Click image to see 168 Business Directories
Even if your small business could afford a Super Bowl ad – at $3.5 million – there is another form of advertising that would benefit you more and consistently bring you far more business.
And the good news is you only have to pay to have it submitted ONCE to get free advertising on Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing, Superpages and hundreds of other local directories indefinitely*.
Completely Free Advertising
You can do it yourself manually, or create your own listings through Universal Business Listings (UBL – what I use), but there are MAJOR BENEFITS to having me do it for you including your not having to do anything except provide your business information. I will handle EVERYTHING for you.
What does it cost?
See Local Search Listings Frequently Asked Questions
DOES FREE LOCAL ADVERTISING WORK?
- See UBL Webcard examples of actual listings I have created and compare them to any other listing created on UBL. What you see in those examples is what YOUR business listing information will look like – listings that will be sent to hundreds of major sites including Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing, SuperPages, YellowPages, Yelp, Merchant Circle and sites about your location and industry.
- Local Search Case Study showing UBL listings generated 75 new visitors for every 100 visitors Google sent.
- Appliance store local listings generating 30 New Customers a Week.
- Enhanced local search listings generate new traffic of 81.32%
* Note: Some databases and directories may remove your listing if you do not renew annually but most do not. There are other benefits to annual renewals – and they are fast and easy to do once you’re in UBL.
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People very often think that if you want to get a big profit you have to spend a lot of money for advertising. But not always necessarily do this. Very useful information. Thanks for the post.
Twitter: kayus321
February 7, 2012 at 7:24 am
I want to know if this for local market in Africa. This is because i’ am from Nigeria and if i do get on this free advertising listing, will i get contact or clients form my locale here in Lagos? Or is it just of int’l market
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Twitter: GrowMap
February 8, 2012 at 12:23 am
Hello,
If you are serious I can ask UBL if they have any coverage in Nigeria. They are expanding into more and more countries; however, not all countries are currently included.
Every business needs to focus on their local audience. If UBL does not feed data to your market I could research what does. I only do that though if I have someone who will at least pay for my minimum service explained in this post because it can take days to uncover the best options for each country.
I am willing to do that because it benefits all the others in that country, but I must prioritize my time.
growmap would love you to read ..Are You Playing Hide and Seek With Your Market?
Twitter: jesicawillss
February 7, 2012 at 4:11 am
It is good to use this to get an advantage from it. It’s a nice deal. Really great post.
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To my mind this is an excellent opportunity for all people who would like to promote their business or any activity with the help of advertising. Not always we can find it for free
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Thanks so much for this post. You’ve shared so much insight and information that is greatly appreciated. I agree with your views for related to business .I think being listed in so many places helped us with our SEO as well and we just hit first page for our main keyword.
Peter,
PPC Management
Patrick Long would love you to read ..Pay Per Click Advertising
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Twitter: GrowMap
February 8, 2012 at 12:29 am
While I do not usually approve advertisements masquerading as comments, I have approved yours as it may benefit some of my readers.
If you wish to have your comments approved in the future and in other blogs you may wish to read my tips on commenting. My latest is Why Bloggers Hate Comment Spam.
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So true. Small businesses should take advantage of these free listings. And thanks for sharing this info, it’ll be helpful to promote the blog for my shop.
Totally agree. We’ve been working with Gail on our listings and we couldn’t be happier.
The opening of big platforms online to small scale businesses is a great way forward in the internet world. What it does more than anything else is make people have faith in the power of their business to be a force to reckon with, one that can succeed in the face of competition. Many people visit the likes of Yahoo and the rest and no doubt will have interest in the sites.
Twitter: dmcihomesonline
February 6, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Interesting offer! hmmm.. Locally targeted customers! Awesome!
Twitter: 365thingstododc
February 6, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Thanks Gail, and thanks for the great case studies. I recently secured Growmap’s services to help with our directory listings and I can say I’m really glad I did. It’ s only been a short time but I think being listed in so many places helped us with our SEO as well and we just hit first page for our main keyword. We saw a nice jump in orders this week that did not come from PPC (which has been our number 1 way of getting new clients until now). I think Gail’s work has already paid for itself and it hasn’t even been a two weeks yet! Definitely highly recommended!
Twitter: GrowMap
February 8, 2012 at 12:30 am
Thank you Rohan,
You haven’t seen anything yet! It takes a couple of months to really get major listings up and there is so much more I’ll be doing for you.
growmap would love you to read ..Guest Posting: Guest Blogging Tips ~ My Guest Posts
What a simple but overlooked way to promote business. I’ve got some businesses to add.
Jon would love you to read ..Healthy Dinner Crock Pot Ideas
Twitter: GrowMap
February 6, 2012 at 7:28 pm
Hi Jon,
When you do make sure you research every keyword phrase you use in your descriptions and every other field and especially that you do many searches to ensure you find the very best categories. Both are critical and can mean the difference between getting a 10% increase in traffic and a 200% increase.
You might be interested in my Food Rights post.
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That is a great deal, I am surprised that more people are not using this to their advantage.
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Twitter: GrowMap
February 6, 2012 at 5:36 pm
I keep simplifying the explanation hoping more small businesses will be able to understand. They really don’t. I keep thinking that free advertising would make sense to anyone so I need to share less detail.
growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Internet Marketing: Where to Start
Twitter: PNWLending
February 6, 2012 at 2:52 pm
I’m a small business owner and I’m always looking for ways to increase my online presence. This sounds like a really great tool. Thanks for sharing.
Scott would love you to read ..What is Hard Money?
Twitter: GrowMap
February 6, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Hi Scott,
It is the only efficient way I have come across to get listings submitted to all the major databases plus all the local directories. If you decide to do this yourself be sure you do A LOT of research into the best categories to select.
Do not make the mistake of just taking whichever you come across first that are close. Sometimes there are only a few and sometimes there are dozens or even hundreds and that is one area that I am working with UBL’s people to improve in their system.
It is complicated because some databases use NAICS codes, others use an older type of government code, and directories either use their own or they use the standard yellow pages header listings – and there are far too many of those and often they are really too specific for optimum categories.
Eventually I will write some posts with tips on keyword and category research specific to local listings because there are some useful tools like Mike Blumenthal’s Google Places Category Tool that can give you ideas what categories you will want when you claim and optimize your Google Places listing.
That does NOT directly translate to what you use at UBL and there are other shortcuts I’ve found to figure out what categories you might want that you don’t see right away. It all gets rather complicated. I am always happy to answer questions left in the comments here.
growmap would love you to read ..Social Networking, LinkedIn, Blogging and Music
Twitter: tophatmoney
February 6, 2012 at 2:40 pm
very cool Gail, thanks!
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Is it possible to get listed on Google Places even if you don’t have a physical store?
Twitter: GrowMap
February 6, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Hi Ysa,
Yes, as long as you have a physical address and phone number you can use. Google does now allow businesses to hide their address; however, there are some serious drawbacks to doing that so it is best if you have or can obtain a physical address you can use – ideally in the center of the geographic location you want to reach – optimally close to downtown in the closest metro area.
If our business is more than 25-50 miles from a major city but you want business from that city you really need an reseller or at least an address and separate phone number in that city. The default distance in most Local Search Directories is 25 miles and the maximum someone can search is usually 50 miles.
One of the major reasons to submit your listings through UBL is that relying on Google endangers your business. They are continually changing their algorithm to favor big brands and push small businesses off the first page.
While it may seem wonderful that you can optimize only for Google and get 60-98% of your traffic from them that means that if your listing slips or disappears you will LOSE 60-98% of your traffic, leads and sales all at once.
In the Case Study I cited in this post, they were getting 96% of their traffic from Google before I did their UBL listings and after their listings were live for 17 months they were getting 75 visitors from other sources for every 100 from Google.
Now if Google were to drop their listing they won’t lose 96% of all traffic – they would retain 37.5% of their visitors. I need to revisit their statistics and see if there have been further increases in traffic from all other sources.
There is no one source of traffic that will replace what Google is sending most businesses today so business owners can NOT afford to be complacent and assume that traffic will never go away. It does on a regular basis and you can NOT always buy replacement traffic through Google AdWords – and even when you can it can be so expensive that there is no profit in doing so.
See these two posts for additional information on that:
I encourage you to NOT only get listed or optimize your Google Places listing. Do that AND get listed everywhere else you can. The very survival of your business may depend on it.
And by the way, >Yahoo Local is far superior to Google Places for finding businesses. You can see more information and sort by highest rated best reviews, distance, and top results.
growmap would love you to read ..Social Networking, LinkedIn, Blogging and Music
Thanks for the idea. I think I really need to own a space here in the city. This is just a start-up business and I’m still new to online marketing but I know for a fact that Google is the best source of organic traffic. I will also take a look at adwords and see how it can help. There’s a lot of things to learn. Thanks again
free advertising? can you help me? how much should we pay first time?
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Twitter: GrowMap
February 6, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Hello,
Yes, I can help you. See What do Local Search Listings cost for details on pricing.
If you’re planning to use your China address I would want to research directories that target China and also the best ways for you to get local addresses in the United States and whatever other countries are your primary target audiences.
Being listed in local is most beneficial to businesses within 25-50 miles of their target audience, but it does also have strong SEO benefits for national and international ecommerce businesses. The incoming links from authority sites can increase your positions for all searches relevant to your business.
growmap would love you to read ..Blog Post Promotion
Personally this news that you have given about small businesses being given promotion opportunities online is a great thing. I feel that today, nothing is big or small in the web era. Everything has a use and a market and so it makes perfect sense for big platforms to allow small businesses to promote themselves there.
Twitter: xboxpcpro
February 6, 2012 at 5:40 am
This is a very interesting subject to me and I am considering using this service, I don’t think I am able to say not to quality traffic! Great post thanks for the info
I almost jumped in my seat after reading this post. A big thank you for sharing it. I have a small clothes and designs business and I will really get huge boosts in it if I am able to use the likes of Yahoo! Local and Bing. I am going to hurry and use the steps suggested to get my business on these pages. On the web, nothing is small or big, everything is equal if anything.
Twitter: GrowMap
February 6, 2012 at 3:06 am
Hi Kimme,
Every business that has a physical address and phone number they can use can reap huge benefits from being listed. It is free advertising on many of the most popular sites online and it would be foolish not to take advantage of it.
growmap would love you to read ..Blog Post Promotion
Excellent post..
For first time submission we have pay?
what is the maximum cost to pay?
Twitter: GrowMap
February 6, 2012 at 1:06 am
Hi Katherin,
The level of submission we use at UBL costs $75 and we charge $200 to collect all the information, do the keyword research, search for the very best categories, write compelling copy, and help the business claim their Google Places listing. The total is $275.
That is the best value. If a business can not afford that they can do the submissions themselves or opt for the less expensive basic listing at $39 – but that version does not include a Webcard or status of your listings or reporting – so the $75 version is well worth the difference.
growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Internet Marketing: Where to Start
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