The Importance of Directory Listings for Local Search Results

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What are Directory Listings?

Visibility and rankings are two crucial factors for any upcoming business nowadays. Business owners are experimenting with digital marketing strategies to improve their visibility and local reach. 

Very few other digital marketing strategies challenge the success of search engine optimization as a strategy. 

People are relying on local search results to find businesses in their area. SEO is a great tool to target and engage organic traffic for businesses. 

Local listings or directory listings are online mentions of business details with website information of a local business.

Let’s discuss how directory listings contribute to a successful SEO strategy.

7 Reasons Why Directory Listings are Important in Local SEO

1. Improve Your Business’s Reach and Engagement

Business people are trying to engage a significant portion of their target audience with their business website. 

Directory listings improve your business website's audience, reach, and engagement. 

Directory listings are economical and have solid brand promotion efficiency. 

This is because, unlike Google ads that are shown to millions of users without knowing their intent, the potential prospects hop on directories to find the right business.

How can Directory Listings help your business reach more target audiences?

• Directory listings open up possibilities for prospects to visit your business website and interact with you about your products and services. 
• Directory listings with clear business information and an updated reviews section will engage more customers on-site.

A well-built, customer-friendly business website should back a well-maintained directory listing. A well-built business website will make your visitors spend more time on-site. 

The more time your visitors will spend on-site, the more chance of them being your actual customer will increase.

2. Improve Your Business Visibility in the Market

Directory listings are a low-cost (and often free) way to get your company’s name in front of your potential customers. 

Marketing your company is critical to its success. You do not want to take risks to gain extra exposure in the market. Thus, ensure to add accurate NAP details without duplication on all directory listing sites.

You can use any local listing tools to maintain quality, as shown in the below screenshot. 

Directory listings are crucial for small business owners. Small business owners must get their brand name in front of as many clients as possible. 

More than 80% of online shoppers research before buying any products or services. 

Let’s look at some of the tools to manage your directory listings.

• Changescape Web has tools that allow you to manage all your directory listings in one place.
• Google Analytics has tools to analyze the performances of your directory listings.

Potential prospects can use directory listings to learn more about your business. The more directory listings a business owner has, the more market visibility the brand will get.

Read: Get More Visibility for Your Google My Business Profile

3. Drives Organic Traffic to Your Business

Directory listings are a great way to drive organic traffic to your business website.

Directory listings allow people to know more about your business. It will help them make choices about their purchases. A well-maintained directory is a crowd magnet. 

Hence, business owners are now keener to upgrade their directory listing game.

Let’s look at some high domain authority directories available.

• Google My Business, a directory that needs no introduction. 

GMB profiles can drive organic and convertible traffic to your business website. This lets businesses secure a spot in local 3-pack as in the below screenshot, which drives highly potential audiences.

• Bing Places is another high-authority directory. You can customize your target customers for better traffic drive and conversion rate.
• Yelp is a directory that allows you to manage your crowd drive and improve your brand image in the market.

Directories with higher domain authority are beneficial to small-scale businesses. These directories can get your business the optimal market exposure and drive maximum organic traffic to your business website.

4. Improve Your Business’s Chances of Outranking Your Rivals

Business owners are trying to develop digital marketing strategies to edge over their market competitors. 

Outranking your market rivals may not seem easy for a small-scale business. Directory listings can help small-scale businesses rank better on the Local SERPs. 

Let’s look at some of the tips and tools for Directory Listings to better your market rankings?

• Directory listings are the cheapest ways to outrank your market rivals on the SERPs. Take a look at the below screenshot of results showing all directory listings right after the local 3-pack. 

You wouldn’t want to miss a spot in it, do you?

• SE Ranking is one of the most powerful ranking tools available. You can integrate it with your directory listing to track your business's local rankings.
• GeoRanker is an excellent tool for your business website to manage and track rankings of all your directory listings on the internet.

The more you update your directory listings, the better your business will rank by search engine algorithms. Patience and consistency is the key to any successful local SEO strategy. 

5. Attracts Quality Backlinks and Citations

Quality backlinks are harder to get from high-authority business sites. No rival websites will be willing to give a shout-out about your business on their website for free. If you have a budget, it's fine to invest in getting backlinks. 

Small-scale business owners are reinventing their SEO strategy to get their hands on backlinks and citations from high-traffic business sites. 

The below screenshot shows a business’s profile listing on a directory and backlinks pointing to it. 

So how do directory listings attract quality backlinks and citations?

• Businesses with more directory listings are popular and get attention from the high-authority sites in the market.
• High-authority sites invite popular businesses to guest blog on their business site. Guest blogging is one of the easier ways to acquire high-quality backlinks from high-authority business sites.

Backlinks from high-authority business websites authenticate your position as a leader in the market. Your brand will get the necessary attention from the audience. 

Your business website will be ranked better on local SERPs.

6. Improve Your Business’s Authority in the Market

Authority and reputations are vital ingredients for a successful business venture. Local SEO helps businesses make their mark in the market. 

Directory listings allow businesses to interact directly with their visitors and customers. It creates a positive rapport between the business and its consumers. 

Look at the screenshot below of a business profile created and left without optimization. It has to be optimized, reviews to be addressed, and many more. 

How do directory listings improve the authority and reputation in the market?

• Businesses with updated and consistent directory listings are authentic and have more reputation among their audience.
• Directory listings help businesses acquire high-quality external links from websites with higher domain authority. It helps edge out the market rivals in terms of brand reputation.

As per a recent global digital marketing firm survey, people are 34% more likely to purchase your products if they trust your brand. 

Directory listings help existing SEO strategies to build trust with your target customers. It will improve your existing brand value and reputation in the market. 

7. Allows Your Customers to Provide Reviews and Feedback

The more directory listings your business has, the more exposure your brand will get the amount the target audience. It will invite more reviews and queries regarding your products and services. 

The more people inquire about your business, the more popularity it will have. It will skyrocket your on-site engagement, lead conversion rate, and sales.

How do directory listings improve your overall visibility in the market?

• High-traffic directories such as Google My Business and Bing Places can rank your business better if your business listings have updated business details and reviews. 

Also, the more the number of reviews, the search engines perceive this business talked about or visited by the audience. 

• Attend to the reviews and queries on your directory listings. It will help drive organic prospects to your business website. It will improve your market visibility.

The more online indicators prove that your business has local credibility and is open for business. It will help your business's local SEO strategy and be ranked better on the local SERPs.

Key Takeaways

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• List your business on suitable and high-traffic directories.
• Improve your brand visibility by updating your directory listings with the latest information about your business.
• Outrank your market competitors with more customer engagement and crowd drive due to efficient directory listings.
• Drive organic traffic and engage prospects to your business websites.
• Attract high-quality links from industry-relevant websites with high domain authority.
• Improve your brand’s authority and credibility in the market due to quality directory listings.
• Gain more customer feedback and queries for your products with multiple directory listings.