FreshFishDesign

In a previous post, we touched briefly on using directories to promote your business.

There are two main reasons to submit a listing to one of these directories. One is to obtain a link to your own website. The number of links pointing to your site is one of the key factors in how well your site ranks in searches: in broad terms, the more sites that link to your website, the higher it will rank. (This doesn’t mean that you should try to obtain links from just any and every site – look for quality and relevancy).

The second reason is that online directories are one of the key factors that Google uses to determine your position in its local listings. By doing some research on local listings for Thanet and Kent, we can identify the business directories that contribute to local search rankings. We’ve listed several below.

(There is a third benefit: business directory listings might actually help potential clients find you, though it’s debatable how many people use business directories to find services – it’s far more likely that they will just use a search engine.)

In any case, when choosing which directories to add your business to, ideally pick ones which allow you to include your website address. Never pay for a listing unless you are certain you’ll get value from it (most of the time, you probably won’t). And be aware that some companies will phone you once you’ve listed your company and try to sell you their premium service.

So, here is a short list of local and national business directories that you should list your business on. Remember: the key thing with using these directories to improve your Google local listing position is consistency. Make sure you use the same details on every listing – email address, website address, phone number, address, and so on – and always format your details in the same way. For instance, write your phone number consistently – that means that if you write it with a space after the area code on your Google local listing, then you should write with a space after the area code every time you submit your listing to a directory.

Over time you will see an improvement in your search rankings. Don’t expect instant results. It can often take weeks for Google listings to update. Plus there’s always the chance that one of these sites will send some direct traffic.

National directories that allow you to add your website link

HotFrogUK
thebestof (the twist with this one is that your business needs to be recommended by someone rather than submitted by you directly)
Freeindex
Qype
bview
uk-local-search

National directories that don’t add website link

ThomsonLocal
Yelp
UK Small Business Directory

Local business directories

Around Canterbury
Kibittz
iKent
Kent Business Directory
Kent Find

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Search rankings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

If you have any comments or questions regarding this article, please post them on this page using the form below.