Your business boost with online business directories.
1. Online business directories are beneficial for any type of business and its website. You just have to know how they work.
A website submission service called an online business directory enables you to add the website of your business to a certain category so that potential customers can look for it up there. It is most helpful for a small business, but actually also for any size of business. Visitors can browse these searchable online directories for websites and companies that interest them or those they want to learn more about. Your website will become more visible online and will gain more inbound links if you list your business in an online directory. Finding what they’re looking for is simple thanks to online directories. People might find your company’s website from their home, office, or even while travelling if they simply went to the directory website.
2. Want to know how online business directories work?
The idea behind online directories is actually rather straightforward. Online directories resemble very much to the printed Yellow Pages in the real world, however, these listings are only available online, in contrary to the paper book directory.
Actually, one of the largest internet directories right now is Yellow Pages.com.
Simply said, an internet business directory is a place where various websites can list themselves. An online directory may contain listings for any kind of website. Some internet directories are quite large and include any subject that might be the subject of a website, while others are very small and focus on a single niche. This implies that you can find almost any website you want to visit using online directories. All you need to do is run a search for a certain subject in the online directory or read through the different categories until you locate the kind of websites you’re looking for. You will receive a list of all the websites related to your search term when you initiate a search. There will be several links to these websites offered to you, and each one will contain a brief summary of what you can expect to find there. You can read the descriptions and select the website that best suits you by clicking on it.
3. Being listed in an online business directory will give your business more exposure and therefore more traffic.
Exposure is important for all business marketing strategies. After all, the more people who are exposed to your business the more people are likely to utilize your business’s services. If online viewers aren’t able to see your website, they likely don’t even know it exists and they probably aren’t going to purchase your products or services. Listing your business’ website in online directories helps your website to gain exposure. Thousands of people use online directories every day to find things they are interested in. These are people who are actively searching for websites that are directly related to your products or services. They are already looking- all you have to do is make it easy for them to find you. Online directories will expose your business to more online visitors, which could increase traffic to your website.
4. Being listed in an online business directory will boost your SEO off-page results!
Online directories offer several search engine optimization, or SEO, benefits as well. Firstly, these online directories offer you more inbound links. When an online visitor sees your website link in an online directory, they will be able to click on it and be instantly re-directed to your website. This is a great way to increase traffic. It is a great way to improve your status in the eyes of search engine crawlers, too. The more backlinks that a search engine crawler can find, the higher they will rank your website. This is especially true of authoritative online directories. Being linked to a major online directory, such as Google My Business, will give your website more relevancy in the eyes of Google’s search engine crawlers. This will result in a higher page ranking on the SERP. As you know, a higher search engine result page rank you get, the more people are going to click on your website link.
5. Where’s the best place to start looking at online directories you should be in? Start with your competitors!
You will probably want to consider listing with the top 10 online business directories, as these will be used by a lot of people and will offer higher relevancy and authority in the eyes of search engines. Google My Business is a large general-interest directory that you will want to list your small business with. If your website sells tangible goods, you may also want to consider listing it in comparison shopping websites and product listings directories. Studies show that 42% of consumers will look at a comparison shopping website before they decide to purchase a specific product.
The best way to figure out which specific online directories your small business should be listed in is to start with your competitors. Take a look at your local and niche-specific options and figure out if your competition is already listed. If they are, you need to be listed too. If they are not listed, you want to list your website anyway as a way to beat them to the punch. In some situations it may not make sense for you to have a listing in a specific online directory, even if your competitors are listed in it. Your goal should be to be listed in every relevant and niche-specific directory you can find as well as many of the major directories, but not so many directories that you appear as spam.
6. Listings are important, but they’re only the start. In addition, you would improve these a lot with having some reviews!
Local listings in online business directories are a great way to market your company and get the word out about your business and what you do. However, if you don’t have any positive reviews within those local listings they can do more harm than good. This is because when reviewing all the different businesses within your industry or category, users will always look to the reviews to give them a better idea of the service and quality of product they can expect. And if you don’t have any reviews but your competition’s page is filled with positive reviews, you’re sending customers directly to them instead of to you. You can get more reviews by using surveys, providing incentives, having a tablet with the review site already up to hand over to customers, responding to reviews already up, and by knowing when and where to refer customers.
7. Remember that once you’re listed you need to the follow up work!
Although it may take some time, but eventually you will notice results from listing your companies website in these online directories. Utilizing a tracking or analytics system is the bestgood approach to determine the ideal mix of online directory entries for your company. You’ll want to know how many individuals visited your website from which source, as to from which directory they are coming from and whether traffic has grown from it since then. You should put more time and effort into internet directories that are effective and quit spending your time on those that are ineffective.
On the other hand at first, remember to stick to your strategy and set your goals and limits, this in opposition to taking an arbitrarily decision.
In summary, here are the 3 critical reasons why your business must take advantage of the top online business directories to help you get more customers.
Low Cost: Most of the top online business directories are free to use. Making it one of the best cost effective marketing values your business can have.
Social Proof: When prospects find a business online, they first start by reading reviews to make sure they’re making a good decision and that the business is able to deliver what they propose. Having customers post positive reviews on your listing, will build tremendous credibility and prove to everyone that you’re a reliable business that can be trusted.
Maximize Exposure: Every day potential customers are searching for businesses in their area to help solve their challenges and overcome their problems. Most often they would come to these online directories, through which they’re then finding the appropriate businesses for their needs. Remember, online directories belong to the websites that are those with the highest domain authority on the search engines.
