Generally, if a potential customer wants to find your business website on the internet, there are two methods available to them. First, they can use a search engine like Google to type in your business name or some other keywords associated with you and your business, and see if your website comes up in the search results. The second method is to use a directory. A directory is a website that simply catalogs and lists other websites and businesses. Directories catagorize listings by location and type of business so that users can find what they’re looking for easily. Users can also search within a directory.
Every business and website needs to make sure that they are listed in search engines and directories. It doesn’t matter how great a website design you have, if customers cannot find your site, you will not earn revenue.
The directory list below represents some of the top internet directories today. Customers are using these sites to find businesses and services daily.
Plan to spend 5 – 10 minutes on each site setting up your listing. Most directories will offer an upgraded version of your listing, or additional advertising opportunities, for a premium. All have free listing support. You will need to create an account on each site, and it is probably better to try to create the account first, then set up the listing. For a couple of the sites, we found that after we created or updated our listing, then created an account as requested, our listing information was not saved and had to be re-entered.
Also, please search each directory for your business before creating an account or adding a new listing. You may already be listed, or you may have an old, out-dated listing available that you can claim or update.
- Google My Business
- Local Yahoo Listings
- Citysquares
- Yellowbot
- Citysearch
- Yellowpages
- Insiderpages
- Superpages
- Judysbook
- Kudzu
- Local
- MerchantCircle
- Bing Places For Business
- Yelp
An hour or two spent making sure that you have an accurate business listing in these directories will be time well spent. More potential customers will be able to find your business and website, and many of these directories will also be providing valuable backlinks which will be great for SEO and your main website’s PageRank. Finally, when someone does use the search engine method to look for your business, some of these directory listings may come up in the results in addition to, or instead of, your main website, giving you multiple opportunities to attract their attention, and their business.
To monitor your site’s ongoing search engine ranking and performance, sign up for an account at SEMRush and set up a project for your website. It will help you monitor search positioning, as well as competition and potential SEO issues.