Business Profit Leaks – Local Listings
Watch a video on this topic by clicking on the below image
Fully Complete & Claim Your Local Directory Listings
When you own a business that caters to your community,
the number one priority should be making yourself visible to them.
While some business owners put a lot effort and money into promoting their companies
using expensive and ineffective methods, they fail to enter them into local online directories.
Most of your potential customers are starting their search for a local business online.
Those local directory claimed, complete, and optimized listings are reaping the rewards.
Getting listed in online directories is as easy as ever, and the best part is that it’s free.
Yes, it does take a bit of time to go through the listing process, but it’s worth every minute.
They all make it fairly easy to list your business and maintain those listings going forward.
But with so many search engines & directories, you may wonder how to do it it the right way.
First, be sure to complete your listing profiles with as much information as possible –
include your hours of operation, phone number, address, images, videos,
and keyword terms naturally weaved into your company description.
Full and complete listings are more likely to achieve higher rankings in the
results than those that aren’t. In addition, they are more likely to move
visitors to choose your business over your competitors.
When it comes to optimizing your local directory listings, one of the most
important things you can do is include your company name, address,
and phone number throughout your website.
Not only your website, but also your social media profiles and
any other places your company has a presence online.
These additional mentions of your business are also called citations.
It is important to use your physical address and local phone number
-and that they are consistent across all of your online properties.
This helps the search engines validate your company and serve it up on relevant
searches in your local area. If your business has several different locations, create a
listing for each location. While this may seem like a lot of work, it’s critical and many
local listing services, such as Google My Business, make this process pretty easy.
Do not forget that besides the online citations you can make on the above sites,
you can also get listed in other well-known local directories, such as the
Better Business Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce.
Finally, make sure you are prompting your satisfied customers to leave reviews for
your business on various local listing sites. This helps your listings rank higher in the
results, but even more importantly, consumers today are all about social proof.
They almost always check reviews before choosing a new company to do business with.
The fact is that no matter how good your products and services are, consumers want to
hear first-hand what your customers think. Not only will this drive more immediate sales to
your business, but it will also help you build a solid overall online reputation for the long-term.
