How can online directories help your business?
Online directories are a powerful addition to a digital marketing strategy. They strengthen your online presence and let people know that you’re a legitimate business. They also help people gather general information about your business like phone number, location, and hours easily. These may seem like small things, but they make a huge difference in the online business world.
Directories like Yelp, Google Local, Yellow Pages, and other popular online directories help small businesses get more recognition. This will also help your company show up more often in search results. Online directories are the equivalent to the non-digital yellow pages, and though phone books have all but been replaced by cell phones and the internet, people still have the need to look up different companies and services. When someone is looking for a product or service, they’ll most likely type what they’re looking for into a search engine. If you provide the kind of product or service they’re looking for, you’ll want your business to show up in that search.
The benefits of having your business on one or multiple online directories are vast:
- Increased web traffic
- Increased revenue
- Increased advertising
- Increased rankings in search results
All of these things are extremely valuable results in digital marketing and will help strengthen your marketing efforts. Adding a place in an online directory to an already full marketing strategy can lead to an amazing increase in growth, customers, and money.
Getting your business listed on an online directory
The hope is to eventually have your business on multiple online directories, but starting out with just one or two is good. You want to start with directories that are local and niche specific. A niche specific directory categorizes businesses by the type of work they do. For example, if you live in Philadelphia and you’re a plumbing company, you want a directory that will put you into two categories: Philadelphia and Plumbers. That way if somebody searches ‘Plumbers in Phillyâ? your business will show up in the search results.
Once you’re in at least one local directory you can start looking into larger and more generalized directories. Choosing popular ones that get high rankings on search engines like Google is your best bet. This will ensure that your business will also show up on high ranking search engines, making your business more visible and bringing in more potential customers.
Make sure that you include all relevant information about your business in the directory listing. Usually you want to include, address, phone number, hours, and a little about your business and what services it provides. The goal is to provide enough information so that an individual will be able to decide whether or not they want to use your services. It’s also a good idea to keep the information you provide as consistent as possible throughout all of your directory listings, that way no matter where somebody looks up your business they can be provided the same thorough information.
Online directories are a powerful tool and they are easy to utilize. Like the other internet tools we’ve covered this week, this is something that too simple and too effective to forego using. If you want to strengthen your marketing plan, get higher search engine rankings for your business, and bring in more customers then online directories are a step in the right direction.
For more information on online directories and their benefits, check out our directories resource or contact us to discuss how we can help you strengthen your marketing plan with tools like these.
