Want to know the easiest way to get more customers for your business using the internet? By following the advice in this blog post you will be able to reach more customers and gain more website traffic – and it’s free and easy!

Four out of five people use the internet to search for products and services. So how are you going to get in front of these potential customers? The easiest way to get more customers today is to…

List your Business on Local Online Directories

There are many different ways to generate more leads and get more calls for your business such as search engine optimization, Facebook advertising and Google AdWords. However these aren’t the easiest and most affordable ways to get more customers today so we won’t cover those topics in this post.  The following strategy is completely free and anyone with an internet connection can take advantage of it.

If you are a business owner and in need of getting more customers in your local service area then there is a huge opportunity to get more customers by listing your business on local online directories.

If you have an establisehd business, your business may already be listed on several online directories. However, there is a high likelihood that your listing is incomplete, it may contain errors, there is likely no link to your website and you have probably not taken the time to write an optimized description detailing all of your products or services.

So it is best to visit all of these online directories, claim your business listing and update it with the correct business information.

Here is a list of some of the most popular online directories. By simply updating your listings and adding your website link to your claimed business listing it will automatically help your websites’ off-page search engine optimization.

Your business should be on these popular online directories:

• Merchant Circle
• Yellow Pages
• Super Pages
• Yellowbook
• Manta
• Citysearch
• Local
• DexKnows
• Angies List
• HotFrog
• +many more

When it comes to these business directories – the more you are on the better it is for your business. You will get more exposure to potential customers who are actively looking for your products and services as well as more backlinks to your website> (more on backlinks and link building below).

3 Reasons Listing your Business on Local Online Directories is Vital to your Business Success

1. Get New Customers / Generate New Leads
When you have your business listed on popular directories like Yellow Pages and Superpages, it makes it very easy for potential customers to find your business. These business directories already get a lot of traffic and rank highly on Google. So by correctly listing your business on these directories it will put your business in front of new customers who are searching for companies just like yours!

2. Backlinks and Link Building
If you know anything about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), then you know that back linking is huge. Your website should have links from other high-quality authority websites which will in turn give your website more “link juice”. Several business directories allow you to add a link to your website within your business profile. The major benefit of this is that many of the directories do really well in organic search rankings for important search terms. By adding your website link to a business directory it will generate a quality backlink to your website which will help increase your rank. By adding it to a niche directory for your specific products ands services, it will help even more for your specific keywords.

Focus on major data aggregators like Localize and Acxiom, Infogroup and make sure your business information is current on these sites as many online directories usually pull their pre-populated listings straight from these websites.

3. Online Reviews
Let your customers know that they can leave feedback for your business on online directories like Yellow Pages and Super Pages. Your listing will stand out more with 4 and 5 star positive reviews. it will also help show that your business is trustworthy and credible. Also, positively reviewed listings tend to do better in the online directory rankings as well as search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

There really isn’t a good reason to NOT list your business on local online directories. Your business will get more exposure, it is very easy to do and also helps with your long-term search engine optimization strategy.