Getting Found Online

Online business listings are probably not the most exciting part of your business. You want to get your location, start getting new clients and customers and make sure they get the best service that you have to offer. But making sure that people can find your business should be a top priority.

Each online business listing is another way for someone to find your business. And even if your business does have a lot of listings online, you need to make sure that your business listings are accurate and directing customers to your website and your correct location. Gone are the days of people using the phone book to find businesses. Today, people are turning to the internet to find companies near them. And if you don't show up online, you are losing out on valuable leads.

It's more than just a directory

Online business listings not only help you to be found, but they send strong signals to search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. When you have listings across a variety of sites and directories, and all of those listings are consistent and accurate, you are more likely to show up in local search results. So creating business listings not only distributes your business information, but it helps you to rank higher for Google results. This is what you call a win-win.

But where do you start?

With all the directories out there, where do you start? What listings make the biggest impact and help other parts of my business? To help ease the confusion most people have about local listings, here is a list of the top 25 business citations you should start with. There are literally hundreds of other sites, but we have selected these sites due to their broad reach and influence on other sites, as well as their natural social influence to potential customers and clients (we won't cover it here, but social media should definitely be a part of your strategy to get found online).

  1. Google+
  2. Facebook
  3. Bing
  4. Yelp
  5. Foursquare
  6. LinkedIn
  7. YP.com
  8. Citysearch
  9. Manta
  10. Hotfrog
  11. Express Update
  12. Mapquest
  13. Localeze
  14. Best of the Web
  15. Acxiom
  16. Factual
  17. Whitepages
  18. Superpages
  19. Here
  20. Angieslist
  21. Yellowbook
  22. Yellowbot
  23. Local.com
  24. Kudzu
  25. Showmelocal

This feels like a lot more work than I expected

If this feels overwhelming, you aren't alone. Creating business listings takes time and dedication. And just like any other form of SEO, local SEO takes time to show up in search results. No matter where you are - startup, an established business, or at the top of your market - doing these things will not only help boost your rankings, but it will help you to get more leads and overall traffic.

Don’t have time?

If this all sounds great, but you don't have the time or resources in your business to make this effort, we are here to help. We can help you to manage the business listings you already have, as well as create listings that you may be missing. And by getting our any of our custome marketing packages, you get reputation management, homepage optimization, and monthly reports to make sure that your business gets the services that it needs most.