should I pay for online directories?

[lyonsdown]

I spent the other day submitting my company info to a number of online directories.
I've now had scoot, yahoo local and bing places call me trying to get me to pay for an enhanced listing.

I turned them down-is this the right decision?
I was persuaded 2 years ago by yell.com to pay for an enhanced listing which guaranteed me first page.I didn't get a single job (IT repairs) from it.

 

[fisicx]

NO!

And I would bother with any online directories either. The traffic will be minuscule compared to what you can get from google searches and Adwords.

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

I guess you have just answered your own question. If you try those directories for 2 years and you didn't get any customer at all, just left it go.

You have perfect space to start content marketing on your blog section http://www.pcandmacrepairs.co.uk/blog/ so maybe try this way if previous failed.

Get more active, run YT channel, post on IT forums and get your advertising into signature for beginning, then learn SEO, try Adwords, Social etc.

 

[StevePoster]

Instead of paying online directories to expose your website why don't you spend you bucks into more useful way like Adwords. It doesn't mean that your site is in the first page results it will guarantee you a conversion.

 

[The Byre]

There are plenty of free directories.

 

[david64]

If you have a small company (by the sounds of it) I would always recommend getting on Google AdWords. If you Google [AdWords voucher], you can usually find a £75/100 voucher for free somewhere. Depending on where you live, that could last you for years.

As for directories, I know one company that still bases pretty much the whole business off Yellow Pages, but no doubt that is waning. There are 1,000s of junk directories on the internet you can submit to, but the SEO and referral benefits that can be gained are at best minuscule and more likely to be a negative.

In my experience Yell are a very unscrupulous company, who, in their epic decline to totally irrelevancy decided to squeeze as much out of small companies with bare bones, grossly-overpriced websites and enhanced listings which do next to nothing. I know someone who worked for Yell's web development detritus and everything is shuffled out to India, where the quality is very poor.

As mentioned, I know one company that is based off Yell. Because they are a large company they have an inside deal to get cheap, nationwide coverage. Yell and a few companies are propping each other up as they slide to their graves.

 

[The Byre]

Yell and a few companies are propping each other up as they slide to their graves.

Very eloquently put!

 

[mindhunter]

Hey all !!!!!!!!!
The most appropriate way of getting a good baclinks, is that it should be free because it is the organic way of driving traffic and as a result enhancing the page rank in the process. And after a great effort and when there would be great sales and ROI than only you can go for spending money but it is again not for buying directories but for AdWords, PPC and many other paid advertisements so that you can reach maximum number of users and always present in front of their eyes. thanks......

 

[SimplyMyLove]

It is a definitely NO from my own experience, no matter how small the amount is.

 

[roydmoorian]

I was persuaded 2 years ago by yell.com to pay for an enhanced listing which guaranteed me first page.I didn't get a single job (IT repairs) from it.

A good few years ago YELL set up about 5 or 6 dedicated numbers for us for local towns to prove how good their directory services were. We had our own 0845 number at that time which we changed to an 0333 number as soon as they became available.

We got fewer than 2 calls per month through the YELL numbers, none of which resulted in profitable work, proving that they were Sh1te.

 

[justinaldridge]

Directories such as those are not worth pay for and I never do. However, there are often excellent niche directories and those can be very good so you should look into those instead.

Be careful though, it's easy to waste a lot of money on pointless directories.

 

[cormac reynolds]

There is little benefit from paying for a directory like this. However, free ones can be a good place to add NAP details to help local SEO efforts.

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

I need to ask Matt Cutts if pay for directory record that include link means the same as pay for link

 

[CarlReed]

Depends whether the directory has good traffic for the search terms you're listed on.

For example - if you Google "Plumber London" and see they Yelp is ranking at position 2 then yeah it's a good investment as you're basically buying the number 2 spot on Google.

Search for your keywords and see if the directory in question is even rankings before you buy.

Also, it may be worth testing for a month to see if you get an ROI, just don't sign up for 12 month contracts before you've tested it.

And whatever you do don't buy the mega website builder £500 shit packages from Yell. Not worth a penny.

 

[Shopclicks]

For example - if you Google "Plumber London" and see they Yelp is ranking at position 2 then yeah it's a good investment as you're basically buying the number 2 spot on Google.

Aside from having to clean the coffee off my screen, I'm really struggling with that. How does a Yell listing on page 10, equate to buying 'number 2 spot on Google'?

I was persuaded 2 years ago by yell.com to pay for an enhanced listing which guaranteed me first page.I didn't get a single job (IT repairs) from it.

 

[CarlReed]

Who mentioned anything about page 10?

 

[Shopclicks]

Who mentioned anything about page 10?

Paying for an enhanced (page 1) listing didn't appear to do the OP any good. Using your example of 'plumbers in London', you only have to look at the number of reviews for all the advertisers on the first two pages to know there's not a whole lot happening.

A PC repairer in London is far better off creating local landing pages for organic search and paid ads, than wasting time and money on directory ads that don't convert.

 

[Richard Ashton]

I would not pay for a listing! a free listing will do just fine! some things i would make sure of is to fill out each section of your page with as much content as possible.

This includes: Photos, Products and Services, Reviews, Your address, Directions, and of course your website URL.

Make sure your address is in the same format as it is on your website (this is important for local seo)

Fill up your companies page with all the content you can and this should do some pretty big wonders for your local seo!

Keep submitting to as many directories as possible until you have achieved the local serp results you want.

Always works for me...

 

[Tom_Dwan]

I am also not a big fan of paid directories. At least in my niche (home improvement) you have plenty of options for free directories. There are also some strategies ( like Broken Link Building, Moving Man Method, which were properly described by Brian Dean and Neil Patel) that can help you diverse your link building campaigns if you reach a point where you can't find any more proper directories.

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

So, why not setup a bunch of paid directories and sell useless records. Is it not a brilliant way to make money without effort?

 

[Career Guidance Charts]

Its depends on directory's page rank.

 

[justinaldridge]

Its depends on directory's page rank.

Oh my...where have you been?