Online directories

[WatsonPalmer]

Hello, I am new to this forum. My name is Peter Hussey and I am a director of a Suffolk bookkeeping company called Watson Palmer Limited.

I wondered if members have helpful experiences of online directories as a marketing tool? Much of what I have read has been negative, but I guess that there must be some positive experiences also.

I have recently paid for premium listings on Qype (expensive) and FreeIndex (reasonably priced), and I will post here again after a few months with details of any business that might proceed from those listings. I am not convinced, but we will see!

 

[Imports DG]

Hello, I am new to this forum. My name is Peter Hussey and I am a director of a Suffolk bookkeeping company called Watson Palmer Limited.

I wondered if members have helpful experiences of online directories as a marketing tool? Much of what I have read has been negative, but I guess that there must be some positive experiences also.

I have recently paid for premium listings on Qype (expensive) and FreeIndex (reasonably priced), and I will post here again after a few months with details of any business that might proceed from those listings. I am not convinced, but we will see!

Hi Peter,

I would personally stay away from online directories that charge money. Unless its one like Yell or Thompson (which even they struggle nowadays with making money) the issue is most people dont bother with them that much so the cost outweighs the impact.

This is my personal view, but I would honestly concentrate more on other online options such as SEO for your website to rank highly in Google etc.

 

[sachabloke]

I am with yell and they tend to hassle me once a week with some new promotion.

 

[traveloworld]

Hi,
Stay away from paid directories but try in free and high pr site. will help you to rank high in search engine.

 

[Online Business Video]

Hi Peter, I would stay away. Get a free listing for sure, but personally, whenever I come a cross a 'directory site' on Google, I skip it....can't be bothered to go to another website then search again. Most people I speak to do too!
Consider some SEO on your site, video content, blogging etc.
Have you also considered networking?? There's quite a few meetings I know of in and around Ipswich (we're Colchester based). They're good to get your name around and meet new potential clients.
PM me if you need more info.

Paul

 

[Ali-v-8]

Please note when they say stay away from - they mean avoid paying for.
Submit to as many directories as you like.
Googles directory is "Google places" which you can submit to on Google+. Its free and will be the priority above Yell, Thompson and other directories.

But...... You mus optimise your website for your local business. Local SEO is very simple and easy to do.
Bing's submission has become much easier to..

 

[Online Business Video]

Hi Peter, yes Ali-v-8 is right, I didn't make this clear.

Paul

 

[WatsonPalmer]

Hi all

Thanks very much to all of you for the advice, which I will heed. I have obviously made a mistake with my Qype premium listing but I will have to write that off to experience since I am locked in to it for 6 months. I hope it produces something over that period!

What do members think of Google Adwords? It has so far produced quite a few clicks for a fairly modest fee, but they never seem to convert into contacts. It could be anybody of course - students, competitors, casual browsers, people wanting to sell me services (of which there are many!).

Has anybody definitely experienced increased business through the use of Adwords or Adwords Express? It is very tough to get yourself up towards the top of the natural listings on Google unless you are an SEO whizz.

I think, as a bookkeeper, that networking is going to be the best form of marketing.

Many thanks.

Peter Hussey
Watson Palmer Limited

 

[Annoying Donkey]

I think, as a bookkeeper, that networking is going to be the best form of marketing.

And to be blunt, you'd be right

Unless you have knowledge of SEO/PPC, referrals are your best source of new business. Generally an easier sale, especially if the referral comes with a glowing reference...

 

[Imports DG]

The easy part of Adwords is getting the clicks, the conversion of these is harder. The wording of your adword is important for this as it makes a difference between casual browsers and real customers.

SEO is a bit of an art, its took me 6 years to master and its an ever changing field of work too. The beauty of it with your line of work is that you can target your specific area of the country making it easier to get to the top spots, rather than bookkeeping uk which is likely to have millions of listings, bookkeeping suffolk has very low competition.

Again understanding SEO is vital to A) getting the right keywords that will make an impact and B) getting to the top of page 1.

 

[Steve Sellers]

Don't bother for the most part. Users go onto google and google what they are after. They don't go onto directories. Google places is of course the one exception to that. Build you seo around google.

 

[Websitehandyman]

I think social bookmarketing is much better. These are site where you can really engage with people while maintaining a backlink to you company site. A bit like forums you can, should you wish, give advice and build a following and this should translate back into sales. It's the internet form of networking + word-of-mouth as people pass on where they can get information.

This link has 22 sites all with dofollow backlinks totally free for the basic setup. The can pay extra for more and you can even meet up with groups on some from around the world - http://www.outadwords.com/free/social-bookmarking-sites/

 

[IzzoNet]

Hey

Like others here said, if you can, avoid from the paid online directories.
there are lots of free ones, who we do the job.
try on focusing the right keywords, this is the secret of the seo process.

 

[Stugull]

Hi Peter,

I would personally stay away from online directories that charge money. Unless its one like Yell or Thompson (which even they struggle nowadays with making money) the issue is most people dont bother with them that much so the cost outweighs the impact.

This is my personal view, but I would honestly concentrate more on other online options such as SEO for your website to rank highly in Google etc.

I agree with this 100%. We recently pulled out £15k PA budget from YELL and applied it straight to Google Adwords to back up our SEo website. Definitely the best way forward for us as we can track all the activity, which you cant really do easily on directories.

 

[Stugull]

We also find the program Market Samurai very a very useful keyword generator as it goes quite deep into competition etc. Its well priced too.

 

[WatsonPalmer]

Very many thanks to all who posted helpful replies. Someone believes in and benefits from AdWords (Stugull), with an annual expenditure of £15k! I would be very interested to know how value for money is measured.

 

[WatsonPalmer]

I have just listed with Splut and its sister site Sky-Rocket. I will post here soon to let you know how they perform.

I also tried UK Banners, but (obviously) they want you to put a banner on your site in return for showing banners on other sites. Quite fair, but a banner does not really suit a professional services Web site although it may be more in keeping on other types of site.

 

[Online Business Video]

Hi Peter, I did respond to your pm re networking in Ipswich, but heard nothing from you (not sure whether you saw my reply). Fell free to get in touch if this something you still wish to look into.

Regards
Paul

 

[wilson230]

This is called link buying and selling so, now I think you should be careful other wise your website will be held panalize.

 

[PitneyBowesUK]

Yeah with the updates Google have a list now of all blogs that sell links and any links seen on them will be listed as spam and un-natural in Google's eyes.

 

[Websitehandyman]

This is called link buying and selling so, now I think you should be careful other wise your website will be held panalize.

You mean the way people can buy and sell links on Google ? if google penalise this they should start at their own front door shouldn't they ?

As far as google - buying and selling links is fine as long as their are nofollow and clearly defined as what they are.

Google may or may not penalise link swopping if you have too many or they are a clear effort to confuse and manipulate seo (well google).

In general google is just like stepping into a minefield,take the wrong step and you trigger an event but unlike real minefields you have to run headlong into it to do real damage so if your careful you should be fine.

 

[monkeylove.0505]

We also find the program Market Samurai very a very useful keyword generator as it goes quite deep into competition etc

 

[WebWorks]

Directories are not really about traffic these days but rather the SEO benefit you can get from having the backlinks from old, trusted domains.

I base my decision on the strength of the website versus the cost. A good page rank and a high SEOMoz domain authority for a reasonable price is never a bad thing.

May I also point out that having your business name and address listed on the same page counts as a 'citation' which is the local listings equivalent of a link. Getting more citations gives you a better chance of appearing top in Google's local listings and as these get pushed more and more in your typical Google results page, this can never be a bad thing.

I have seen sites with virtually no direct backlinks get on the first page of Google in the local listings because they have lots of citations.

I've also seen Google Plus profiles appear in the local listings so if you haven't got a profile yet, get one!

 

[richardc.mint]

Sounds like you've already been given some sound advice here but i'd just like to reiterate and say yes submitting to directories is OK as it provides an external link back to your site but avoid paid directories.

 

[WebWorks]

Sounds like you've already been given some sound advice here but i'd just like to reiterate and say yes submitting to directories is OK as it provides an external link back to your site but avoid paid directories.

Paid or not, it comes down to value - there are some directories that charge a fortune and they are to be avoided but I've seen some where the quality of the backlink is so high and the cost is fairly reasonable (we're talking under £200 for a lifetime listing here) that it makes business sense to pay.

 

[JasonGomez]

As the previous post mentioned, using adwords can take some time to learn.
Most competitive keywords will be expensive and it will be hard to rank high.
You should identify keywords and perhaps aim at long-tail, those aren't so competitive meaning it's easier to be first and visits from those keyword tend to have less bounce rate and higher conversion.
Good luck

 

[emailblaster]

Online directories are really good if you are quite selective about which ones you use. Try and avoid the ones that are full of thousands of links of 'dubious' quality. Try and research professional sites that offer directory listings specific to your target audience or industry.

Also try and make sure the ones you go for are moderated and vetted by real people instead of automated.

As long as you do your homework - then directories are a pretty useful tool for promoting your site.

 

[Latebloomer]

Online directories does help with SEO.

Paying for them is not very cost-effective though. Can't blame you as I was tempted to do the same in the past.

 

[WatsonPalmer]

I have posted on this forum before about problems with the online directory Qype. One interesting fact - because I would like to help charities, for various reasons, I have an offer running on Qype stating that registered charities receive a discount of 33% on normal fees. There are about 180,000 registered charities in the UK, all trying to get donations and/or save expenditure for their various causes. Charities in the UK have 850,000 trustees, 780,000 staff and 2.7 million volunteers. That is a lot of people, and do they use Qype? No, why would they? Why would anybody?

 

[RedKingDesign]

great advice here.

Has anyone made a list of the best/highest ranked directories? Would be good to have a list, usefull for ticking off and adding every website to these directories.

These are the two best I could think of that I add every site to...

#1 dmoz.org
#2 Yell

 

[webgeek]

Highest ranking in terms of human traffic? Page rank benefit to be gained? Both? Other?

There's a lot of 2nd tier JoeAnt BOTW types. There's a ton of sites like Undiscovered Scotland and the myriad of bed and breakfast directories.

If you're niche, and if those directories have pages ranking well in the SERP's, then you're buying a link for advertising - traffic, and not for rankings.

Funny how buying a link can be good and buying a link can be bad, depending on your motive, weapon of choice, etc... Going from hero to criminal in the blink of an eye. Sure pays to know the "LAW" according to Google.