Hunting For Online Directories - The In depth StrategyMartin Lemieux Directory marketing can help boost your companies performance a great deal. Not only will you get qualified leads for your business, your web site will also increase its traffic ranking a tremendous amount. Here are a couple basic advantages to online directories,
Please Note: This article is meant to discuss and implement marketing strategies for local business directories online, not link exchange, a.k.a swapping links with other websites. For many people, one/two directories always come to mind, With web marketing, you want to have ever lasting staying power, online directories can provide you with this and more. Many people who DO NOT use the internet everyday stick with the basics when they come online. Many people are usually looking for a specific service or product that they want to check up on within their local community. This is why it is so crucial that you get noticed locally online. Every major city has atleast one or two good business directories for you to submit your business to. Many of these directories dont even require that you have a website. =======> How To Prepare For Directory Submissions <======= There are certain key bullets of information that 90% of directories ask for, here they are in no particular order. Name
Email: - may need to be validated Web Site
Search Terms:
So if a directory asks you for search terms, add in as many as you can that you would want people to find your business by. and... Category Thats typically about all that most directories will ask for. Very straight forward. I would recommend opening up "Note Pad" or "Word Document" and fill in these requirements on your own before you start submitting your company. It may save you a lot of time in the end. ===========> Targeting Regional & International: <=========== If your business is better off targeting people outside your local community, you might want to consider implementing a link exchange program. This is where you will find extremely competitive directories online that want to get as much exposure as you do. Once you start targeting internationally, many of the directories you will find will most likely want to swap information with you. The good ol barter system, an eye for an eye. Nothing wrong with this. Just make sure that the directory you link to doesnt "feel wrong". ... and I mean "feel wrong". Someone came to me the other day and asked me to take a look at something. They said that they werent sure if they should swap links with this other company. I simply asked them, what kind of feeling do you get from this other company This person said that the website was a little fishy and felt a little cold. Whats the best course of action here Go with your gut instinct. You never want to link to websites that you dont even feel right about it. Besides, if you link to it from your site, you might as well put up a banner sign outside your window saying that you fully support this other company. If an online directory asks you to exchange information and you dont feel that it would be valuable to your visitors, move onto another directory. If you feel fishy about it, so will others. ==========> Finding International Directories: <========== For this youll want to implement the same strategy as before when you learned about searching for "local directories". Try using the "country, state/provice" added with online directory or business directory. So do a search like this:
This style of searching should bring you specific directories. Please remember that there is NO quick way of doing this. You must have patience since, even now, there are still literally 1000s of directories Ive never heard of. Directories keep popping up every day. Dont be afraid to search for new directories once a month, or once every 90 days. ===========> Placing Your Companies Directory Listing In The Right Spot: <=========== This step could be one of the most important steps you take for advertising within online directories. I say this is important because without careful positioning, your directory listing may never see a visitor again. Steps you can take to get proper placements: - Do a "general search":
- Only 2 clicks away:
- Watch out for spammers:
- Find empty categories:
- Dont go "unrelated":
- Was it too confusing
That about wraps it up for online directories. There is enough knowledge here to help you find the right directories for your business. Some tips have been excluded because every person adapts to their own strategy and I hope you will too. Best Of Luck To Ya!
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