How to get in the best small business directory for your company
Finding and getting listed in the right small business directory (or directories) delivers three big benefits:
- It aids your local marketing efforts,
- It makes your business more local-customer friendly, and
- It boosts your search engine optimization (SEO).
However, before you start making a submission to what you think should be the best small business directory, determine exactly what you want to say. Get your hours, your contact information, your address, and a short statement about your business worked out so that these items will be consistent across all platforms where you submit them.
At the same time, search Google for your business and make sure the mother ship of search engines has your information correct. And, if you haven’t already claimed your local listing on Google, head over to this page to input your up-to-date and correct information. Further, Google has a pretty aggressive program to encourage local small businesses to get online.
Next, do three more searches:
- Search for competitors and note any directories they are in,
- Search Google for “small business directory Your Town Name,” and
- Search for you and your competitors using Yext’s “Claim Your Local Listings” tool on SEO Bandwagon’s website.
Expand the second search above to other names of your geographic area – neighborhoods, counties, state, etc.
These searches should give you the big picture. You may find some directories that require membership. Those may be good investments to make, and if they are local groups, they could also pay off in terms of local networking.
In addition to hunting down the best local small business directory for your company, there are online services – both free and paid – that will shotgun your small business contact information out to dozens if not hundreds of directories. Many of these will have been found when you did the search on the SEO Bandwagon website. Look over the services listed below to find one that meets your small business directory needs as well as your budget requirements:
If you sign up with a paid service provider, they’ll typically monitor your presence in the directories and handle updates for you. With the growth of local mobile-influenced commerce, this is a smart idea for many small businesses.
Finally, I haven’t mentioned some of the big players, like Yelp and the various home service rating sites, such as Angie’s List, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. (With the changes at Angie’s List, by the way, it could be ideal for many local service providers.) If your industry falls under any of their “umbrellas,” get up to speed on how to best use them – one might prove to be the most profitable small business directory of them all. Be sure you know how to manage these review sites like Yelp.