Most people in modern society now use the Internet to search for businesses and products and the days of looking through the Yellow Pages to find something seem to be obsolete. That means there is a great opportunity for companies to expand their SEO methods and reach a broader audience. Almost everyone will use the Internet to search for something and often they will come across a service they weren’t looking for in the first place and that’s where local business listings can be a huge benefit to a company.
Most local business listing sites don’t cost anything so it’s effectively a free form of advertising that can provide a massive influx of customers to a business. This means that marketing costs can be significantly reduced since one can post on many business listings to achieve the same results as a conventional SEO campaign would. They are also easy to set up and require very little investment, if any, which makes them a highly effective marketing tool.
Once a business listing has been approved one can easily add various files, including videos, to it and that will further enhance a business’s appeal, which in turn will boost its SEO and potential customer base. A local business listing can contain lots of information about a company and most will allow coupons and pictures too, which will only add to a company’s reputation and it’s also a great way to include powerful SEO messages.
Besides building brand awareness, the listings will often allow backlinks to a business website as well that will further improve a site’s search ranking. Making a complete profile inside any business listings will allow customers to search by category for a service and find a business easily, which will increase traffic considerably. The listings also have the advantage of putting businesses on top of search engine results and the engines themselves usually have a way to list businesses too.
The main business listing companies of note are Google, Local.com, Yelp and Yahoo Local. They all have similar attributes and are free, however, some services such as Yahoo have a premium package available too which gives users more options about how to manage their listings.
There are lots more but these are the main ones and arguably the best, although the more listings one makes the greater the results. Also, just as with traditional SEO methods it’s best to keep each listing unique and original to help improve its ranking.
Any business will want to attract more customers and with local business listings provide an ideal portal for them to advertise and promote themselves, with very little initial cost needed either. One can also use customer reviews and post them onto the business listings, which will create even further interest and should improve a sites ranking significantly. There are virtually no downsides to creating local business listings and the concept should have plenty of proponents looking to enhance their business traffic.
They can be just as influential as some of the best SEO services and they have the advantage of being free of charge.
