Business Listings and Directories
Do you want customers to be able to find your website shop and business premises? If so there are few free and simple things you can do to help.
We’ll tell you some directories you can join, which may feed traffic to your site (and enquiries to your phone), and give you an overview of listing your business online.
First of all we will tell you what to do, and for those interested in the theory we will then tell you why it is a good idea.
What to do…
1. Consider getting a BT business landline
As we describe below, BT feed business contact information to a wide variety of sources. A BT business landline will get you into many of these directory listings…
2. Google business listings
Go to Google’s “Find Business” service (http://local.google.co.uk/) and put in your business name in quotes (e.g. “Borchester Equestrian”) and your postcode. If you’re not there, you can add yourself (http://www.google.com/local/add/lookup).
3. Yahoo! business listings
Go to Yahoo’s “Find Business” service (http://uk.local.yahoo.com/) and put in your business name in quotes (e.g. “Borchester Equestrian”) and your postcode. Yahoo! don’t currently have a method of adding yourself, so if you really need to be in Yahoo! the best bet is to get a BT Business Landline (see above).
4. Yell! (the online Yellow Pages)
Go to Yell ( www.yell.co.uk) and search for your business. If you’re not there, you can add yourself (http://www.yelldirect.com/freelisting/).
5. Thomson Local
Go to Thomson Local and search for your business. If you’re not listed, you can add yourself (http://www.thomsondirectories.com/contact/)
6. UpMyStreet
Go to the UpMyStreet “Find My Nearest” service and search for your business. If you’re not there, you can add yourself to Thomson Local (above) and it will feed through into UpMyStreet.
And now for the theory…
It’s a chain reaction!
Many big businesses share information with online and real world directories. For example, if you have a BT business land line, you will end up with (amongst other things):
- A Yellow Pages listing
- A listing in Yell, the online Yellow Pages (http://www.yell.co.uk)
- A listing in Google business listings (http://local.google.co.uk/)
- A listing in Yahoo! Local business listings (http://uk.local.yahoo.com)
If you take a free listing in the Thomson Local directory, you will end up with (amongst other things):
- A listing in Thomson online (http://www.thomsonlocal.com)
- A listing in UpMyStreet , a local area information service (http://www.upmystreet.com/)
If you don’t have these individual listings, don’t worry. You can add yourself in to most of them, and it’s all in our “What to do…” section at the beginning.
You’ll also find that trade organisations, and other groups you might belong to, may link to you - it’s worth checking if the organisations you belong to have websites, and requesting a link if they do.
Why do you want people link to you?
People linking to your website has two advantages: the more links to your site are scattered all over the web, the more chance people have of finding you; additionally, the search engines count each link as a “vote of confidence” in your website… so the more links you have, the better your site will do in search engines.
Not all links are created equal. Ideally you want your links to come from reputable websites, particularly those with a reputation in your market or area.
Classification, classification, classification… what does your business do?
Many directories group similar businesses together, to make it more convenient for the customer using their directory to find something. Each group is called a “classification” or category.
Most business listings allow a free listing in only one classification, so choosing the right classification is vital and you should spend a little time on it. For example: Yellow Pages does not have a classification “Bridal Wear”, but does have “Weddings – Dressing for the Big Day” and “Clothes Shops – Ladies”… if your business is selling bridal dresses, which classification should you be in?
When choosing classification, you can look at how your competitors have classified themselves; ask yourself if they’ve made good or bad choices. Most importantly, you should try and think as your customers think: how would they classify or categorise your business when they’re looking for it?
Other directories are also available…
We’ve only mentioned the larger directories so far, and the web is full of directory listings services and links based websites. There may be directories specific to your market, or local to your business. To find these, try a searching Google or Yahoo! using terms like “find business [your location or market]” (e.g. “ find business bridal wear ”) and “business listing [your location or market]” (e.g. “find business worcester”).
When you find a directory or listing, you need to ask yourself if it’s worth adding your site. Look at factors like:
- Do I know this website?
- Have I seen adverts in the press?
- What sort of companies are listed already?
- Would my customers use this site?
- What are the implications (e.g. cost) of having a listing?
It is easy for technically experienced people to set up a directory website; it’s much more difficult for them to attract users. So, particularly if you are paying, you need to have an idea of what you will get out of the deal.
One downside to joining directories randomly, is that you will receive more unsolicited emails (spam) encouraging you to join still more directories. You should be particularly wary of sites which require a lot of your personal information to enter a listing.