You can check the status of your local SEO strategy with a quick online search for your company to easily determine the strength of your digital foundation. Local SEO often begins with creating a Google My Business Listing, which will provide you with business insights including how your customers are finding your business in Google Search, actions that they are taking to contact your business, and how customers feel about your business based on Google Reviews. Regularly managing and updating your listing to ensure that it contains accurate information about your business is the first step to Local SEO Best Practices, and developing a Local SEO Strategy.
There are over 100 directories like Google My Business that display information about your business, and give you the opportunity to link your website, social media pages, and your business’s location on maps to increase the chance that customers are finding you. Having your website link on any other webpage is known as a backlink, a major factor in determining how your business ranks in Google Search. Backlinks are also a measure in determining your website’s Domain Authority (DA), which influences how well a website ranks within a search engine. Having your website listed on directories with a high Domain Authority will positively impact your rank in search engines, and is a well-known SEO Strategy for all businesses.
When creating directories, you’ll want to make sure that your business is listed on sites with a high Domain Authority, and research niche directories that are popular within your industry. Some niche directories include Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com. Below is a list of the 50 most authoritative business directories that are applicable to the majority of industries:
1. Google My Business
2. Apple Maps
3. Bing Places
4. Yahoo Local
5. Yelp
6. Foursquare
7. BBB
8. Yellow Pages
9. Angi
10. Mapquest
11. Manta
12. Merchant Circle
13. STL Today
14. STL Magazine
15. Yellowbook
16. Kudzu
17. Community Walk
18. Nextdoor
19. Tupalo
20. Storeboard
21. BrownBook
22. Local
23. Just Landed
24. ShowMeLocal
25. Chamber of Commerce
26. Judy’s Book
27. EZLocal
28. YelloYello
29. 2FindLocal
30. Spoke
31. SaleSpider
32. eBusiness Pages
33. CitySquares
34. WorldWeb
35. ExpressBusiness
36. Bizwiki
37. Fave
38. Fyple
39. Tuugo
40. A Greater Town
41. EnrollBusiness
42. eLocal
43. CallUpContact
44. FindUsLocal
45. Hubbiz
46. TrustLink
47. My Huckleberry
48. GoLocal247
49. Cybo
50. BizVotes
Additional authoritative backlinks for your business may come from social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, and Pinterest. Paired with a social media marketing strategy, your business’s social media pages can act as a source for customer acquisition to gain referral traffic for your business’s website, which may be monitored through website tracking like Google Analytics.
Many directories allow for several photos to be uploaded, and representing your brand with high-quality photos is essential to maintain a strong brand image. A study conducted by Google found that businesses with photos receive 42% more requests for directions and 35% higher click-through-rate to their website. Once directories have been created, it’s important to verify each listing’s location. Leaving locations unverified will cause them to rank lower in searches, or to not display, which means missing out on potential website traffic or phone calls.
In most cases, it takes time for directories to finalize and become live business listings. Once each directory is active, it takes Google up to 30 days to index data that’s been newly listed on directories. Once indexed, you can measure the success of your local SEO strategy by comparing past data points like increases in search queries, website traffic, and other customer actions like phone calls and requests for directions.