All businesses should be listed in these online directories – a basic listing is free and will enhance your online footprint. For local business, it is not likely that they will produce a ton of traffic, but they certainly do help.
So what’s the catch?
Well, all of these websites want accurate information about your business so their users get better quality search results. And they want to upsell online advertising to you. The usual pitch is that for a fee your listing will better position on the page, and you will get more targeted traffic to your website.
But you are smart! You’re going to take your free listing and resist the urge to be upsold. This is something I will discuss in a later post on advertising strategy for local businesses; you have a limited budget, spend it carefully.
The Big 3 Local Search Engines
Google Local: This is the most widely used local search on the internet today.
Yahoo Local: Yahoo! is the 2nd largest search engine, you should be listed here.
Bing Local (previously MSN): Bing is the 3rd largest search engine
Getting listed in those 3 will ensure that your business is visible at local.google.com, local.yahoo.com and local.bing.com … and that’s a good start!
My suggestion is to take advantage of the free listings on the following sites and avoid their advertising programs unless you have already maximized traffic on Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing pay per click.
Old Style Phone Directories
You might be old enough to remember those huge directories that the phone company used to dump on your doorstep. Well, some of those businesses have an online presence too. Go ahead and list your business at these sites too… why not, it’s free!
Local Business Review Sites
Other Directories
What now?
Make sure that analytics (such as Google Analytics) is installed on your website. You want to find out which of these directories is sending traffic. That’s it for now – hopefully these directories will generate some sales, at zero cost!
