Local Directories – Which Ones & Tips on Using Them
The following list of directories is certainly not exhaustive; however, after using these (and countless others) over the past couple of years, I consider the sites listed below to be very effective in providing businesses without a big marketing budget a range of free promotion tools that actually work.
They’ve stood the test of time, perform well in search engines for local search, get a lot of visitors, and continuously improve and upgrade their systems with new features (and did I mention they’re free?).
Queensland Local Directories
We have a lot of local clients, so the following sites get a lot of use.
- www.GoldCoastDirectory.com
- www.Brisbane-Australia.com/Directory/
- www.SunshineCoast-Australia.com/Directory/
- www.Cairns-Australia.com/Directory/
- www.Whitsundays-Australia.com/Directory/
- www.PortDouglas-Australia.com/Directory/
- www.SouthernGoldCoast.com.au/Directory/
Australia-Wide Local Directories
- www.TrueLocal.com.au
- www.StartLocal.com.au
- www.Hotfrog.com.au
- www.AussieWeb.com.au
- www.Yalwa.com.au (Tip: make sure you include your contact information in your description, including a link to your website)
- www.YellowPages.com.au (not particularly recommended, but chances are you need to claim an existing listing here to make sure your details are up to date).
Industry Specific Local Directories
- www.GoldCoastHealthcare.com – Gold Coast healthcare practitioners only
- www.GoldCoast-Lawyers.com – Lawyers on the Gold Coast only
- www.e-Stockbroker.com.au – Stockbrokers, Australia wide
- www.HealthDirectory.com.au – Health and medical industry, Australia wide
- www.EntertainOz.com.au – Entertainers/acts, bands, celebrities, hosts Australia wide
Our Tips for Great Local Directory Listings
- Google your business name and claim any and all listings that your business has on the web.
- Fill out all details as completely as possible – use the free tools for extra promotion that most directories provide.
- Be accurate with all contact details – these can be seen as citations and will feed to your Google Places listing.
- Avoid link farms and ‘bad neighbourhood’ sites – is this just a collection of uncategorised links? Is there any benefit to the end user for having visited this site? What kind of sites will my business be placed next to?
- If you can include HTML in your description, do so! Bold your headings, use bullet points and if you can add a link to your site within the body/description, do so using strong anchor text.
- Watch your spelling & layout of profile – include bullet points, headings, paragraphs – this will encourage people to read your profile and make it easy for them to find the information they’re looking for.
- Always include images with your listing, even if it’s just one. This will encourage more click-throughs to your listing and will help you to stand out.
- Keep a document or spreadsheet of all the directories that you sign up to, including the date and your account login information – this way you will always have access to edit your listings and view statistics if available.
- Check Google Analytics regularly to see where your referral visits are coming from – try and improve your listings on the directories bringing you traffic.
Know of any others? Feel free to comment below!
