You’ve probably heard of the old SEO (Search Engine Optimization) trick where you add your website to all of the directory listings you can find. Sorry to burst your bubble and your hard work but it’s not going to do you much good in terms of SEO. By listing your website in a business listing or directory website, you may even hinder your chances of having good search engine rankings because of some directories using unethical (according to Google) methods to gain better rankings in order to sell more advertising and sponsored listings.
If you are looking for more traffic you can still utilise some targeted directories that will drive traffic to your website. To find them, try searching for your ideal keywords in the main search engines and select the directories that appear close to the top of the organic search results. Once you find a directory, follow the link and check if the website is targeted to your industry or general topic, not a directory of everything. See what other websites in your industry have done there and then if you think it’s a decent and ethical place to have your website displayed for attracting traffic, fill out the form to list your website.
Beware, plenty of the directories will contact you after you have listed to ask if you want a premium or paid listing to get you up the top of the search results on their website. In most cases it’s really not necessary to have a paid listing, as long as your listing displays an active link to your website, that’s all you need. Having said that, some directories are very well respected in your industry and have a large amount of targeted traffic, in that case, you might want to consider a ‘paid’ or as they might call it ’sponsored’ listing.
Don’t fall for the hype, I’ve been through this situation countless times where the latest and greatest business directory calls me and takes me through Google results and other proof of why I should pay them. It doesn’t matter how much they want, usually about $300 to $800 per year to put you up the top of their list, but the problem is that the majority of people would rather use Google, Yahoo or Bing to find the best organic results that take them directly to a website. People don’t want to search Google, then click to a directory, then sift through a thousand listings in that directory to find the link that showed up on Google, which takes them to that single entry page which eventually contains a link to the website you were after (if you’re lucky).
Think of it this way, if you had about $600 to spend on Google AdWords you would get a greater amount of targeted hits compared to a general business directory listing. It doesn’t have to only be Google, you could try the Yahoo or Bing equivalents.
The most ridiculous thing is that there are already thousands of business directories available, yet there are new ones being created all the time. Why? Are they actually filling a market need? I don’t think so, how could they when there are already thousands of directories out there? Directories who don’t seem to be actively doing their job to support the (apparent) main reason they exist, which is to serve the people who are searching for a solution to their problem. Hello? We have Google, Yahoo and Bing, they’re all doing a great job, so don’t clutter up people’s lives by making them click and search more than they have to!
To most of those general business directories out there, have you heard of the yellow pages online? They beat you to it by many years! And even the yellow pages are struggling to maintain a grip on their market share.
So before you have a light bulb idea of making a new general online business directory, please trash the idea immediately and save yourself and many others the hassle of unnecessary extra searching and clicking, it’s not a light bulb idea, it’s a waste of time.
Tags: advertising, business directories, business listings, marketing, marketing methods, search engine optimisation, sem, seo
