I recently came across a new report by The Kelsey Group (the leading provider of strategic research and analysis on Yellow Pages), which predicts a significant boom in print yellow pages, internet yellow pages, and local search from $30.6 billion in 2006 to $38.9 billion globally by 2011.

The same report by the Princeton NJ-based consultancy also projects that the print Yellow Pages segment of the global directories marketplace will grow from $26.5 billion last year to $27.8 billion.

The online segment, which comprises IYP and local search advertising, is expected to grow from $4.1 billion in 2006 to $11.1 billion globally in 2011 (22.3 percent CAGR).

This is welcome news for PCM and the Internet Yellow Pages industry. Over the next five years, IYP sites will prove to be forceful and robust contenders in the competitive directories game, which is due in major part to their increasing search mettle.

The report, entitled Global Print Yellow Pages, Internet Yellow Pages and Local Search Forecast 2006-2011,  states that online advertising growth will come mainly from new advertisers, larger online marketing budgets, improved ad targeting capabilities, and hikes in per-click costs.

Kelsey Group executive Matt Booth also stated that the growth will be boosted by small and medium sized businesses that currently advertise in the print editions of phone directories. These companies will begin to target online directory ads in an effort to boost their name recognition.

Another article on News.com suggests an even higher potential upside:

Yet search engines and other Net companies remain committed to the prediction that small businesses are the key to advertising riches. The reason for their optimism is a matter of simple mathematics: They see a $60 billion annual revenue opportunity that could be funneled at least in part to the Internet, a projection based on the local merchant’s average marketing budget of $6,000, multiplied by an estimated 10 million small businesses in the United States.

Telecommunications companies will also expand their efforts to sell online campaigns to marketers who currently advertise in their print directories, offering by small and medium sized businesses combined print and online deals.

Neal Polachek, senior vice president of The Kelsey Group, stated in the release: “Our outlook for IYP and local search is supported by the latest wave of the Local Commerce Monitor (LCM), our annual research of small and medium-sized business (SMB) advertisers.