In today’s world, distributing local business data in real-time to the most important directories is the need of time. It is so because promoting a local business is not so easy. Maybe because of complex search engine algorithms or over-saturation, it has become so common and easy to feel that in the local search results, no one will find your business. However, using local online directory websites, fortunately, helps improve your SEO.
All you have to do is devise a local market strategy. Just list your businesses in online business listings such as Manta, Yellow Pages, and more. This is known as building citations and it’s a critical part of local marketing strategy. Between consumers and local business websites, Google, today is inserting itself much more often. While people look for a business like yours in their domain, building citations help you make sure that you appear in the local packs.
Though local business directories seem a thing of the past, they are no doubt a great way to grow your presence online. Also, you can enhance your visibility by listing your business’ NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) on directories, citation sites, and online business listing sites. Resultantly, apart from improving your local Appearance, and your footprints on search engines can also be improved as the listings usually link back to your site.
Information Necessary to be Mentioned in Your Company Listing
Before adding your company listing to business directories, you need to make sure that you have added the following information:
- Consistent NAP
While adding or updating your business on various listing sites, make sure that across each directory, you provide the same company information.
- A Link to Your Website
For your company website’s domain rating, inbound links, also known as backlinks are quite crucial. At the end of the URL, by adding a tracking link, you will notice how much traffic your website will specifically get from the local listing services that are linking to it.
- A Company Description
While adding your company listing to different directories, you need to make sure that your company description is fully detailed and comprehensive that gives an overview of your organization’s mission, values, and culture.
- Multimedia
With a picture or video of your office, your daily business tasks, and your employees, you give company searchers a visual taste of your business.
You can submit your data to numerous industry-specific and location-specific business listing sites. Thus, to start promoting your local business, you should start by going with big sites and working your way toward the more niche directories.
First start with the top free business listings; Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn Company Directory, Apple Maps, Bing, HubSpot, Super Pages, Google My Business, Map Quest, Thumbtack, YellowBook.com, etc.
When it comes to online local business listing, apart from the free sites mentioned above, some other best directories are also mentioned on the web to list your business.
Domain Rating
To decide, which directories would be made onto the list, we have used a few parameters. Different websites have been given different domain ratings. The minimum score of 0 and the maximum score of 100 reflects how well a website ranks on Google.
Add Your Local Business to Online US Directories
For any local marketing plan, it is quite crucial to make sure that you have a presence where your potential customers might find you. For increasing Online visibility to generate leads, add your local business to some of the online business directories in the USA today and watch your customer base and business growth.
The Significance of Business Listings
How many times have you seen a business listing pop up on Google with very less information, no images, and very few reviews? You probably will need to trust that business more to get in touch with them or check out their website. Since local search visibility helps in attracting customers, driving traffic, and generating revenue, there are several ways to increase your visibility. A business listing with updated information, images, and reviews, attracts local users which in turn helps turn them into paying customers. Business listings will boost your online presence and will give your local business visibility.
How to Setup Your Business Profile
For setting up and claiming your business profile, every site has usually a slightly different process. Since Google, My Business will help you reach the widest audience, let’s take an example of how there you can set up your business profile.
First, you have to locate your business. Then search for your business on Google’s search engine and select ‘’Claim this business’’ or ‘’Own this business’’ under your business profile. If somebody has already claimed your business, an ownership transfer can be requested from your side. After waiting for a couple of days for your request to be approved, you can start managing your listing once you have received an email notification.
Other sites such as Yelp and Bing Place have also pretty much similar processes. You can add one for your business if you do not find any current listings. Your page will be published in a few days once your listing has been verified.
Optimize Your Business Listing for Local SEO
The reliability of a local listing service entirely depends on the information it provides. Hence, try to include more and more information as possible. Once you are done with the listing process, use SEO optimization tips which are mentioned as follows:
- Include All Relevant Data In Your Business Listing
Adding more and more information on your listing site increases the chances to improve your rankings which gives a clear overview of what your business has to offer. Hence, apart from your contact information, you need to include data like SEO-optimized details of your business, links to your social profile, photos of your business, your website, etc.
- Create Smart Campaigns in Google
Creating a Smart Campaign essentially hands off your work to Google. With Google ads, you have to find keyword research, bidding on keywords, geo-targeting, and a few other such aspects. At the top of your searches in Google, you have probably seen the Smart Campaign ads. You give Google a description of your business, your budget, and a keyword theme you would like to target. Google then picks up the ad from there and distributes it across all the platforms such as YouTube, etc. Know that, you can run many campaigns simultaneously!
- Add Photos to Your Business Listing
According to research, 60% of consumers are of the view that good images mold their decisions to patronize a business. So, while adding images to your business listing include a variety of photos so that the potential customers can have a brief idea regarding what your business is all about.
- Optimize For Voice Search
People rely on digital assistants more for research as they have become more sophisticated. Voice searches are more conversational and are formed as questions. Hence, you need to think about answering those questions in your business listing.
Optimize Your Business Page for Global and National Customers
Apart from your business listing, which is meant to help with local searches, you still should keep an eye on global and national searches. You can be visible in such types of searches by taking the following steps;
- Reply to Customer Reviews
Just collecting reviews from the customers and then letting them sit there is not enough. You need to respond to customer reviews both good and bad, and increase engagement. This helps in building trust with prospective customers and thus, makes your brand human.
- Create a Quality Landing Page
Landing pages are those pages to which users come through search. For your business listing, your homepage can serve as a landing page for you. Landing pages need to have keywords that help users find you in a search. It should also include a contact form, high-quality images, and testimonials. The aim of your landing page should be to influence the prospect to take a specific action. Thus, to avoid scrolling, try to keep your text brief and do not include too many links to internal pages.
- Use Google Trends Feature
Whether in real-time or during a specific time frame, Google Trends allows you to search trends in search terms, as recent as 36 hours before your search and as far back as 2004. To find sample searches, you can divide your searches down by region or country, or by location as well. Google Trends also helps you in catching up on your list of targeted keywords.
Conclusion
To boost visibility and target the right audience for your business, local business directories are a fairly simple and easy way. The trick is to keep them relevant with up-to-date and useful information that will help attract prospective users and become customers. You will find many local listing services having the right resources and expertise that will help you not only in gaining momentum but also in building your brand in the local area. So, no need to waste any more time and energy investing in advertising that gives unsatisfactory results. Simply search local online directories and make your small business grow.