Business directories are one of the many popular things that came alive with the birth of newspapers. They have been in existence ever since the birth of newspapers.
A business directory basically is a listing of all the local businesses within a particular area. The motives behind this listing are multipurpose and shall be discussed properly. These listings are often categorized in accordance with their business type, location, etc., and may include details like the description of the company and/or the kind of business they do, their address, contact information, products, and services.
In first World countries like the United States of America, business directories have been in the form of Yellow Papers and Phonebooks.
Just like the rest of the print industry, business directories have also gone online. This not only puts them on a global level and ensures a far better reach than they got on the papers, but also allowed additional services and features to be added to the already multipurpose field of work.
After going online, it became possible to add a section of customer review and comments section which helped the businesses listed on the directory to get in touch with their consumer more easily and efficiently. Some of the online business directories allow you to search for businesses that can be based on your preferences and taste. For the convenience of the visitors and their own, listings are usually alphabetical.
As the business directories evolved from a printed listing of the local businesses to multi-feature online forums, many of the new aspects were automatically added to it. For instance, after going online it become easier to add even the web addresses of the listed businesses and create backlinks which transformed it into another off-page SEO technique.
As an SEO tool, the business directories cannot be taken lightly since it adds another feather to your because of their huge popularity. The more forums you use to create your backlinks and the more accurate and matching your information is on all those platforms, the more chances you have of getting prioritized by the search engines in the optimization.
If your business deals in products and services that are made for an international market, it is advisable to make your presence felt on multiple business directories especially the international one. Some of the most famous business directories with a global reach are:
- Yahoo
- Yelp
- Citysearch
- Foursquare
