellers.

    Thanks!

  2. Cathy

    Wow! The addition of the IYPs is a real eye-opener. Hope every florists sees this lists (especially those in major cities) and takes a good look at their allocation of resources. Locateaflowershop.com is a true bargain.

    One other quick note: Some of the florist directories have more listings in mid-size or smaller towns and would likely show better there and with Direct2Florist, they only would appear for cities where they have members. I believe their keyword targets are also more long tail.

    Hope some florists chime in with smaller towns to query.

  3. RKF

    @Cathy

    I agree – as I said in the Summary, most florist directories will perform better in lower competition areas.

    Locate A Flower Shop does appear to be the clear winner; I think their annual rate is cheaper than one month of YP advertising – but I am willing to be corrected on that by anyone who has better cost figures.

  4. BOSS

    Hope you don’t mind Ryan, but you’ll probably be seeing some traffic from ATT first of the week… 😉

    All florists should consider this when they work their online marketing budgets. Also every florist should show this article to their YP.com rep and ask for a discount.

    Great job!

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  6. Eric S

    Oh my gosh look at Yellowpages.com. This list has so much value and if others don’t take advantage of what this post is offering… I just don’t have the words.

    1. Michael

      I totally agree Eric! How few florists were actually even considering YellowPages.com for their advertising efforts! They should have known better! Such a huge site shouldn’t just be passed up. I’m so curious how many florist use it today…

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  13. D. More

    Hi, I enjoyed reading your post I always enjoy visiting your blog|it is with great interest that I read
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