There is so much written about businesses who do well on the Internet ,how to improve your online business, how to improve conversion or sell more of a given range or item, but what if all you have just a small website and no visitors to it and effectively no online presence?
An interesting and often forgotten or maligned scenario are directories. These are great initial resources which can help start to get your website found, providing referral traffic that may lead to sales or at the very least can start to get your website found. Without cost you can begin to get the ball moving by listing your business (and business website) and you should see an increase in web traffic.
Many of these directories pro-actively list businesses. Yes, they find company detail and include it in their directory, then its up to you to find that entry and effectively “claim” it. That might sound too good to be true, but remember that “their” business model relies on people just like you to find the entry and pay for it to be enhanced. You don’t need to enhance it though, just claim it as yours and ensure the contact detail is correct. Make sure that all your listings are consistent
- Importantly the first (in our view) stop must be to get listed on Google My Business. http://www.google.com/business/ says they connect you with customers who are looking for your services. Critically of course a listing is free and it is easy to do. Your do not need your IT guys to do it for you.
Staying with the big guns of Internet search try:
- https://www.bingplaces.com/
- https://biz.yelp.com
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/add/show
- http://www.yell.com/free-listing/
- https://foursquare.com/
Others:
- Of course there is our own directory, www.business-directory-uk.co.uk where you can get listed here https://www.business-directory-uk.co.uk/business-links-step-1.php although I have to put my hand up and say we have a bit of a backlog for the free entries.
- https://www.merchantcircle.com/signup/#step=stepOne is another large and free directory, just log on and get listed.
- http://www.freeindex.co.uk/tour(business).htm
- http://www.thetradefinder.co.uk/advertiseus.aspx
Good luck!