In internet marketing industry, local directory listing is considered as one of the most influential and powerful internet marketing strategies many businesses do in order to be found by customers online locally. But that doesn’t end there. Nowadays, may small or large companies invest with a good and search engine friendly website to showcase their services or products and of course, make lots of sales from it. One way to do that is to advertise their business online by creating a business profile or local listings as it’s called. Knowing the advantages of listing your business in local directories will certainly encourage you to go deeper on its significant aspects.
How Local Directories Works?
Local business directory listing involves simple processes that are not so difficult to do. To successfully submit your business profile from local directories, you need to prepare the following information;
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Working website
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Email address (to confirm your listing)
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Name of business
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Brief description about your business
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Services
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Contact person
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Physical address
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Local phone number
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Some images like logo or product samples
There are a few numbers of reputable local directories out there on which non-commercial business owners with websites are allowed to create an account and submit their information for free. The most popular ones are Yelp, Whitepages , Angie’s List, Yahoo directory, Google, Bing, Mata, Local and Foursquare. The more directories you participate in, the better exposure and authority your business gets in local searches.
There are many advantages of listing your business in local directories. Why this internet marketing strategy is well worth your time and effort is because of these benefits;
1. Increased visibility. Search engine gives high respect to local directories because they only accept businesses with legit information and organized their listings in respective categories and location. When you submit your website to local directories, your brand or business will quickly get increased visibility in search rankings. The better rankings, the higher number of visits your website receives.
2. Branding. Online market is a competitive industry. Your competitors are doing whatever it takes to have the best brand image. To make sure your business can stand out from the rest, having a good brand management can give you unique points. So take advantage of the local directories to build and improve your business branding. A gallery of relevant photos of your business is always the best way to grab the attention of your customers. You can even link your social media accounts for more publicity. Remember, your profile reflects your business, so make sure they are worthy.
3. It’s cheaper and easier. These two advantages of listing your business in local directories are hard to beat since most paid advertising offers are quite expensive plus the tons of work you need to put in it. While some local directories are available for free, one can opt for a paid listing to get more features and exposures for a small budget.
4. Easy way to target local audiences, even business partners. Local businesses can easily reach their target market or local customers through these business directories because they have a system on which demographic points are highly considered. Furthermore, when entrepreneurs or professionals are looking for a potential partner with whom they might be interested to collaborate or make business with, business listing is the first thing that comes to their mind.
The above reasons are just some of the well-known advantages of listing your business in local directories and there are certainly more. If other companies are using it, why not you? Get listed and leverage the power of local business directories.