Businesses depend on visibility. Before potential customers can even think about making a purchase, they need to be able to find information about a business, which is why business listing sites have so much power.
Yelp attracts 145 million unique monthly visitors, and LinkedIn has 450 million users. As for Google, it seeks to list every business on earth, whether they like it or not. Numbers like this make it essential to claim and optimize your business profiles. Here’s how to do so on some of the web’s most influential business directories.
LinkedIn is the No. 1 B2B networking and recruitment tool on the web, and it’s an invaluable place for small businesses to be listed. With a LinkedIn profile, you can create a brand identity via blog posts and videos, drive traffic to your landing pages, create sales networks, and search for the best employees in your sector.
Setting up a LinkedIn profile should be one of the first things a B2B or professional services startup does, but there are some important things to remember. First of all, don’t get bogged down in personal details. You’re selling the business, not your life story. Secondly, when you build your personal network, try to keep it guarded from competitors, so be careful about accepting connection requests from similar companies. Finally, don’t spend too much time optimizing your profile for SEO or lead generation. That’s important, but you can achieve much more success via Google or Facebook in these areas. Focus on building your network, recruitment, and sourcing expertise instead.
Google listings are absolutely essential. They can hook you up to local networks via Google Maps and help to drive your company’s website up the Google search rankings too, so you definitely need to spend some time creating the right profile.
The first thing that you need to do is to “claim” your Google profile. You may well find that your business is already listed. This happens automatically when companies are indexed by Google’s web crawler, but the quality of automatic listings can be low. Now, make sure that all of the information you list is consistent with your other profiles and web pages. If not, Google’s search bots will become confused, denting your search ranking.
Add as much information as you can about your business, whether that’s the opening hours, full address, phone or fax number, or website address. Be sure to enter your full ZIP code, and double-check for formatting errors too. Any slight mistakes can ruin your Google Maps location, which is vital for directing customers to your business. Also, remember to request that Google verifies your My Business listing. It all adds up to more credibility and higher rankings.
Yelp
When people search for businesses online, there’s a good chance they will stumble upon Yelp, one of the web’s largest business directories. Yelp’s popularity stems from its comprehensive listings, but also from its rating system, which gives customers a sense of what to expect.
Yelp operates a ranking system like conventional search engines, so all listings need to be well written and full of useful and accurate information. Rankings are also heavily influenced by customer reviews, but sourcing complimentary reviews can be problematic. It makes sense to ask customers to submit feedback via Yelp whenever they make a purchase. Try to do so in an unobtrusive, polite manner, but make your request visible. Even one or two reviews per hundred purchases is a pretty good return, and will make a real difference to your Yelp ranking.
Responding to reviews is also good practice on Yelp. The site tends to look favourably on companies that show engagement with its users, so try to reply to any complaints. Unanswered complaints never look good to potential customers either.
TripAdvisor
Whether you are in the restaurant, recreation, or accommodation sectors, TripAdvisor is the leading online tourism listing site, and any company that is even remotely connected to tourism should have a listing there.
In fact, if you run a hotel or restaurant, there’s a good chance that your business already has a TripAdvisor listing. To find out, just carry out a TripAdvisor search for your business name. Whether there is or isn’t an existing profile, sign up as an administrator on the TripAdvisor home page so that you can start editing your company’s page.
Now, start creating an attractive and informative listing page. Find three or four high-quality images that sum up your business and add them to the profile (remember that they need to be 150 x 200 pixels). Next, curate the reviews that your site has received (if any). Go to “write a management response” and respond to any criticisms or thank happy customers. You should also add essential information such as your website, phone number, and full address. Include the facilities or services you offer, as well. TripAdvisor listings with more information always do better than basic pages, so include as much as possible.
Other Listings Sites
The web is full of business directories, and you should aim to have a presence on as many as possible. From YellowBot and SuperPages to MerchantCircle and HotFrog, all of them attract high volumes of traffic and can make a difference to your revenues.
However, be realistic. You can’t set up and maintain hundreds of listings. Remember that most listings sites include customer reviews, and that unanswered reviews can be bad for your online reputation. They also need to have accurate information, so when your details change, it can be hard work to update all of your profiles.
Select no more than 10-or-so directories, and only choose ones that suit your business. If you deal with tourists and leisure activities, spend time on a TripAdvisor profile. If you work on home renovations, go for a Kudzu listing, while B2B companies should definitely perfect their LinkedIn presence, and every company should claim their Google My Business profile.
Listings sites are a great way to make your business more visible and to build trust. If you are just starting up, they can be a good way to attract local visitors and web traffic, so don’t neglect them. It doesn’t take long to create an accurate profile on any platform, and the benefits can be huge.
