Online Business Directory Sites

[spacemonkey95]

Hello everyone!

This is my first 'proper' post to the forum, so I hope I've found the right place to put it.

I am trying to find out what small business owners think about existing business directories online, and in particular the following details:

1. Do any of you use online directories to list your businesses?
2. If so, is it a basic listing, enhanced listing or something else?
3. If it's not too personal, what sort of cost is the listing you pay for?
4. Is there anything else you would want from these kinds of directories?
5. What kind of responses do you get from people who contact you through these directories?


I appreciate any responses from people who have experience in this area.

[skeeter]

Hi space monkey,

I think below is what you need.

I used to own a web-directory it was for the local community. I have also seen what people do now in terms of practice. There are different types, but generally I would say...

If you pay once, avoid giving your telephone out. It seems you will not be able to change it because many are left un-managed after the initial sale. If your purpose is to get a few links in, make sure you get a direct hyperlink and not a re-direct.

I would try five different ones and monitor my traffic logs. See what works for you. One at £ 10, £20, £30, £40, £50. Do it as a test to see what meets your objectives. At the top end it is expensive. Start small build up.

Monitor over a period and do some learning.
If you need any more advice employ somebody to do it that can report properly to you.

Rgds

[spacemonkey95]

Thankyou for the information Skeeter.

I should perhaps clarify that I am looking for information on other people's experiences with directories, not advice on what I should do when joining one.

Useful feedback though, thanks.

[virtuallysorted]

I'd actually not do any paid listings. One of the most common mistakes I see from new businesses is paying for listings and not getting any work out of them. The main offenders actually seem to be BT and Yell - a lot of people don't realise you can get free listings and that these are generally more effective than the paid ones because clients don't like paying for big fancy ads!

If it's say, an industry listing site, then ask them for a free trial - why would you spend money on something without knowing it works?

But to answer your questions:

1. Do any of you use online directories to list your businesses?
Yes.

2. If so, is it a basic listing, enhanced listing or something else?
Basic free listing

3. If it's not too personal, what sort of cost is the listing you pay for?
Nada

4. Is there anything else you would want from these kinds of directories?
Pay per click/lead? I've done this with Yell and although the leads themselves were a bit rubbish, I was pleased not to have spent £100 to find that out...

5. What kind of responses do you get from people who contact you through these directories?

Yell tended to be people looking for small one-off secretarial jobs and it didn't really pay for itself. ROI was low!

[wampit]

Hi Space Monkey,

This is an area I've got a bit of experience in. I used to work for Yell.com for over 10 years and left earlier this year. I then started my own directory site called wampit.com.

I passionately believe that businesses should be given richer content for free. People are used to getting lots of free content on social media websites like Facebook and MySpace... so why can’t businesses get the same!

On Wampit we give lots of content away for free, e.g. images, text and even video. We also create landing pages that are indexed by Google / Yahoo. We’re very new but already have over 2000 listings and growing each day (Asda and Optical Express joined us this week alone) – have a look and see what you think.

FYI - we make money from providing optional extras - but there’s no obligation to purchase any product. With the exception of BT Tradespace no one gives as much content away as we do (although have a look at the Tradespace thread on this forum to see what people think about their service

You have nothing to lose from registering on all free directory sites – check out Indizine’s advice on submitting to directories http://www.indizine.co.uk/submitting-to-directories

Hope this helps...

Adam

[spacemonkey95]

Thanks for your responses. There's some useful information in them thar posts.

So are there any online directories out there (I'm thinking paid ones rather than free) where the paid listing is linked to other kinds of marketing methods - such as local newspaper advertising, email newsletters etc...?

[Aibu]

>1. Do any of you use online directories to list your businesses?

Yes, we are listed in many directories but many are probably too insignificant to make a different.

>2. If so, is it a basic listing, enhanced listing or something else?

Always basic listing - nothing that costs money (that would be a different marketing strategy to link building) or that requires a reciprocal link (don't want unnecessary links on our website).

>4. Is there anything else you would want from these kinds of directories?

More categories would be nicer - some directories only have about twenty categories, which means that you end up listed with about 300 websites that aren't really related to yours. Or you get a smattering of subcategories, so you have to decide whether (for example) telephone answering is best described as "Telecoms" or "Business Management".

>5. What kind of responses do you get from people who contact you
>through these directories?

I don't think we have had any leads yet...



James

[spacemonkey95]

Thank you very much James. Very helpful response.

[Mike]

I can give you my perspective as a directory owner.

We tend to see visitors come into us looking for specific businesses (from google et al) only when we rank very well for their site. By this i mean we dont get many people who browse the directory not knowing who they are looking for. In that way I would suggest you use them as another page in google for your site - ie not pay for them unless perhaps they might outrank you, as we do for some sites!

[justinmarch]

1. Do any of you use online directories to list your businesses?
2. If so, is it a basic listing, enhanced listing or something else?
3. If it's not too personal, what sort of cost is the listing you pay for?
4. Is there anything else you would want from these kinds of directories?
5. What kind of responses do you get from people who contact you through these directories?

1. Yes
2. Depends on what I'm trying to achieve
3. Hopefully nothing, I won't pay unless I think that it will lead to real traffic from the listing itself
4. See above answers
5. Have sold to a few as have my clients

Hope this helps