When I first created my business 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 in case 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.
(I’ll have more to say about that in the presentation below)
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 is 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 and he going to run a training session around local business directories for the Redcliffe Marketing community.
There is no money changing hands here or affiliate links – I just think that its such a helpful a service and really solves a problem for local businesses that I want to connect you up with Paul.
You’ll be some of the first businesses in the world to use it!
Why its SUPER important to know where you business is listed online and the dead set easy way to do this with a few keystrokes
- How to get a list of the exact directory service websites that fit your business type
- How to quickly see your online reviews, be alerted to new reviews PLUS 3 methods to leverage reviews in your marketing
- How to boost your local Google ranking efforts by getting online directories to do some of the work for you (for free)