If you own or help run a business, you probably spend a great deal of your time thinking about marketing. Online directories can really boost your current marketing strategy, and will help you grow your company.
If you haven’t taken a look recently at online directories and considered how your business could use them to increase its market presence, now is a good time to start!
There are many benefits associated with listing your business in an online directory. The more high-traffic online directories you list your business on, the more benefits you reap. Here are just some of the benefits of using online directories:
- Exposure. After all, the more people who are exposed to your business, the more likely people are to become new customers. If online prospects aren’t able to find your website, it’s unlikely they’ll be purchasing your products or services. Listing your business’s website in online directories helps it gain exposure to people who are actively searching for business websites that are directly related to your products or services. Since they are already looking and read to buy, all you have to do is make it easy for them to find you and capture their attention.
- Increased Visitor Traffic. There are several ways that online directories can help you increase the amount of qualified traffic to your website. For starters, the more exposure your website has the more people are likely to visit it. But online directories offer more than just exposure from potential customers. They also offer exposure to the various major search engine crawlers like Google and Yahoo. This increases the chances that your website will appear on major search engine results pages or SERPs, exposing more people to your business website when they perform an organic search. Both search engine optimization (SEO) and exposure to more people who are searching for your website should result in more traffic to your business’s website.
- Low Cost Advertising. As a business owner you should already understand the importance of investing in advertising. It helps prospects find your business and recognize your name and brand. One of the major benefits of listing your business in an online directory is that directories are inexpensive to join – in fact, many are free – and they offer great exposure for the price. Some charge a minimal fee or allow you to upgrade your listing with enhanced features. Either way, you are getting a lot of exposure for less money than you would spend on TV or radio campaigns.
- Authority. You want everything about your business to look professional in the eyes of your prospects. Online directories help build your business credibility. When an online consumer sees your business listing in a directory, they’re more likely to consider your business to be an authority on the subject and a professional place to do business. Unlike a search that is performed on a major search engine like Google, where there is little difference between the legitimate websites relating to a topic and the less than useful information frequently presented, online directories contain mostly legitimate websites. Because of that, consumers are more likely to trust what they see on online directories.
- SEO Benefits. Online directories offer SEO benefits as well. First, these online directories offer you more qualified inbound links. When an interested prospect sees your website link in an online directory, they will be able to click on it and be instantly directed to your website. This is a great way to increase quality traffic, and improve your status in the eyes of search engine crawlers too. The more backlinks that a search engine crawler can find, the more relevant they will rank your website. This is especially true of high-traffic, authoritative online directories. Being linked to a major online directory such as Google Places will give your website more relevancy in the eyes of Google’s search engine crawlers. This can result in a higher page ranking on the SERP. As you know, the higher your website ranks in people’s search results, the more people are going to click on your website link.
- Increased Revenue. When more people are able to find your website, it increases the chances that they will visit it and that you will gain a customer. When people visit your website – assuming it is easy to navigate and offers compelling information about you – the more likely they are to purchase your goods or services. This means that online directories can help grow your sales.
- Increased Brand Recognition and Customer Interaction.When a potential customer finds your website though an online directory, they are more likely to remember your business’s name and directly interact with it. Online directories can help your business stand out from the crowd. Overall, listing your company in an online directory will help you to create a more comprehensive, visible and effective online presence.
Listing your website with several online directories will help more people find it, whether they are specifically searching for it or if they are just browsing. In addition to gaining exposure, online directories can provide major SEO benefits, which will help your website get found by search engines. Increased exposure and higher search engine rankings will result in more traffic to your website, translating into more sales and higher revenue.
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