The huge rush in building a quick online presence for local business has made it really competitive for companies to rank their local business higher in different search engines. While almost all the search engines provide options to add the local business to their list, the contest to have a greater presence of the businesses has become very critical to any local digital marketing plan. No one really wants to wait but quick visibility in SERPs.
For all those who are into local business but unable to find the exact means to promote it in a large scale, local business directories certainly can turn out to be a great option for both traffic and better ranking. There is no doubt that maintaining stability in ranking of the local keywords is quite a difficult task due to heavy competition among the local businesses to grab the first page result. The fact is, in this digital world a local business needs the right platform to make noise about its presence and this is what precisely local business directories help to do.
Local Business Directory !! What is it?
Basically, local business directory is the list/directory of businesses and possess all the relevant business information about a website that provides services/products to the people in a specific geographic area. Mainly local business directories offer local business owners ways to promote their website by putting in significant data to market their business in online spectrum. Thus, in short local directories act as that informative medium which puts an end to the search of the consumers for their desired products and services in their area. At the same time it helps search engines to provide necessary information for better ranking. Recently Google made significant change to it local search ranking algorithm that includes distance and location parameter. You can read more about the pigeon update here.
People no more look into the printed yellow pages to search for the local businesses these days rather people hunt for that quick and efficient way which can instantly provide them the required information specific to their location like hospitals, hotels, restaurants etc in different search engines. Hence in such a scenario, local directory turns out to be a great help for both the consumers as well as the businessmen whose business has been listed in it.
For instance, when somebody plans to check the local service providers in his locality and unknown of the providers available, obviously would go for online search. That is where the existence of Local SEO comes, is the process of optimizing your website so that you can gain higher local search rankings. It is believed that over one third of the searches done in the internet are local search terms, i.e words having a geo-specific word (example: “Carpet Cleaner Dallas”) added to it. Links from the local directories are the best backlinks for any website wants to gain better ranking for local search terms, though there are more 100 facts the calculates the local search ranking.
In order to use local business directories for your SEO purpose, you must add your business to the directories. All you have to do is to leave the detail information regarding the business and verify the listing. Basically, adding all the details is quite easy but most of the sites take a postal verification method. Moreover, you need to register into a local directory site, fill the required information of your local business and verify. By doing so; you will make your business easily accessible by the people of the locality where your business is based on. More the website is filled with the information of its services, the more credibility it earns and business directories rate such websites in a different viewpoint. So is the case for search engines ranking.
Adding your business to the local business directories indeed is a big assurance factor that your target clients and consumers are aware about your presence and at the same time it provide great option to rank higher in the local search results.
With the help of the relevant local directories you can find a perfect way to reach your targeted customer base and thereby make them aware about your presence in the online market. Moreover, apart for better search engine ranking; the biggest advantage of using the platform of local directories is that you can avail a medium which can be instrumental in sending massively relevant visitors to your website.
Time indeed is the biggest commodity for a businessman and hence, investing it wisely at the right place is extremely pertinent. Therefore, you must ensure to find the right local business directory to list your business instead of making a random choice for the submission.
In order to find the right directories to add your listing all you need to do is to look out as to which are the local business directories that your business rivals have opted to add their listings in. Basically, checking out the listing of the competitors and using the same directory for your business can earn you massive benefits. The fact is you will be visible to your target clients pretty easily by opting for this process.
The ideal way to go about it is to hit a search engine to find out the existed listings of your business and thereby claim it immediately.
Here is a list of top 50 Business directories
1. Google 2. Bing 3. Yahoo! 4. Yelp 5. Merchant Circle 6. LinkedIn
7. YellowPages.com 9. Whitepages 10. Supermedia 11. Yellowbook 12. CitySearch
13. Mapquest 14. Biznik 15. Local.com 16. Foursquare 17. ThinkLocal 18. CitySlick
19. USYellowPages 20. SuperPages 21. Outside.in 22. Dex
23. BizJournals.com 24. TeleAtlas 25. JustClickLocal 26. Discover our Town
27. Metrobot 28. EZ Local 29. twibs 30. LocalEze 31. Kudzu 32. CityVoter
33. Manta 34. Zipweb 35. MatchPoint 36. UsCity.net 37. Local Site Submit
38. InfoUSA 39. Axciom 40. Infignos 41. Yellow Assistance 42. Get Fave
42. My Huckleberry 43. GenieKnows 44. MojoPages 45. Brownbook
46. Magic Yellow 47. CitySquares 48. TeleAtlas 49. Navteq GPS 50. Judy’s Book
Mobile search is another integral aspect that you must choose to opt for. Do not forget that mostly people even prefer to go for the mobile search. Thus, it is extremely pertinent that you do the same research on mobile search as well. In this way, you can discover some other important directories that the mobile users rely on. And hence, you can accordingly pick the local business directories that enjoy a good ranking in the mobile search for your business promotion as well.
Overall, you can enjoy free traffic, prospective customers and better search ranking by listing your business on the credible local business directories. But do not forget to be analytical to gauge as to which particular local business directories are yielding positive results for your business.
