More and more small businesses today are using online business directory to their benefit. If you run a small business, you likely spend a great deal of your time thinking about your marketing plan. online business directories can be a great addition to your current small business marketing strategy. Those sites can help your small business expand its website traffic, increase the likelihood that your website will be found by interested visitors and increase your bottom line. If you haven’t taken a look at those directories and considered how your small business could use them to increase its market presence, then now is the time to start!
What Are Online Business Directories?
There are many different types of online business directories available on the Internet. Each of these sites serves a specific purpose and can be used by your small business in specific ways.
An online business directory is a website submission service that allows your small business’ website to be added to a specific category where it can be searched for by interested visitors. Listing your small business on an online business directory increases your website’s visibility on the web and helps to create inbound links to your business’ website. This places make it easy for people to find what they are looking for. These directories can be accessed from just about anywhere that has an internet connection. This means that people could find your business’ website from their home, office or even while traveling.
Every website that is submitted to an online business directory is placed in a specific category. These categories can range in how they are organized. Some are organized by business-related categories, some are organized according to personal preferences and others are organized by subject. Each category consists of several websites relating to a specific topic. Each website listing features the name of the website, a direct link to the website and a short description of the website. Interested Internet visitors will be able to browse through the various categories in the directory and locate websites like yours that they may be interested in visiting. Essentially, those places make it easier for any visitor to find your business’ website.
How Do Online Business Directories Work?
The concept of online business directories is actually a pretty simple one. These webistes are very similar to the Yellow Pages in the real world, only these listings are only online. (Actually Yellow Pages.com is now one of the largest online directories as well.) A directory is just a listing place for a number of websites. Any type of website could be listed in an online business directory. Some directories are huge and cover every topic that someone could create a website for, while others are very small and specific to a specific niche.
Let’s use an example. Say you are a model airplane enthusiast and you want to find some websites that cater to your specific interest. You could look through a huge online business directory such as Google My Business and find several dozen websites that are related to model airplanes. Or you could look for an online business directory that is niche-specific, which means that the entire online business directory would be based on hobbies such as model airplanes. With a niche-specific directory you may find even more websites that are based on your specific interest than what you could find on the larger directories.
Since online business directories are organized by categories, finding websites that relate to a specific interest such as model airplanes is very easy. You could find information and websites about model airplanes in your local region too, if you use a regional-specific online business directory. So if you live in Phoenix you could find websites that relate to both model airplanes and the Phoenix area. These places will direct you to websites that you want to find. All you have to do is perform a search in the online business directory for a specific topic or browse through the various categories until you find the type of websites you are looking for. When you perform a search you will be given a list of all of the websites that relate to your search term. You will be presented with a number of links to these websites and each link will have a short description of what you are likely to find on the website. You can read the descriptions and choose to click on the website that best suits you.
How Can Online Business Directories Be Used For Your Business Exposure?
Businesses are always looking for ways to drive more traffic to their websites. The key to acquiring more traffic is to get as much exposure as possible. When looking for methods to increase online business exposure, one effective way is to list your business in online business directories. Search engines use business directories in their page ranking criteria and posting to these directories gives your website more exposure to people searching them for a particular product and service. When optimizing your business website, listing on business directories is essential to driving more traffic to your site as your website will be ranked higher.
When listing your business website in a business directory, you will be able to take advantage of the many benefits they provide. For instance, more people are now using business directories to locate a product and service so you will be able to reach your targeted consumer. They also help promote a website as one can list images, descriptions, website URL, and usually a map route system is a part of the listing so that customers will know exactly how to get to your business. As well, the more popular and established online business directories will offer special incentives such as a paid placement which will provide you with a premium listing on the first page of a search. Business directories have evolved to become an effective marketing tool.
Most website marketers suggest listing on directories that you have to pay a very minimal fee to list their businesses. The free directories tend not to get as much traffic and paid directories offer more services and will be ranked higher by search engines. You will get more exposure with a paid directory as your website will be ranked high in the search engines and the online lauterneues itself receives much more quality traffic. As well, a business has the flexibility to list their business in a category and sub category that is industry-specific thereby increasing exposure to targeted customers. The link to your website, once it is submitted, is reviewed and then placed where it is believed to be of most benefit to those searching the directory.
There are other important benefits of listing a business on an online business website directory. Because advertising can be expensive for any business, large or small, listing with an online business directory is a cost effective way to publicize your business. Listing can be very inexpensive, often around $5.00 to $10.00 a year. When listing in a conventional paper directory, once it is printed and distributed, it cannot be changed. An online business directory allows you to modify and update your listing at any time.