Even in small towns, all your potential customers do not know how to find you. For years I’ve been encouraging bloggers to focus more locally. What we really need are local directories to quickly find only businesses that are in your area.
The challenge is to get sufficient numbers of small businesses to list themselves on and promote the same site. Hasan Saleem has added a Local Search Directory for businesses in the United States to his long established directory site.
How to Get the Most Out of Local Listings
When choosing a local directory, make sure they have current content on the domain and are active on social media (as this directory is). Because the DirJournal Directory has eight blogs containing high quality content written by me (Gail Gardner) and top writers including Jennifer Mattern, Ann Smarty, Barry Welford, Lisa Barone, Beth Burgess, and others, it has an established audience that brings in traffic to the directories.
Individual sites are not as effective in raising visibility as a collective site. The more listings in a particular city, the more potential new customers each will get. Although there are SEO benefits to having listings, your goal is to attract real people to visit your site and business.
Encourage other businesses in your area to list in the same directories you do. Consider pooling your resources to advertise locally and send buyers to a page that features all those who contributed. (Many can more easily afford ads – making the investment pay off faster.)
Gather This Info
Before you get started making any new listing, gather this information:
- Official Business Name
- Address
- Description (200 characters for Local.DirJournal.com)
- Logo image
- Special Offers (optional, but recommended)
- Hours your business is open
- Video embed code (optional, but highly recommended)
- Contact Information
- Phone
- Email address
- Website URL
- Twitter URL
- Facebook URL
- Google Plus URL
TIPS for Local Listings
Take some time to do a thorough job of describing your business accurately. Before you get started, make a list of your products or services. Include brand names. Make a list of the cities, counties, and metro areas you serve.
Incorporate keywords and locations into your business description to be more easily found and ensure anyone interested chooses your business. The better your description, the more new customers any listing can bring to you.
Submitting your listing is fast and easy when you have all of the above collected. Just go to this Submit Your Site page. Be sure you choose the best category or categories. Note that this is not a free directory. They accept payment via PayPal. Paid directories have the resources to publish top content and promote it, growing the audience and increasing SEO value.
