Travel and Leisure

Before the internet became our main media for communication, you listed your business in the Yellow Pages. Now the internet is used to search for things we need and local services can be found much faster.

When you're in business, you are in marketing. That is just a fact. You therefore need to look at the best ways to market your business where the most customers can find you. Online is the way to go as most of your customers can be found there.

Here are six good reasons to list your business in an online business directory:

1. It will save you money.

You can list your business for free on most online directories. This is great as you can then save money instead of spending. You can still upgrade to get a prominent listing, or you can use the money from your marketing budget elsewhere.

2. It will save you time.

Online business directories allow you to be available to a wider audience. This helps you save time in having to advertise everywhere and daily. Of course you can still advertise which will give you an even wider exposure, but generally it is enough to list your business in the main directories.

3. It will give you more exposure.

With mobile devices, one can now access the internet from anywhere. At home, work, in a local café or travelling. If your business is listed in an online directory you can be found anywhere by anyone who is searching for you or your services, whether it is local, national or international.

4. Be found in search results online.

Online business directories are usually more optimised for the search engines and allow your listing to be found near the top when people search for you. People usually look no further than page two of a search engine's results and many will find what they want on page one and look no further. This is why it is essential to get your business listed on an online business directory.

5. Your customers can reach you faster

With offline listings, you usually only get a phone number, which may cause your customer to struggle to reach you. With an online directory, you have a link which takes your customer straight to your website, where there are many ways to contact you.

If your customer is on a mobile device they can just tap on their preferred method of communication and it will take them straight there: dialing, emailing or texting you or any of the social media websites.

6. Higher SEO rank and increased traffic to your website

As a result of the business directory being ranked high, your website ranking will increase as well. You will then receive more free traffic from the search engines. You will have more prospective customers seeing your website and getting to know about your service.

A good online business directory will also be able to offer you advertising in the form of a featured listing, a classified ad or a banner ad. This will help your marketing efforts even more.