Business Directory

In very basic terms, an online business directory is a website where customers can search for businesses either close to their home, or offering a specific service or product. Business owners can go to these websites, key in the details of their business and list it in a specific category, in the hope that it’ll be found by prospective customers interested in their services. Having all of this information at your fingertips makes it much easier to find what you’re looking for than leafing through a large book.

More Exposure for Your Business

The key advantage for your small business in being listed in an online directory such as 118businessdirectory.co.uk is exposure. It’s a basic rule of marketing – if you can put your business in front of a large number of people, then you’re widening the pool of potential customers. People who are looking in business directories are in the market for your products and services, and without being listed in the directory, may not even know your business exists. These are customers who are out there, looking for your services. You just have to make it easy for them to find you.

Business Directories and SEO

There’s no need to be an expert in search engine optimisation (SEO) if you’re a small business owner, but the basics are that SEO can help boost your website up the ranking of search results on Google. If you’re listed on a reputable business directory like 118businessdirectory.co.uk, Google’s software will notice that link and will rank your website more highly than another which is not listed, or even worse, listed on a poorly-maintained business directory. As your website starts to be more prominently listed on the search engine’s results page, you should to see a corresponding increase in traffic to your website, and hopefully sales too.

Look at What Your Competitors Are Doing

The trick to gaining exposure for your business is firstly to make sure you are listed in the top UK directories like 118businessdirectory.co.uk, then to look at what your competitors are doing. If all of them have identified business directories in your niche and have got listed, you should too. If you think you’ve identified a key business directory which they haven’t found yet then you should still try to get listed as a way of beating them to it. Be selective though, listing yourself in directories which are irrelevant to your business is just spamming.

Track Effectiveness

The marketing process is always about tracking how well your business is performing, and how much difference your marketing efforts is making. It’s important to keep looking at the various directories you are listed in, and tracking how many clicks you are generating from each source. Having this information lets you concentrate efforts on what’s working. The other services we offer at 118businessdirectory.co.uk can help you with this if – like so many other small business owners – you find it impossible to manage every aspect of running a business yourself.