Not all online searches and transactions are performed on search engines. Directories, business listing sites and social media websites expand your reach and have some of the hottest leads on the web at an inexpensive cost. Whether free or paid, these business listing sites have created marketplaces worth spending your advertising budget on.
Should You Submit to Online Directories?
Yes! You should submit your business information and website to relevant directories, and I’ve included a list below. This list is a great sources of leads, consumer reviews and referral traffic. Free or paid, it is important you control your business profile on these listing websites because you need to engage and advertise to consumers where they want to be. Once you claim your profile, update any information that is inaccurate, and be sure to provide details about your business that are a selling point and may draw a new customer in. Most importantly, claim ownership now so that you can respond to positive and negative reviews of your business in the future.
How Many Is Too Many?
There is no set number of directories your business should or shouldn’t be in. It’s the quality and relevancy of the directories that is important to keep in mind. Links from spammy websites, hacked websites or low quality sites constitute bad neighborhoods that you don’t want to belong to. Linking to your site from these bad neighborhoods on purpose will make you a target for manual penalties from the search engines.
How to Tell Which Directories Are Legit
I have put together a list of 32 business listing sites I recommend, below. But there are many more worth considering. If you’re interested in submitting your site to a directory, take a look at the businesses listed. If you would feel comfortable calling on those businesses and they are relevant to your business, then you should feel safe submitting to and being a part of that neighborhood. The quality of the business profile sites you are listed in is important, so stick to the best. The goal is to make sure that the directories publish the most accurate, up-to-date information about your business so you can reach your potential customers where they are searching.
Get Started
First things first, check your website listings with our free business check-up.
On any of these business listing sites, search to see if your business is already listed, then claim control of your existing listing instead of submitting a duplicate. For new submissions, I’ve linked to the deepest page, so that you can set up a new business profile quickly. Also if you have a directory that you think should be included, please feel free to mention it in the comments.
- facebook.com
- Google My Business
- twitter.com
- Bing Places
- Yahoo Local/Aabaco Small Business
- superpages.com
- dexknows.com
- linkedin.com
- tripadvisor.com
- yellowpages.com
- yelp.com
- ezlocal.com
- whitepages.com
- foursquare.com
- urbanspoon.com
- city-data.com
- hotfrog.com
- bbb.org
- bizjournals.com
- manta.com
- merchantcircle.com
- angieslist.com
- yellowbook.com
- showmelocal.com
- thumbtack.com
- yellowpages.aol.com
- local.com
- americantowns.com
- insiderpages.com
- magicyellow.com
- elocal.com
- localpages.com
This is just the tip of the iceberg. With more than 70 top listing sites out there, we help businesses lock their listings once, not 70 or more times. Thryv helps business owners thrive.
