This is an update from a email newsletter I did several years ago. It is still important to know and use.
It‘s more important to get listed on relevant business listing directories than to spend money on outdated yellow page listings. More people are looking for the things they need on the Internet than ever before. There are still a few businesses that are being looked up in the yellow pages but they are usually for senior and emergency services.
Your company should also have a great website that will enable people to not only find you but help them understand what you have to offer and why they should be doing business with you. As part of your web strategy, you should get as many of the business directories to list you and you should get links from them to your website.
I was on Google last week helping a customer to see what this is all about. We looked up “orthodontist in Riverton” and a Sandy Orthodontist came up first. It was followed by several other orthodontists in surrounding cities and finally a Riverton orthodontist came up. It wasn’t him. He was at the bottom of the third page.
Many of the orthodontists that came up on the front page were listed on at least eight business directory sites. This orthodontist was listed on one.
It is important to get the search engines to pay attention to your website. Your site needs to be linked to and referenced by several other sites. Some sites are more valuable than others. Google, Yahoo and Bing are the biggest and most important. These are followed by (in order of importance to search engines) chamber of commerce sites, newspaper web pages, industry listings, city directories and then the directory sites that are paid for (Yellowbook, Dex online, etc.).
It is so important for you to get your business listed, that I have included a link to a website that has some of the most important web addresses to get you started. They are in no particular order but are all valuable. The first group have hotlinks to help you get there quickly. Click here for the list of directories. There are more out there since this list was put together. This list does have some of the local companies that use directories.
One additional thing to make sure is correct and done properly is your listing with your business license. We found a company that used to run out of their home but moved to a physical location. The city still categorized the business as home based and had the old address. The search engines marked the business as such and the business was given lower priority because of this. Make sure all information is accurate in all of these listings.
One mistake or one piece of conflicting information will move you down the rankings. Make sure you use the same phone number, email address, URL and company name for all listings.
One VERY Important piece of information: Most of these business listing services make their money by trying to sell you additional packages. BEWARE. Many are worse than the yellow pages of the 1980s. They are trying to get businesses to pay hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to do additional programs with them. MOST ARE NOT WORTH IT!!! They are important to be in but not really to buy ads. Restaurants and a few others may find it helpful in some directories. 95% of all others, it is a waste of marketing money.
Be selective with the buys, have a budget and stay within that budget. Most of these companies will give you a better price if you hold your ground of not wanting to go into them. If you need more information on these companies, let me know.
We have a company that we work with and they have put us, and some of our customers, on 35 sites for $200. They then help with getting more people to come to our site and get more reviews for the big review sites. To some businesses, this is worth the price.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact either your marketing consultant or myself. We will be glad to help you with this or any other marketing needs that you may have.
Best wishes,
Boyd Petersen