There are tons of ways to rank your local business website in Google for top positions, out of all off-page SEO tactics for Local SEO; the #1 thing that comes on the top is Free Business Listing Sites.
There’s absolutely nothing better than this, it’s a goldmine for Local SEO.
It’s the way your target customers discover your business in the first place, it’s not one of those SEO tactics which we do not know why, but just doing it for the sake of doing it.
Your target customers are actually wandering across these local business listing sites searching for information that will help them narrow down their purchase decision & if there’s a way for your local business to reflect its presence there, then why not? Plus, It’s FREE
The way local Business Listing Sites helps your website with its Local SEO objectives is by creating a correlation that search engines can easily identify and verify.
That is when search engines find necessary details about your business on tons of business listing sites it becomes easier for the search engine to verify the information and decide the rank you deserve to get for your industry related searches. At the same time, it becomes easier to rank yours for your brand name exact match search.
Here’s the list of Local Business Listing Sites Your Small Business Can Benefit from
It is no wonder that Google My Business comes on top of the list and rightly so.
Trying to grow your local business on the digital without Google My Business is throwing a kickass party with Music.
I mean let’s face it, Google gives utter importance to its own products. Google My Business is one such product you will need to make your local business thrive.
The product is free to use and comes as a local pack result as and when some searches about your business in Google in your locale, you can potentially rank in that local pack results.
Your business ranks in Google Local Pack with rich information like customer ratings, customer reviews, picture of your local business, the opening hours.
Heck, now with the new update of Google My Business you can even add Google My Business post; you can literally treat Google search engine as a social media platform.
The reason why Google My Business is so critical is that +90% of the world uses Google Search Engine as their preferred search engine.
Repeatedly Google is improvizing itself in better serving the searcher’s query almost better than any other search engines out there.
With the advent of Google Assistant, your local business stands a chance of showing up on a voice search.
You don’t have to take my word for it; I am sure your smartphone must be nearby. Just say “Ok, Google”, Restaurants Nearby and see for yourself what shows up.
I bet, it was Local Restaurants business listing on Google; wasn’t it?
Check out → Google My Business
Another great business listing site at your disposal is Yelp, this business listing site is not like just another business listing site that SEO’s visit to build links. Yelp is an NYSE registered company with 73.9 million desktop users and 72.3 million mobile users (source).
I mean heck; the Yelp has its application on Google Playstore with +400,000 Installs & +300,000 Installs in AppStore. In fact, it’s ranked #3 under the travel category in AppStore.
You get the picture of how great Yelp is, the only bummer is that Yelp isn’t available in every country, it’s available in selected countries like the United States.
If your local business is a service-based business like restaurant, dentistry, events, bars or beauty salons; then Yelp is the place for your small business to reflect it’s presence.
What’s more awesome is that Yelp business listings show up at MapQuest business searches. MapQuest is a Maps service available in the united states. The Yelp business listings show up if the business belongs to the sectors that Yelp supports; it shows up with rich information like ratings, timings, customer reviews, etc.
Yelp business listing site is in many ways similar to Google My Business; users can literally run ads on Yelp Business Listings, boosting business listings can be really beneficial for local business. I highly recommend this strategy for both Google My Business & Yelp Business Listing.
Check out → Yelp
FourSquare is a popular business listing site, another business listing platform having its apps in Playstore and AppStore.
FourSquare business listings are no joke, the website has 30.1M website visitors a month, just imagine the sheer amount of exposure your business listing can potentially get.
For the end-users FourSquare acts like a social platform where they can save places, leave comments and reviews. Users can further choose to interact with people’s comments by leaving an upvote to their comments.
To make the platform more useful for business growth; the platform allows users to share a particular business listing on Facebook & Twitter and they can also like a particular business listing. Pretty cool, right?
Check out → FourSquare
Wait! Did I just mention Facebook as a business listing site?
Yes, I did! Facebook isn’t just a social media platform, it’s a very hybrid platform. One such capability of Facebook is it’s acting as a great business listing site.
The reason why Facebook is a great business listing site is that on Facebook you can specifically choose to create a business/brand page and add details like business description, business location, contact number, website [learn more] button, opening hours, business email, people can leave reviews.
I mean you get it, it pretty much has everything you look for in a business listing site.
Do you know what’s the cherry on the top? The fact that Facebook business pages are crawled by Google and show up in SERP when a user searches for your business or industry.
This helps with citations and increasing website traffic.
Instagram is the life and blood of local businesses. If you are a local business owner then you just need to be on Instagram.
There are two reasons why.
Reason #1. Instagram lets you create a business account wherein you can add business details like name, address and a short business description which is pretty much all you need to reflect local presence.
Reason #2. It’s consumer psychology to look up a business they just came across on Instagram.
Instagram is being used to validate the worthiness of your business, this is all the more reason to get your local business on Instagram.
The correlation isn’t direct, but it does influence your local business visibility indirectly.
From Instagram business location people can click-through and stumble upon your Google Business Listing, which should boost your Google My Business Listing by increasing the number of views, website clicks, phone calls and clicks on directions.
It really doesn’t take much convincing to see the worth in listing out your business on LinkedIn; if you are a company then it’s super-obvious to list out your business over LinkedIn.
The way LinkedIn helps is again by adding rich information like business description, reviews, business location, number of employees, the website link button, industry.
Which is more than enough to help with citation and synchronizing the NAP (name, address, phone number) to boost Local SEO.
If your business is B2B, then you are in luck because now you have the advantage of being platform-specific; people might even enjoy the content pushed by your business page because it contextually makes sense.
This is turn helps you gain more followers, more business page visits which increase the likelihood of website clicks.
A lot of people might not give heed to Bing stating that Google is much better than Bing or that Google has a 96% search engine market share which is true but one should always remember that Bing is right behind Google.
Besides, in America Bing search engine has 33% market-share and that’s huge market potential to miss out on.
Bing Places is a lot like Google My Business. In fact, if your business already has it’s business listing on Google My Business then you can even import the listing on Bing and thus you can auto-create the business listing on Bing.
Bing Places isn’t like a website, it works just like Google My Business; i.e if a user searches for your business or industry keyword then your website instantly qualifies to appear in local pack search results at the right side with rich information like ratings, reviews, images, map, opening hours and website link.
Recommended: Learn how to build Web 2.0 Backlinks
Do you know how people used to find information on the internet before Google, YELLOWPAGES.
Yes, that’s right! Yellow Pages was launched in the year 1996 and Google was launched a year later in the year 1997.
Yellow Pages isn’t as popular as it once used to be, but it does the job at the end of the day. The website has 17.9 M Monthly website visitors.
There are end number of businesses that are listed out on the YellowPages. To go hyper-local there are multiple domains of Yellow Pages.
Domain extensions like
YellowPages.in
YellowPages.com.au
YellowPages.ca
YellowPages.com.sg
And many more. The way it helps is with local citations; a Singapore company can benefit from sending their business listing to Singapore extension Yellow Pages business listing site than sending it to a generic business listing site.
Check out → Yellowpages
When it comes to business or brands, Twitter is the place to thrive.
From the Local Business Listing point of view, Twitter is amazing for local businesses.
#1. Twitter lets you create your business profile with name, address and business website URL.
#2. If your local business features region name then that increases the likelihood of your Twitter business profile in Twitter searches.
#3. You can add your target keyword as a hashtag on Twitter and gain followers who can then learn your business on Twitter.
#4. Google crawls and indexed Twitter profile in search results when someone searches for your business on Google, it’s quite likely that your Twitter business profile may show up in search results.
#5. Based on your level of activity on Twitter, Google My Business Listing can show your Twitter profile in the listing.
Better Business Bureau has immense market trust. It’s been in the game since 1912. It’s available in the United States, Canada & Mexico.
BBB has a good name in the business world and among consumers. BBB (Better Business Bureau) gives accreditation to a business that registers there, based on the power, credibility of the business. Think of it as the Domain Authority.
BBB gets 12.6M monthly website visits. The platform is very active consumers can leave comments, reviews and also COMPLAINTS.
Check out → BBB
Whitepages is a prestigious business listing site with over 36.9 Million visitors a month. This popular business listing site is also sued for fraud screening and identity verification for businesses.
Claiming your local business presence on such a trusted business directory could mean a lot. Using the reverse phone and reverse address search capabilities you can easily look up any business on Whitepages and find necessary details.
Check out → Whitepages
Express business directory is a classic business listing site, just the way business listing sites are supposed to be, easy and simple to use while at the same time delivering effective results.
Express Business Directory isn’t region-specific. There are tons of countries to choose from; alternatively, you may even choose worldwide if international SEO is your goal.
Follow the simple guidelines and the business will be verified right away.
Check out → Express Business Directory
Merchant Circle is a popular business listing sites with +700K monthly visitors. It’s a place where local businesses can network with customers with local marketing tools and social media features.
Check out → Merchant Circle
If your Local Business is located in India then Just Dial is the local business listing site you need to get on. In many ways, Just Dial is India’s top local search engine.
Even in its free version, Just Dial lets you display crucial business information.
Business Information like Business name, location, contact details, customer reviews, and ratings. Restaurants and cafes can even display their menu.
Check out → Just Dial
Concluding
There are literally thousands of business listings sites out there and many of them will even help your get your NAP in check and with local citations.
It is advisable to focus more on the relevant business listing sites, sites that you simply shouldn’t miss out on. Like, for example, if you have a restaurant based in United States then Yelp is the place where your local restaurant will thrive.
Think beyond local business listings, there are tons of other factors that can be optimized in Local SEO for better results.
Further reading:
Kunjal Chawhan founder of Decode Digital Market, a Digital Marketer by profession, and a Digital Marketing Niche Blogger by passion, here to share my knowledge
Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂
Thanks a lot! I am glad that you found this useful! 🙂