Benefits of Business Directory Listings

Not only are listing sites important for getting your business and website noticed and creating a positive first impression, but they are also highly beneficial to the growth of your business. Read on to learn about the many advantages directory listings offer your business.

1. Amplify Online Presence

Due to the fact that business listing sites tend to pull information from one another, getting listed in one directory can very likely mean getting listed in several more, allowing you to kill two (or more) birds with one stone (so long as you monitor, claim, and update your listings regularly.)

2. Improve Local Visibility

Though they are massive, online business directories have advanced filtering and suggesting capabilities, allowing you to become highly visible to your local community and niche audiences.

3. Attract New Customers

The typical online business directory allows users to search by specific criteria such as specialty, neighborhood, ratings, and more. By simply entering complete and accurate information in your listing, the directory will then connect your business to the people searching for it, even if they don’t search your business name explicitly.

4. Increase Engagement

The easier it is for a potential customer to engage with your business—whether it’s to make a phone call, submit a contact form, or even go to your location—the more likely they are to do so. Business directories create a channel by which potential customers can engage directly with your business or easily get to your website to do so.

5. Promote Word of Mouth

Word of mouth has always been a trusted source for consumers, and now predominantly takes the form of online reviews. With apps and mobile devices, customers can now publish reviews more quickly—even during their experience. Getting listed in online business directories equips happy customers to spread the word about your business.

6. Strengthen Your Reputation

The fear of negative reviews prevents many businesses from getting listed online, but this shuts them off from getting positive reviews too, which are essential for a good reputation. As long as you know how to properly handle one, the cost of one negative review is outweighed by the benefits of many positive reviews. Plus, a mix of reviews can even strengthen your reputation, as it shows that you are a genuine company with nothing to hide.

7. Increase Brand Awareness

When a user performs a search in an online business directory, it will display a list of relevant results, each with a brief snapshot so that you can decide which one to click on to learn more. This means that even if a user doesn’t click on your listing, they still see your business. Every encounter a person has with your business increases their awareness and familiarity with your brand, which makes them more receptive to future outreach.

8. Improve SEO

Online business listings improve your SEO by sending signals to Google about your online presence and helping to validate your trustworthiness.  Google wants to be trusted by its users, so the more information it can obtain about your business online, and the more consistent that information is, the higher you will rank.

9. Show Up on the First Page of Google

It is possible to get on the first page of Google through SEO practices, but it can take a few months to start seeing results. Popular online business directory sites, on the other hand, have been around for a while, have high amounts of traffic, and are trusted by Google. This means that your profile page on, say, Yelp has a high chance of showing up on the first page of results for relevant searches.

Online business directories have immense benefits, and neglecting them can actually hurt your business. So get started today with creating, claiming, and updating your listings online.