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Why your business directory is important
The simplest way to boost local SEO is by claiming and verifying your local business directory listings. The online business directories that are vital to your business will facilitate to increase your visibility in Google. And on the local business directory sites where your customers are going to search you out. You’ll be providing potential customers with valuable data regarding your business. Google My Business is, by far, one of the most popular directories. Below is a handy tutorial for claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing. (Skip to the actual lists after Step five if you’ve taken care of your Google Business listing)
Step 1: Claim Your Business Page
Claim your Google My Business listing by navigating to google.com/business. Then you will need to log in with your Google account. You can create one at google.com/signup if you do not have a Google account. Next, you need to search for your business by name and address. When you have found the business listing. You might need to go through a verification process if you’re not verified. Being verified is to ensure you are the right person to manage the page. Generally, they will send you a postcard within five business days with a code.
Step 2: Verify Consistency of Name, Address, and Phone
Business details are the most critical piece of data for customers. Especially for customers that are trying to find your business directory listings. Inaccurate business data will cause frustration. However, that’s not the sole reason why you must ensure your data is consistent across all listings. Such data that is vital are your business name, address, and phone. Besides, it is necessary to guarantee the completeness of your business directory listings. As its one of the most critical factors contributing to your business directory local search ranking by Moz.
Step 3: Google My Business Listing High-Res Images
Uploading high-res images of your business and staff can tell a visual story regarding what customers will expect when once they stop by your location. Google My Business is like a profile for your business. You can upload logos and profile pictures.
Furthermore, the Business profile allows for additional photos, including a cover image. These images will do more than make you look goo online. They will drive clicks to your local business listing. Google My Business listings with images see 42% more driving directions and 35% more click-throughs than businesses that do not.
Step 4: Ensure Hours of Operation are Up-to-date
Another critical piece of information customers looks for on your business listing is your hours of operations. When doing so, you ought to make sure to incorporate any special holiday hours or any changes that made to your hours’ overtime. Google occasionally sends emails before holidays asking if there are any changes to your business hours. In doing so, this will avoid any potential frustration or confusion that may occur if your business hours are inaccurate.
Step 5: Collect and Manage Online Reviews
Online reviews additionally factor in significantly with your local search listings to where your business ranks in local search. It is not sufficient to have a large number of online reviews. You also need to interact with your online reviews, such as responding to them. Such action will boost your local search rankings. It will also help in building trust and loyalty with customers.
Which local business directories are the best?
Google is amongst one of the numerous local business directory choices available to you. It is often difficult to know which ones are best since there is an abundance of them. Below are some carefully curated sites that we feel would be the most valuable to your business and will attribute to a high local SEO ranking. Deciding which business directory is best for your business can be difficult. It’s important to research where customers are going when looking for a business.
Angie’s List: More than 6 million households nationwide trust and use Angie’s List’s, 12 million local business directories and reviews to find the best local service providers like roofers, plumbers, handymen, mechanics, doctors, dentists, and more. Angie’s List members submit more than 60,000 reviews every month about the companies they hire.
Better Business Bureau: the Better Business Bureau founded in 1912, better known as the BBB. It helps consumers identify trustworthy businesses and those that aren’t, through more. The BBB business directory hosts reviews on more than five million local businesses.
Bing: Bing Places for Business is a Bing portal that is a free directory tool that allows local businesses to add their listings to Bing. Bing Places help companies show in local search results, making it more visible to online customers. Having up to date information on a local business is extremely vital as it offers greater visibility.
Cars.com: Cars.com is a leading on-line destination that enables automobile buyers and owners to navigate each turn of vehicle possession. As a pioneer in automobile classifieds, the organization has developed into certainly one of the most significant digital automotive websites. It is connecting customers with neighborhood auto dealers across the country every time, everywhere. It offers automobile consumers with a complete set of research tools and the biggest database of consumer reviews inside the industry.
CitySearch: This directory for entertainment, dining, retail, travel, and professional services. It is diverse and unique from many other online directories and reviews sites. Similar to some review gates, CitySearch uses a thumbs up/thumbs down to rate a business.
ConsumerAffairs: ConsumerAffairs is a web-based consumer advocacy and news website that relays relevant information about businesses to consumers. The site hosts consumer news, reviews, complaints about businesses like alarm and security, pest control, moving companies, solar, and much more.
DealerRater: One of the nation’s largest online review site focused on auto dealers. This site is home to more than 2 million reviews, with over 14 million users monthly that utilize DealerRater.
Dex Media: Providing an industry-leading solution to help local businesses grow and to become successful. They also operate several different services, including Superpages.com.
Edmunds: Edmunds, which is similar to Cars.com, offers consumers another alternative to access vehicle listings across North America. The site allows users to view vehicle reviews, tips for purchasing a new car, and their local dealership evaluations.
Extra Local Business Directory Websites
Facebook: Furthermore, to being the largest social network, Facebook additionally gives forty million small companies a home to interact with customers and a place for consumers to submit and read opinions.
Google My Business: GMB is a free tool provided to the businesses to succeed in their online existence across the Google family. This is inclusive of Google Search and Google Maps. Authenticating your business provides you with control over your online business profile. It enables you to interact better with your customers through the power of reviews.
HealthGrades: With more than 3 million reviews of healthcare professionals on HealthGrades. This includes reviews from patients on doctors, hospitals, dentists, and more. They are empowering patients with key information to make an informed decision when choosing a service provider for their care.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn organization Pages allow companies to share valuable content material and interact with fans, personnel, and potential personnel. Similarly, companies can create sponsored content material to grow brand recognition, generate leads, and amplify the reach of your company’s updates.
Local.com: Local.com is a local search database, home to over sixteen million reviews of businesses. It encompasses every area across the USA. Local.com gives potential customers access to information on businesses such as hours, services provided, reviews, etc.
MerchantCircle: MerchantCircle is a community that connects small businesses with other community businesses to offer social media functions and free marketing tools to reach local customers better. It is connecting consumers to testimonials, online reviews, and tools that help them talk to the business.
Solar Reviews: Solar Reviews may be more popular in sunny states, provides homeowners with reviews on contractors in the area that install solar systems.
Superpages.com: Superpages.com is a pinnacle online aid for locating information and insights on corporations and stores. Their offerings assist customers in discovering statistics about nearby businesses ranging from driving directions, hours of operations, and consumer opinions.
Whitepages: Whitepages is the leading source for caller identity and gets in touch with unsolicited mail detection in the USA. With a database greater than six hundred million cellular and landline telephone numbers within the US and over 1.5 billion specific numbers in its international database. Whitepages leverages its significant facts and insights to screen unknown calls, texts, and to screen telephone–primarily based threats for customers and businesses.
Yelp: Yelp is a public company that was founded in 2004. That connects local businesses with consumers. Popularly used in the restaurant industry, but there are other businesses like auto repairs, hairstylists, tire shops, home services, and much more. Yelp is home to over 115 million reviews and growing.
Yext: Yext allows businesses of all sizes to control their location data across several websites. They have mobile apps, internal systems, and the industry’s largest network of maps, apps, social networks, directories, that are all connected to search engines, such as Facebook, Google, Bing, Apple, and Yahoo.
Yellowbook: Yellowbook enables customers to locate business listing, telephone numbers, addresses, directions, maps, and more of local businesses nearby.
Yellowpages: YP has been connecting neighborhood organizations with customers inside the network for greater than a hundred years. The web page reaches 70 million customers on a month-to-month basis and offers them get entry to a business’s name, address, and telephone in conjunction with applicable data like online reviews.
Zillow: Like Realtor.com, it helps individuals find the perfect home. But it is more than just a website that has houses for sale or rent. It helps connect prospective home buyers and home sellers with local trusted real estate agents to help walk them through the home buying or selling process.
In the digital age, with any local business listing, getting your happiest customers to recommend your business with reviews. Elevatie’s industry-leading review generation software makes it easy for you to interact with customers for reviews, customer analytics, and business growth. Call or text 1-888-746-5035 to find out how you can put Elevatie to work for you.