Top Ten Free Business Directories to Improve Your Website Off-Page Search Engine Optimisation
To improve your Google Page Rank, it’s important to get good quality links to your website – this forms part of your off-page SEO strategy. A simple and very cheap way (free, except your time) is to add your site to various business directories. We have collected a list of the ten best business directories to register with. They vary in the features on offer, so it’s best to try them all!
To really improve your off-page SEO when registering your business in a directory we suggest the following:
Google My Business
The number one place to get a listing for your business is Google My Business. It was formerly known as Google Places and as the most popular Internet search engine in the UK you must get yourself listed here.
The ability to add photos, opening times, description and reviews are just some of the features available to the discerning business owner. You will need to get verified with a postcard, but this is a fairly simple task. You will also want to complete the Services section for good mobile search performance.
Yell offers a comprehensive business listing. As well as featuring in Google searches, your business will appear in all yell.com searches and in the mobile app version of Yell.
Listing is easy and you can add a vast number of keywords in the Services/Products section. Also worth doing is adding your social media links and of course your main business website.
FreeIndex has been in existence since 2003 and offers a great place to list your business. As well as links, the site is crawled regularly by the Googlebots and your listing will appear in Google search results within 24 hours.
By completing more of the profile questions you business ranks more highly within the FreeIndex website. Customer reviews will propel you to the top.
This is a relatively new business directory, but it is well respected by Google, and you can expect to be listed on it very promptly. It has a very professional look to it, and you can even add a header photo to make your listing look very smart indeed.
Make sure you add all your keywords in the Offering section to get your business found.
Scoot powers the business directories of The Independent, The Sun, The Mirror and Touch Local, so getting yourself listed here makes sense. Although you don’t get a free link to your website, you do get them to your social media profiles.
An upgrade costs £199 + VAT and gets you a priority listing.
Another popular business directory is Cylex and is human edited, consequently it performs well with Google’s search algorithms and it is worth getting your business listed here.
Another fantastic place to get a business listing is Bing Places. Although Bing only has 2-3% of the search engine market, the results from Bing Places appear on all Windows based PCs by default.
Yelp is a global business directory for local businesses. It offers a comprehensive range of features, including a website link, opening hours, photos and more. It’s recently been updated to make registration easier which is geat!
A comprehensive directory listing that has the usual features, however, the unique selling point of this directory is the ability to post news about your company on the website. Definitely worth five minutes of your time to get listed.
UK Small Business Directory
Last but not least, the UK Small Business Directory offers a human edited directory in microdata format. Definitely worth the effort of getting listed on here, don’t forget to say thanks to Tim for this great small business directory.
Open Di – A PR7 human edited directory.
Thomson Local – Now offering a free link and used by people searching on the web and in the published directory.
Locanto – Offers free advertising of services across the United Kingdom.
Unitel Direct – Can take a while to get listed here, but every little helps.
