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Hunting For Online Directories - The In depth Strategy
By Martin 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 it's traffic ranking a tremendous
amount.
Here are a couple basic advantages to online directories,
- Substantial staying power
- Repetitive marketing
- Your listing grows with the entire site
- No updating unless necessary
- Not necessary to link back to the directory
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,
- http://dir.yahoo.com
- http://www.dmoz.com
- http://directory.google.com
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 don't
even require that you have a website.
Tips on how to find local directories online:
Try being very specific when you search. There are two methods
that work really good.
A) "Hamilton" Business Directory < Search for "Your
City" plus "business directory". This should typically
bring you to local business directories that usually are competing
against one another. Don't be afraid to keep digging through this
important search term.
B) Be VERY specific: If in the case that you can't find anything,
try searching for something general within your local area. For
instance, if you "cut hair", try searching for "Hair
Salons In (your area)". Ex. "Hair Salons in hamilton,
ontario".
Doing a specific search like this should typically bring up local
directories that are really trying to get the most exposure as possible.
The reason why you should find a directory this way is because if
you don't find anything by doing specific searches for specific
products or services locally, you might as well reap the rewards
of having your own local business directory and get all the advertising
exposure that comes with it. Directories online are there for one
thing and one thing only. To give the owner of the directory massive
exposure while helping his/her local, regionally, national community.
That's it. There are few people out there that just create a local
directory just for something to do. These people typically have
too much time on their hands and they probably take great pride
in their directory online.
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 Company Position Type Of Business Phone Number Fax Number Email:
- (may need to be validated)
Web Site Title Of Your Site: - (keep it within 70 char)
Description: - (keep it within 200 char)
Search Terms: If you are asked for search terms, don't disregard
them. This is just there so that the directory you are submitting
to can add these search terms to their "search engine"
in order to find your business. 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 That's 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 doesn't "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 weren't 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. What's the
best course of action here??? Go with your gut instinct. You never
want to link to websites that you don't 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 don't 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 you'll 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:
Canadian Business Directory - or - Online Directories In Canada
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 1000's of directories
I've never heard of. Directories keep popping up every day. Don't
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": Search within the directory for
something general and related to your business.
-Place your company within that search result. - Only 2 clicks away:
Try placing your company within a category that is only 2 clicks
away from the main directory page. This will increase your results.
--Some directories can't offer you this, it's ok depending on the
popularity of the directory you are submitting to.
-Watch out for spammers:
-Watch out for directories that list 100 companies on one page.
This is called "Link Farms" online and is frowned upon
from search engines. -
-Find empty categories: Don't be afraid to click in once more in
order to find a category that has been barely touched. Getting your
own category is the ultimate listing for your business.
- Don't go "unrelated": Do not submit your company to
"unrelated" categories. If you can't find a category for
your business, try contacting the directory administrator to implement
a new category for your business.
- Was it too confusing? Again, go with your gut feeling. If you
found the directory way too confusing to find anything, 9/10 times
other visitors will also find it confusing and leave. 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!
About The Author: Martin Lemieux Smartads - President Affordable
Web Design & Web Site Marketing http://www.smartads.info
& http://www.smartads.ca
Martin's Weekly Marketing Tips: http://www.smartads.info/newsletter
Daily Web Marketing Tips : http://web-marketing.smartads.info
Entrepreneur Help Site: http://mindpower.smartads.info
Reprint Rights: You may download a copy of this article here :
http://www.smartads.info/top-10/download
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