Business Directories, who do you use and why?

Ah! I didn't see the date on this...apologies, I wouldn't have posted if I'd known it was 4 years old!

Hi Guys,

I've spent the last couple of months listing my site on free business listings, some of which have been listed here.

I was wondering if there are any 'traditional' retailers out there who know of any good free retail directories?

By traditional i mean shopping related, a lot of the directories i am listed on seem to be more 'services related' you know, lawyers, builders, plumbers etc

I'm struggling to find free fashion/clothing/t.shirt/gift etc directories...

Have you considered Google Shopping? Not had any experience myself, but I know some merchants rave about it.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I'd looked at it but got a bit confused, it isn't free and it seems to be linked to an adwords account.

And after spending 5 HOURS yesterday setting up adwords to trial it then being told over the phone that my £75.00 voucher had somehow expired...and i need to set up a whole new account... and my 50ppc and £5.00 daily budget would be 'almost a waste of time'...i close enough told them to stick it and paused my campaign after about 5 minutes

Originally Posted by Kempres

“and my 50ppc and £5.00 daily budget would be 'almost a waste of time'...i close enough told them to stick it and paused my campaign after about 5 minutes ”

Remember their mission is to get you to spend more money...

Adwords is complicated at first, but (personally) it is worth the time and energy to investigate and learn all about it.

Just to prove you don't have to spend vast amounts, this is Mondays performance.

That hasn't happened over night, we've honed, trialled and experimented, but it has been pretty consistent over the years. According to our last account review, we need to increase our CPC and daily spend...

Once (if) you get in to it, no one knows or understands your business and market like you do. Even Google.

Wowzer that looks impressive

The thing is because i'm not altogether niche, i was having to bid £1.00-£1.25 to get phrases on the first page, words like 'gaming tshirts' and 'superhero tshirts' etc

What i also didn't realise is that if someone searched 'gaming tshirts' then my ad would only appear every now and again depending on my daily budget, it doesn't appear everytime someone enters that search term.

I'm sure most people already know this but it was news to me, they also couldn't tell me how many times a day my ad would show, or when.

I'll probably need to go into it again at some point but to be honest the guy spoke to me as if everyone who phones them has swallowed the same tech speak dictionary that they use

Quite an interesting list Julia, as self confess directory bore, I can't help myself...

The UK Small Business Directory is run by TJ and based just down the road from us. Definitely one worth listing with, and Terry has a no nonsense approach to directories and is well known for the amount of help he gives small businesses, especially related around Google+. He hasn't been around here for a while, so I'll see if I can get him to say hello.

PR wise, just google Pagerank and you will get a sea churn of arguments and confusion as to how reliable PR is, to PR is dead. The toolbar PR is now updated so infrequently, and Google seem undecided what to do with it. The reality is, the algorithm is now so complicated with over 200 signals that dictate search results, that PR just makes up a part of it. We stopped worrying about it about 4 years ago.

To get good PR is all about getting decent inbound high PR links, which then flow to yourself. 90% of our link building over the years has been natural, rather than SEO'd. Traffic and revenue are the only things I monitor

But remember the directory landscape and model has changed in recent years, and it's no longer just about traffic. Directories are now used by search engines to track citations, ie NAP (Name Address Phone Number). The number of citations your business has, (and where) can impact search positions for your business. If anyone needs to know anything about Citations, then head over to WhiteSpark who are citation specialists. In fact a former member of this forum, Nyagoslav Zhekov recently joined them and is Director of Local Search, and a well known figure in the SEO world.

This is why the likes of Yext in the States have become popular. You sign up with them and they blast out your details across a whole network of partners (including our US based site).

In the UK there is a new service launched by ThomsonLocal that also provides a similar service to Yext, which we are part of, www.mylocalleadfinder.co.uk. Later on this year, there will be another one stop directory shop launching, with a loud fanfare and corporate marketing campaign, so watch this space!

There's a lot of mis-information floating around directories, and a lot of bad press and negativity, mainly from older style or script kiddie web directories (hundreds of web links listed on unmoderated pages). The sort of thing that are set up and copied in their hundreds, and offered as "get listed in 1000 directories for $50". All rubbish and will do you more harm than good.

Also traditional high pressure selling techniques and expensive prices from the big boys haven't helped the public perception.

But as a tool to market a business and help your website on it's way, directories still play an important part of your marketing strategy. The key point being part! Individual directories will come down to personal choice, but the majority will allow a free sign up, and if nothing else, give you another citation.  

I can bore you for hours! 

TJ spends most of his time these days on Google+ You can find him here:  plus.google.com/+TerrySimmonds

If you ever want to know anything about using Google+, authorship or semantic search, he's your man.

PR wise, it still has it's place, but is gamed and becoming largely irrelevant. A clear policy or direction from Google would help. But citations are definitely important, and white spark are the experts. That doesn't mean you shouldn't expect traffic and leads from directories, you should, but there is also a bigger picture.

Localleadfinder has only recently been launched, and we are part of the network, along with Scoot etc. So you sign up with Localleadfinder, and your details get blasted across all the directories. This will be the future of directory listings, with real time live updating. eg, login to one interface, and send a live update to all your directory listings, "special offer only for 12 hours".

We also work with Yext in the USA, as we have MLS running in the States, and this uses real time updating which is pretty impressive.

Eg Apple stores in the states wanted to extend their opening hours just for one day coming upto xmas, so they blasted it out over the network, and hey presto, 100 directory listings have new opening hours info. It also removes business listing duplicates, old data, and removes the spam and the rubbish.

I think directories in general will all go this route within the next 2 - 3 years, which I think is a good thing and the right way to go.

Didn't know about the citation stuff, looks like ive got loads to learn