Are directory listings a thing of the past?
One of the most challenging activities in Local SEO is picking the best places to add your business details. Some of the best picks are pretty obvious, like Google (your Google Business Profile – what used to be called Google My Business), and the big social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. These listings are often called Tier 1 listings.
But when it comes to picking Tier 2 and Tier 3 listings, it can be very tricky. You could just go mad, and add your business indiscriminately everywhere that will allow you, but is that a good idea? Is it a good use of your time? Does it come with any downsides? Well, the short answer to all those questions, is yes.
It is a good idea to be found widely online, But then when you go over a certain limit, you’re going to likely create a monster you you’ll be hard pressed to control unless you have the time and budget for it. Essentially, it becomes a nightmare to update every time you make a change in your business like a change of hours of operation, logo, location, phone number etc. Just imagine the mess of having erroneous or old data on the web about your business and having it confuse searchers and web crawlers (those bots that programatically track data like business details).
So what’s the solution? Actually, there are a few solutions you can consider. The easiest, if you have the budget, is hire a local SEO specialist to manage it for you. You will still have to be involved in the process so it’s not a ‘hands off’ thing. It just gets properly done by an expert on your behalf, but with them assuring they’re keeping you in the loop and getting your approvals based on your marketing goals.
Another way to handle this (and in fact that’s what a good Local SEO specialist will do), is pick listings that are high value for your business.
So what a high value listing?
Hi value listings are ones that:
- have a good overall ranking in search organically
- aren’t spammy
- can help filter searches for a directory listing based on
- proximity / geography (address or location helps locate the business)
- category (general business categories are sorted and sifted)
- authority (able to sort out the quality listings by using tools such as reviews website rankings, etc)
- are niche focused (like an industry specific directory)
- are associations or membership focused (like accreditations, chambers of commerce, supplier verified, etc)
- etc
Just as an example, I’ve recently been reviewing my own listings and sure enough I’d noticed I could do a bit more to get my business out in category specific listings – photographer directories. I came across this one: PhotographerListings.org So I’ve added myself there. I also added myself on a few more like PhotographyDirectoryProject
So what does that all mean to you? Either take the time to go digging for directories that are likely a good fit and add yourself in there. Some will come at a cost, but most have a free option. Remember to check if they are good for your geographical service area, your niche and are of good quality.
Addional help
If you want to see some Australian recommendations for directories, check out the ones recommended by BrightLocal, They’re very reputable and update their data all the time. In fact, it’s one of the companies I use when providing local SEO services to my clients. And if you would rather not do all this local SEO stuff & find yourself saying ‘this is all in the way to hard basket’, then feel free to reach out to me so that we can have a chat. I’ll let you know if I can help.