About a month ago I received a yellow phone book on my doorstep. I was completely shocked and started to laugh. I thought to myself when was the last time I saw one of these. It has been over 15+ years since I opened up a phone book, and all I can say it's amazing how time has changed.
The Millennial generation is most likely to be the last group of people to understand what it means to have to find a business or person in the phone books.
People across the world reference their mobile devices, tablets, or computers to look for a service or product. The days of looking in a phone book are gone, though not entirely - it just moved online.
Some of us may remember when Yellow Pages would send out the phone book each month, but the company knew they had to evolve with the new generation. They moved their services online which allowed consumers to find business a lot faster than before and the information was more accurate. No more waiting around until the next book was published and delivered.
What are Business Directories?
Business Directories are resource/referral sites that provide business information to anyone on the web. Every Business Directory has several requirements to be published on their website.
Technology has changed the world as we know it, and getting your business listed on the major online websites can have a huge impact to your business and brand.
Getting your business listed on the web will increase your position ranking in the search engines and this will also increase your searches across multiple queries. Meaning, if you search home installers, you will most likely see the websites for the business and that business mentioned on another site such as Yelp, or Thumbtack.
How Do I Get My Business Listed?
First and foremost, I highly suggest to create a marketing email. This email account will be used to create the business profiles for the online directories. The reason for creating a new email is because you will be bombarded with spam and newsletters.
You will want to keep this separate from the email account that is used for communicating with customers or employees. Things could get messy if you choose to keep them together.
Start off by creating your Google My Business Page (GMB). The Google My Business page is known as the #1 Business directory in the world. You will be required to provide your Business Name, Address, Phone Number, Website URL, Business Category, & Service Areas.
If your business address is your home, and wish to not share this information there is the option to hide the address. Once the Google My Business page is created, a verification is required. Google will send a postcard to the address associated with the account. The postcard will contain a code that will need to confirmed on the GMB Dashboard.
Once the GMB page is verified, you may begin adding your business on the other online directory sites. Make sure to reference the Google My Business page when adding your business to the other websites.
Your Business Name, Address, & Phone Number (NAP) are critical for the search engines to recognize your business. If you business information is inconsistent online, the search engines will get confused and push it off to the side. Which is why it is best to always reference the Google My Business page for all your listings.
Where Do I Get Listed Next?
The next step is to find other website to get your business listed on. There are many directory sites that can be for all businesses or industry specific. Depending on your business you may want to do some additional research on sites you can be listed on.
For the most part there are many sites that offer FREE business listing, though you will run into some that require payment or they are powered by YEXT. Obviously, this is totally up to you based on your marketing budget, but some of the services may or may not be beneficial to use - even third party providers.
Top 50 Online Directory Sites:
Google My Business
Apple Maps
Facebook
LinkedIn
Bing Places
Yelp
MapQuest
FourSquare
BBB
Chamber of Commerce
Area Connect
SuperPages
Yahoo!
CitySearch
GetFave
CitySquares
BOTW
Directory Company
BrownBook
Tupalo
EZLocal
Express Update
Merchant Circle
HotFrog
Yellowpages
Local
iBegin
Fyple
US Directory
N49
CylexUSA
Opendi
2FindLocal
Spoke
Whitepages
Manta
Patch
DexKnows
American Towns
Biz Journals
Local Stack
Angie's List
Local Database
Show Me Local
Cybo
YellowBot
Cortera
Here MapCreator
Yalwa
Duns & Bradstreet
Want Help With Your Business?
If you don't have the time to get your business listed throughout the online directories, contact MP360 Marketing, the leading SEO agency in Nashville, Tennessee, to get a free quote today! Our SEO Specialists will walk you through the entire process.
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