Why Business Listing Sites Are Essential For A Business?

Long back, phone directory was the one important ledger in every home. It consisted of each and every phone number of the town. With the invasion of technology, phone directory has become extinct. The purpose of business listing sites is similar to a phone directory.

These websites consist of all the business information of a particular region with their contact information. In the earlier days of internet business directory was considered as the search engine of nowadays.

According to Hubspot, 50% of consumers who searched for a local business on their mobile, visited the store within a day. Hence business listings are vital for local businesses.

So, if you also want to list your business for free, keep reading.

What are Business Listings?

Business listings are public profiles which can be viewed by anyone. A typical business listing contains NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) details.

Advanced details such as website, working hours are also captured by certain business listings. A business should include its information on various platforms and directories with which they can be found everywhere on the internet.

History of Business Listing

Before the invasion of search engine giants like Google, the business listing was the go-to place for all the information seekers. If we look back how these business listings came into place, the whole crux was the need. The internet gave birth to many websites and every business started to have its own website.

The place was very crowded. There was a need for some structure or a repository which will help people to locate their required websites. That is how business listings were born. Some of the popular worldwide business listings are Google my business, Yelp, Yellow Pages etc.

Why Business Listing Sites Are Essential For A Business?

Local Business

The way of advertising for local businesses earlier was collateral, radio advertising, TV advertising, newspaper advertising etc. These kinds of advertising burn one’s pocket with very minimum effectiveness. The new age of marketing for local businesses is digital marketing.

1. Local SEO

Local businesses find heavy competition from big brands in digital space. The one good opportunity for local businesses is to rank high in search engines for local keywords through local SEO. For example, the chance of a local business getting ranked for a keyword like “Barber Shops near me” is much more compared to big and renowned brands, provided the local SEO for the business done right. One of the crucial aspects of local SEO is business listing. Having a business listing on reputable business listing sites are a way to showcase to Google how local the business is.

2. Be Found

Though Google is the best way to search for any business in the world, business listings are still used to find information about businesses. Not every local business can afford to have a website and do the proper SEO to rank higher. But they can always get listed in free business listing sites and be found when their prospects search for them.

How To Choose Free Business Listing Sites In India

There are millions of business listing sites available on the internet. Listing on every tom dick & harry site is stupidity and waste of time. It is extremely important to filter out good business listing sites. So, how to filter out the business listing sites!

There are few thumb rules;

1. Non-Spammy Websites

Imagine you are on a website to find some information. You see annoying and irrelevant ads everywhere and it makes it tedious for you to find the information you need. Your immediate action is to exit the website. So does your prospects. So, there is no point listing in the spammy websites.

2. Good Domain Authority

Getting a backlink from new business listings websites with high domain authority will pass on high-value link juice to your website. There are many tools available to check the domain authority of the new business listings websites. We have covered top 100 business listings in India with a domain authority of more than 40 in this article.

3. Do-follow Links

In order to get the link juice passed to your website, it is necessary for it to be a do-follow link. Not every new business listings website provides do-follow links, but one needs to ensure there is a balance of do-follow and no-follow links to their website.

Other Potential Benefits of business directories

These are some of the many benefits of creating a free business listing on a business directory, social media platform or review site:

• Boosting your online presence. Before the internet, businesses relied on phone books, newspaper ads, and other forms of traditional marketing and advertising to make themselves known. In the online era, no marketing plan is complete without maximizing your online presence. For a strong online presence, creating a business page for your company on every possible review site, social media platform and free business listing site is vital.
  
  
• Making your business known locally. Local SEO is important to the success of businesses that target an audience in a specific geographic region. Without a proper presence in online directories, your business may fail to reach a potential customer who could travel just minutes from their home to get what they need from your company. Without creating a free business listing in directories – which almost always include geographic filters – you may struggle to make your business name known to that potential customer, among thousands of others.
  
  
• Getting your info out there. Want potential customers to know when your store is open, how to get in touch, what services you provide and how much other customers trust you? Free business listings allow you to share information such as your business hours, contact information, and addresses on platforms where users can search for businesses based on specialty, location, and ratings.
  
  
• Driving your brand engagement and reputation. Even customers who ultimately choose another business over yours or don’t click on your link will see your business name. This recognition cements your brand’s reputation in potential customers’ minds – especially if your ratings are high – and increases the chances that they’ll choose you in the future.

Top 100 Free Business Listing Sites In India

Here are the top websites to list your business for free.

Other Business Listing sites are –

1. Yelp
2. Google
3. Bing
4. Facebook
5. Better Business Bureau
6. Angie’s List
7. MerchantCircle
8. LinkedIn
9. YP.com
10. Whitepages
11. Yellowbook
12. Citysearch
13. MapQuest/Yext
14. Local.com
15. Foursquare
16. CitySlick
17. USdirectory
18. BizJournals.com
19. TomTom
20. DiscoverOurTown.com
21. EZlocal.com
22. Manta
23. InfoUSA
24. Infignos
25. MyHuckleberry.com
26. Just Local Business
27. Brownbook
28. CitySquares
29. HERE Map Creator
30. Judy’s Book
31. TripAdvisor
32. Thumbtack
33. Yellow Pages Directory Inc.
34. HomeAdvisor
35. ShowMeLocal
36. ChamberofCommerce.com
37. YellowBot
38. Hotfrog
39. Insider Pages
40. Bizwiki
41. Business Local Pages
42. iBegin
43. Opendi
44. Sitejabber
45. Yahoo Small Business
46. Apple Maps
47. Tupalo
48. Cylex