A service we offer, and one that is often overlooked, is submitting your website to directories. There’s more to it than just telling Google and Yahoo that you’re there. The good news is that you can do it yourself with a little work…for free.
Submitting to search engines
The first step is submitting your site to the major search engines like Google. Adding a site to Google is very simple, but you can also submit your site under Google maps. You can set up a description on Google maps with photos and contact information. If your competitors have not done this, you can get a big advantage by doing so…for free.
Put yourself in your potential client’s seat
Do a search as if you were looking for a business like yours. If you see you’re listing number #1, there’s no need to read further. For the rest of us, we’ll see our competitors, but also directories listing companies that do what you do! You need to be listed and you need that listing to link to your site. Inbound links will increase your site’s relevance according to the search engines.
General Directories
Make sure that you are listed correctly (if at all) on all those “online yellow pages” like Superpages.com, hellolocal.com, zoominfo.com…and whatever you can find. If you are an existing business, search your name. If your website isn’t coming up, you have a problem. If someone is specifically looking for you, it should be easy to be found on the Internet. Make sure your address and phone numbers are correct, but most importantly make sure your website is linked to your listing. Some sites might charge of an enhanced listing, so upgrading depends on your budget.
Niche Directories
If you are looking for a landscaper, for instance…
You get several directories like this:
Go to each of these websites and make sure your company is listed and can be linked to from those listings. They all are pretty much the same, so have a short description and some images ready to upload.
Each industry has their own directory sites that you “must” be on, but really, just do a normal search like your customers would and sign up on those sites. These sites want to offer relevant information, so they want you to list your business. Avoid sites that require you to put a link on your site back to the directory. That type of action could cause your site to be blacklisted by search engines.
When to stop?
Unfortunately, it’s an ongoing process and you have to just keep up on it. It gets easier once your name is on a listing out there, but new sites are showing up all the time. I won’t dwell too much on the social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, but you should be listed on those sites as well.
One final step…
Most of these directories ask for reviews. Have your customers post positive reviews of your business. A glowing testimonial from a client on the Internet is more effective that a testimonial in a traditional ad…There’s some chance that the person wasn’t paid to give the testimonial. Also, an unhappy client could have posted something, so beat them to the punch with positive reviews.
I just did a search for “brad miller chicago” and my site came up #1 in Google. That’s only impressive because there are about 50 Brad Millers here and one of them is on the Chicago Bulls. I think it’s the directories I’m listed on.
