Get More Customers Using Online Directories – How to Get Started Fast!
Thousands of small businesses use online directories to increase their online exposure and more importantly to get more new customers. We know as a business owner that you’re extremely busy keeping your doors open and running profitably. Making sure your business is getting as much exposure as possible online increases your opportunities to generate revenue a bit more passively. Let us show you how using online directories can help your bottom line. If you have been unaware of the plethora of directories available to you then prepare to get busy adding your local or national business listing and watching your visitor traffic spike over the long haul. Let’s get started!
First, let’s give you a brief description of online directories. There are many directories to choose from but you may not want to have your company listed in every single online directory. The directories serve a particular purpose for their site visitors. Some directories are developed around a particular niche such as Chiropractors or Dentists or Model Car Builders. There are directories that may encompass a few different niches under one main heading like Home Improvement that will have different sub-categories like Plumber or Electrician or HVAC Specialists.
Your company, once submitted, will be placed into a specific category within the directory. Some categories are organized by business type or may be organized by subject or niche. You will provide all of your company’s basic details such as Company Name, Address Phone Number, Website, Services Description and Area of Coverage. There will be a direct link to your site that a visitor can choose to click through to your site directly from the directory.
You may remember the old school directories which came in the form of a huge book called the Yellow Pages. Well those do still exist but they are seldomly used by today’s generations that have been brought up to search online for whatever they need these days. Even the Yellow Pages is now online in the form of a directory at yellowpages.com. Online directories are just so much more convenient especially when people are on the go and have their mobile devices with them. Can you imagine having a huge Yellow Pages book in your car or while traveling in a city?
The online Yellow Pages directory is huge and lists almost any type of business with an online presence. Other directories are much smaller and more niche specific. As mentioned before if you were a model car enthusiast, you may find companies of interest that service your hobby within a huge directory like Yahoo’s Small Business directory, which encompasses all companies that choose to list their websites in the directory. You may also find a more targeted directory just on model cars and perhaps even just in your local area that would be more suitable for you as a model car enthusiast.
Doing a search within the directories may turn up subcategories for many different websites related to your topic. A search on model cars may bring up sites about building model cars, driving model cars, creating historically accurate model cars, tips and instructions about how to drive model cars, how to sell model cars or charters and clubs that you could join related to model cars. The results that a search returns will be dependent on the description of services listed by that company within the directory listing. It’s important to craft your description properly so that your targeted customers can find you when performing a search within the directory.
There is a huge potential to gain new customers by being in as many directories as possible that relate to your products and services. Exposure has always been important for local and small businesses. Increased exposure is even more important with as many companies that are online now since thousands of visitors are using the directories daily. Your company has the potential for increased traffic from the search engines and their crawlers that check the directories for new listings and updates regularly. Crawlers from Google and Yahoo help to rank your website higher on their search engine results pages (SERPs) which in turn leads to increased exposure for your business.
Listing your business in most directories is often free or requires very little investment. You get a lot of exposure for the minimal price that is asked so it’s one of the best ROI in your whole advertising budget. It will be much less expensive than traditional media advertising like print, radio or TV.
When potential customers see your listing in the directories it adds to your overall professional appearance. It enhances your company’s status as an authority in your industry. It’s always possible that searches that are returned by the search engines will provide low value websites. Generally the listings within a directory are quality sites and online visitors tend to trust the results they find within a directory. Your presence within the online directories increases your brand recognition and overall online presence as well as enhancing your SEO benefits by providing more citations online.
There are hundreds of online directories but your end goal should not be to get listed in all of them. That would appear to be a bit spammy and that’s never a good thing when related to your online marketing presence. It’s better to make sure your company website is listed in the major online directories and the most targeted directories for your niche. You need to consider which combination of directories will provide a solid ROI for you in the long term for your locale and your overall SEO strategy.
One strategy that helps determine what directories to appear in is to see how you stack up against your competition. Ask yourself what directories are they listed in and how does their overall online presence appear. Then search out any local directories in your area since potential customers tend to start their searches in their local areas first.
Once your website is listed in the directories it is time to be patient with your results. It will take some time to see an ROI from the directories but the positive results will happen. You will need to incorporate some online tracking analytics to see how well your listings are performing, how many people are clicking the links back to your website and how many phone calls you are receiving. You will be able to focus on the directories that have positive traffic and decrease your attention on the directories with lower traffic.
To get started, research local directories in your area. Many cities and towns already have directories that you can get listed in. Then look for niche related directories for your products or services. Then pick some of the larger national directory sites like Google Business and Yahoo Business. These larger directories get lots of traffic and the potential for increasing your authority is higher being listed in these directories.
You can enhance your listings with good descriptions of your service along with related images and videos. Interactive features like maps with locations help to differentiate your listings from your competition. It’s important to keep your information consistent among your different listings. This helps immensely with your overall SEO strategy.
If you need help getting listed in the Top 15 Online Directories then contact us today and get a Free copy of our Top 15 Online Directories Presentation. This walks you through getting your listing added to these directories and is a great jumpstart to getting listed in all of the directories you’ll need to be in to start maximizing your overall Internet presence. There are not many other ways to get so much value for so little when it comes to your online marketing strategy.
Go to our Contact Us page and request a copy today!
Best wishes for your online success!