Today a client asked me if they needed to purchase a local directory listing service. While these may help some businesses with several locations, generally, the savvy small business owner can handle their listings themselves, or their ethical SEO person can handle them for them. In this case, I already had everything taken care of before they asked.
Complete and Consistent
Yes, I would list your business with the local directories. The most important directories are:
- Yelp
- Yahoo
- Bing
- Foursquare
All business listings should be complete and consistent.
Be complete. Give the directory everything they want. Pictures, video, hours of operation, parking, etc. Most importantly give them the correct business name, address, and phone #.
Be consistent. The business name, address, phone number, and website need to be 100% identical everywhere. Do not be John Doe Law Offices in one place and The Law Offices of John Doe in another. Inconsistencies lead to problems such as duplicate listings and other issues beyond the scope of this article. Don’t do it.
Additional listings
An online retailer, a pizza shop, a hotel, and a law firm have different directories which they need to be listed in. For example, an online retailer may want to use Reseller Ratings. A pizza shop may want to use Zagat. A hotel may want to use TripAdvisor. A law firm needs AVVO. The list goes on.
Many of these will eventually find you but it doesn’t hurt to be complete, verify the listings, and populate the listings with as much information as possible. Some additional local business directories include:
- CitySearch
- SuperPages
- YP
- HotFrog
- Manta
- BBB
- Angie’s List
There are many more directories that exist which are very easy to find online. Taking care of the above listings and your industry specific listings is 99% of the battle.
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When is the best time to put up a business listing? We are renting a building, so would it be best to do it once the lease it up? Or, is it worth it to just pay out the rental charges? Thanks for sharing your information.
It depends on the nature of the biz, but you likely need it up ASAP.
I think that is is essential that you list your business with the local directories. It’s just another way to advertise and get your business noticed. I do like your advice about making sure that the listing is complete and consistent. You want your business to be professional in every way.