What are the Possible Features you can expect in a Business Profile Site?
Why Is Your New, Beautifully Designed Website with Well-Curated Content NOT Figuring in Google Searches?
Just creating a website and making it live will not bring in leads. It needs to be marketed well. That’s where business directories come into the picture. Quantity is not valid anymore. But quality is. Having a listing in a good portal or website gives Google a happy signal that your website is also high quality like the one you are listed in. So, Google will pull up your rankings.
These small business listings also drive traffic to your website. Creating a small business profile is not a very hard job. You have to enter all your business details accurately and you are done. But the real task here is to find the right business directory that will help you rank higher in the SERPs and entice your customers to reach out to you. Here are some of the features you should check out while selecting the business profile sites.
Must-Have Features for a Good Business Profile Site
As a small business owner, you might have been advised to have multiple business listings, to help you feature on local searches. While this is great advice, beware of spammy websites and keep away from them. Choose a directory that is superior to the others – one which offers more features to showcase your business to your customers.
To decide on the features that are needed in the business profile site, you need to know about the features the customers expect to see on a professional and reliable business profile. Only when you fulfil the customers’ needs, can you be the best in the business. Hence, do your research on what customers want from your business profile and, more importantly, what you want to impress your customers with.
Features of a Good Local Business Directory
1. Basic Business Information
This is a must-have for a good business profile site. The basic business details displayed with clarity will help the customers get to know your company and your contact information.
Some of the details that should be included are:
- Business name
- Products/Services offered
- Working hours
- Business address
- Contact number
- Link to your website (if you have one)
Almost every business profile site will have these features, and if by chance, these are missing, then take the site off your list.
2. SEO-Optimization
The business has to rank at the top in the SERPs for more people to take notice of it. It is the whole purpose of listing your business with the directories. SEO is crucial for visibility in search engines. For example, Yellowpages.com follows some of the best SEO practices that make it easily discoverable to people searching for relevant services on search engines.
3. Space to Make Your Business Shine
The business directory listings act as a quick glimpse into your business. And the glimpse has to be catchy for the person to decide to explore more.
Most business directories allow the business owner to enter basic details like the business name, address, contact number, email address, website URL, services offered and such. While this may be enough, an ideal business directory listing should provide you with the chance to intrigue your potential customers.
Imagine a customer searching for a boutique and immediately they are bombed with results. Most go with the top-ranked result but give them something interesting and you might gain their attention.
When a customer sees a business with just the basic details compared to one that shows photos of the boutique along with the custom logo and links to social media pages, the person will be inclined to choose the latter.
The more you include in your business directory listing, the better chance you have of attracting customers. Hence, make sure to choose directories that allow you to be content-rich.
For example, listing your business with LocalBizNetwork is never boring. After adding all the basic details, you could move on to include blogs, videos or podcasts about your business on the listing. You even get a customer contact form that can help you with lead generation.
Photos and videos easily capture the attention of viewers. A business profile website or local business directory that has the option to include videos and photos would be a great choice to create your small business listing.
Make sure that you add high-quality photos and videos of your products/services since low quality videos can repel viewers. Also, try adding photos of your workplace and your employees, if any, which is known to create a sense of trust about your business.
Blogs are one of the best ways of reaching out to the targeted group of customers. Writing informational, unique and original content about your business and a DIY feature to keep adding them to your business profile in the directory makes the profile richer and SEO-friendly. More keywords are added and chances of appearing in searches via these articles are higher. When you find a business profile website where you can include your own videos and articles, then it can even replace your primary website.
Also Read: Importance of Profile Creation Sites in SEO
4. Social Media Links
We are all aware of social media's influence on a business. Small businesses thrive just by having a social media presence. A good small business listing displays the company’s social media icons attractively. It will entice people to visit the social media handles to check out your products and services and to interact with you regularly. After all, your target audience is almost always on social media. Make sure to keep your social media accounts active and interact regularly.
5. Customer Reviews
Once a person has checked out enough about the descriptions and details of your product/service, the next logical step is to check your reliability. Customer reviews on the business profile stand as proof for the quality of your product and the swiftness of your service.
Almost 70% of the customers will never associate with a business until they read the reviews. That means - no customer reviews and you are directly out of the race!
The business profile website that you choose should have the option of allowing your customers to add reviews about your product or service. Encourage your customers to leave reviews by offering a small freebie or a gift card. Do not manipulate the reviews or delete the bad ones. Try to learn from them, maybe even rectify the mistakes and ask the person who reviewed to post an update.
6. Good Design and Easy Navigation
A business directory’s design should be trendy with easy navigation. It takes just 0.05 seconds for a customer to form an opinion about a website. The website design, the website speed, design for navigation and every other small aspect that influences user experience should be noted about the business profile site.
Almost 90% of the population now searches for businesses on mobile phones. It is mostly because we are outside when we are looking for businesses nearby. A quality business directory should be mobile-friendly and you should be able to navigate through the website effortlessly on your handheld device. Check out the site on your phone to check the mobile experience and how the profile looks on the mobile. If you are satisfied, then go ahead and add your business.
7. Offer Do Follow Links
Do follow links are the ones that link back to your website and search engines count these links as votes of quality for your website.
Some directories only offer no follow links and these links do not have any impact on your website. Choose the directories that offer do follow links to your website since they offer your website a higher chance of ranking in the SERPs.
Also Read: 5 Ways You Can Improve Your Business’ Visibility on Google Maps
8. Paid or Free? What Type of Business Directory Should I Choose?
There are lots of free directories out there but they may not offer the above features.
So, should you stick with the free business directories? Or does listing your business with the top paid local business directory websites yield extra benefits? Here are some factors to consider while choosing business directories.
Quality: When it comes to selecting the online directory, free or paid is not the right way to go about it. One thing that should solely guide your quest for the directory is the factor called ‘quality’. Take the time to evaluate your goals and what you want to gain from listing your business in these directories. This will help you decide on the right online business directories that will yield the outcomes you expect.
Domain Authority Score: Another factor to check is the popularity of the directory. You need your business to be found. Hence, check the domain authority score of the directory before listing your business. Simply put, domain authority score measures how likely it is for the website to rank in the search engine result pages. Choose directories with high domain authority scores first.
While you choose the directories, consider these factors and also take the time to check the directory sites. Some might look spammy and may not be popular in searches. Think twice before adding your business to them as it might be detrimental to your website ranking. Some directories come with a nominal price. But do not hesitate to add just because they are not free. If the features offered are good, it is a good investment for your digital presence.
LocalBizNetwork
At LocalBizNetwork, we believe that even the smallest of businesses can make a big impact, given the opportunities we have in the digital age. Visit us here and take a look at what we have to offer in our business listing.
- Feb 18, 2022
