KEY TAKEAWAY – Google isn’t the only free directory listing you have access to. Grab all these other free listings and leverage them fully to improve your online visibility & authority.
Now let’s take a look at Yahoo, Bing and some of the other online business directories to list your company on – and to get you out in front of all those new prospects searching every day for a local business just like yours to hire.
Click here for instructions on claiming your Google Business Page.
There are quite a number of them, but just to name a few of the most important:
- Yahoo Local
- Bing
- Yelp
- Kudzu
- CitySearch
- Local.com
- YellowPages
- localeze
- insiderpages
- showmelocal
- dexknows
- MerchantCircle
- HotFrog
- foursquare
- YellowBot
These are just the most popular ones and each one has its own dedicated user base. Those users are potentially new local clients of yours.
So you need to do the same things with them that you did with your Google+ page.
Claim your listings, develop them, optimize them and be sure to add a link on them back to your website.
These are high-volume, high-value websites that are important pieces in your overall online web, so it’s important to make sure all the information listed on them about your business is perfect.
Frequently it’s not. If you’ve changed addresses lately, or phone numbers, you may have a problem. You’re prospects may be calling the wrong telephone number, or even worse, are actually showing up at an old business location of yours.
That’s another reason why taking control of these listings are so important to you. Not only is dressing them up with compelling marketing creative to help with conversions critical, but also just ensuring the information they reflect about your business is correct.
Remember, the wider the web you cast with accurate and up-to-date information and content…the more attention your business will get… …and the more your phone will ring.
And make sure your “citation” is correct on each one.
What is a citation? A citation (or NAP) is your:
- Business name
- Business address
- Business phone number
In order to get the most SEO “juice”, NAPs must be identical across all your business directory listings, right down to the exact letter spacing, abbreviations and punctuation.
The more consistent your NAPS are, the more authority Google gives your website, helping increase its ranking in local search, and the more directories you’re listed on, the more authentic your business appears to Google, which also helps improve your local search rankings.
A basic listing on most business directories is free, so there’s no reason not to take full advantage of them.
NEXT UP: What today’s consumers expect to find when searching online for a business like yours – and what you need to show them.
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