When I launched Redcliffe Marketing Labs one of the first promotional activities I did was to go and add myself to as many business directory listings as I could.
I had an excel file with links to each of the directory listings with the login passwords etc incase I had to go back and update phone numbers or address details.
Directory listings can be useful for a couple of reasons.
* The more times that Google discovers your business name, address and phone number together (what they call a citation) the more votes or signals they have that you are a real business and are located where you say you are. This helps with local ranking.
* Directory listing sites like Yelp, TrueLocal, TripAdviser, Urbanspoon are now big enough brands than people are starting to skip Google and do their searches from within these other sites (and their associated smartphone apps!)
* Many directory services are actually SEO companies in disguise and can often rank better for terms than some local businesses can on their own. So having a listing gives you a relatively search optimised page – its always going to be better to have your own site ranking well but they might cover some keywords that you haven’t – and still get you some traffic.
But they can also be painful to keep on top of and know which ones you’ve done and are yet to do PLUS new ones come online all the time.
I was introduced to and met Paul Gordon recently (at Stone Corner Maccas no less so we could scrounge wifi on the go).
Paul has launching a startup service that finds all your listings and online reviews, guides you on where to get more and helps you manage them for free.
I’m pretty impressed with it. I think you should check it out.
Paul is the owner, founder, developer so you are getting it straight from the source. He run a training session around local business directories for the Redcliffe Marketing community in Oct 2014.
My recommendation is to go grab an account and start to streamline your online directory listings – www.mypresences.com
You’ll be some of the first businesses in the world to use it!
(You may want to play fullscreen to see some of the detail)