Web directories and local citations still appear to be a small ranking factor. In this article, I am going to share 20 Valuable Web Directories for Small Business.
Citations are not links but rather references that contain information about your business Name, Address, and Phone aka NAP on local review sites, directories, and business listings. Google scrapes these third party business directories and listing sites and take the data into account when determining which business/website to show for Geo-targeted searches.
According to Moz research, web directories and local citations still appear to be a small ranking factor – especially for local businesses. However, Google’s John Mueller himself has said that directory links “generally” don’t help with SEO.
A local citation is any mention of your business on the web; it is any combination of your company name, phone number, address, zip or postal code, and website address. Citations in SEO are a key factor in improving your local search results.
Useful Web Directories for Any Kind of Website
1. Google My Business
2. Bing Places
3. Yahoo
4. Yelp
5. Foursquare
6. BOTW
7. AboutUs
8. Spoke.com
9. Yellow Pages
10. Chamber of Commerce
11. HotFrog
12. Superpages
13. MerchantCircle
14. Better Business Bureau
15. B2B Yellow Pages
16. Brownbook
17. eLocal
18. DexKnows
19. Alignable
20. Local.com
What are the Advantages of Local Citations?
There are many advantages of online business directories and local business listings sites for small businesses owners, such as:
Business Directories are Cost-Effective
There are many online advertising sources out there, which cost hundreds of $$. But many online business directories for which listing your local business is free, and some listing sites require additional cost for some special features, such as more than one business listings, multiple locations, multiple categories, location map, a website link, or adding videos and photos.
Increase in Local Visibility
However online business directories are enormous, they have suggesting capabilities and advanced filtering, and help you to connect with your targeted customers or audiences. For a small local businesses, online directories are truly beneficial because they build your business locally visible to your community.
Help to Get Found More
Usually, local business listing sites and directory allows their users to search by specific bases, such as location, category, and service. This is extremely advantageous for small businesses because sometimes, users don’t know to search for the specific service or a specific business name they need. If you added complete information about your business in your local listing than chance is high that the directory will show your business to a user even if they don’t search about your business.
Improve Your Business Repute
Online business directories allow a user to give reviews about their local businesses. This will help small businesses to improve their reputation by getting positive reviews. There’s also a chance for negative reviews but if business owners know how to properly handle user reviews, then the weigh of negative reviews will be decreased. Also remember that negative reviews are not so bad for your business reputation, because a blend of positive and negative reviews shows users that you are a perfect and trusted organization that has nothing to hide.
Strengthen SEO
This one, as an SEO specialist, I like the most. For search engine optimization (SEO) Google and other search engines are always looking for user’s trusted businesses, so if you provide complete and accurate details about your business, same as you provide on your website and on google my business listing than chance are high to rank higher in search engines.
Get discovered by potential Investors and Partners (B2B Marketing)
Online business directory or local citation sites are the places where potential partners and investors search for businesses to do business with. Adding your complete local business info such as contact details, services, products, etc. will help them to give your business some consideration.