Phone Books Are Out; Local Business Directories Are In - How To Market Your Business In The Digital

When was the last time you used a phone book to find a local business

? Do you even own a phone book? Most likely the answers to these questions are "I can't remember" and "No" respectively, because with the advent of local search online, phone books have become obsolete. Why sift through phone book ads one by one, calling each business until you find the right one, when you can go online and find local businesses along with descriptions and their websites in under a minute?

You don't use a phone book for your own personal needs, so why are you still advertising your business in one? 20 or even 10 years ago you couldn't pull in a decent amount of business without a listing in your local phone book, but that has all changed. With the ubiquity of laptops and smart phones now a days, most consumers are doing their searches on the road, and to capture this business you need a listing online. Phone books are out and local business directories are the new must-have listing.

What is a local business directory? Well, in most basic terms it's like the local phone book you receive on your doorstep once a year - but online. A business directory lists a bunch of businesses categorized by category or niche, and a local business directory will further separate the businesses by location. When you list your business with local business directories you will catch the attention of popular search engines and let them know you exist, so when people search for terms relevant to your business, they will find you.

If that doesn't make sense, think of it this way: There are millions of websites out there on the world wide web. Search engines attempt to crawl the entire internet and catalogue all of these sites, so when a consumer searches for "large red shoes" the search engine can provide results with all the top websites pertaining to "large red shoes." However, if your website is new, a search engine won't know you exist and won't know to look at your website. Local business directories submit all their listings to the top major search engines, so your website can get recognized for what it does.

By going local, your website can get a leg up on national companies. Amazon may be a larger provider of "large red shoes," but if a consumer searches for "Las Vegas large red shoes," your site is going to pop up in the local section, often before bigger companies. Some local business directories may even offer search engine optimization services to help your company receive even better rankings for search.

Because of all these benefits, advertising in an online business directory is one of the smartest, most cost effective decisions you can make regarding your business. You will reach more customers, and your marketing budget will stay the same, or may even cost less. You don't need to be a web master to use a business directory, they take care of all of the technical information, you just need to provide your basic business information such as your company name, phone number, website URL and the geographical areas and product/service categories where you want to advertise.

Get out with the old and in with the new! Start maximizing your business's potential by advertising with a local business directory today!

by: Sarah Simmons

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