Local Business Listing Sites: What to Include in Your Profile

This post highlights the important of local business directories and the information you need when adding your business to such sites. There are many online business directories today that you can submit your business details, but small businesses who are offering location specific products or services should start with to local business listing sites in their country or area.

As part of your Local SEO strategy, adding the right information to your business profile across these directory sites would increase the chances for nearby prospects to view business offers, visit your website or physical store and contact you.

Here, we’ve put together a list of the most important information you should get right and ensure to include them across all your local business listing sites.

But,

 

What is a Local Business Listing Site?

A local business listing site is an online business directory where you can submit your company’s information NAP (name, address, and phone numbers) so as to get more customers.  This site may provide other important information like your office working hours, geo-location or street map, business reviews options, ratings, and social sharing features.

Usually, most local business listing services are aimed at marketing your businesses locally base on your city, town, province or nation; and for the purpose of reaching out to the location-based customers who are interested in your products or services. Following this list of best business listing practices will help your business stand out, build a stronger online presence, enjoy more customer confidence, increase website traffic, and ultimately boost sales for your products.

For example,

Bizfinder is a leading local business listing website in Nigeria that accepts international listings too. The website was design to meet clients increased demand to gain maximum local exposure and best search engine ranking. So you can find local businesses near you, professional service providers, latest events and deals in the #1 local business listing site in Nigeria.

Again, a local business listing site can help you advertise your business or products to millions of people at affordable price. Local business listings are crucial for businesses as they increase visibility and help connect with customers within their geographic area. Here are the key benefits:

 

Benefits of Local Business Listings for Businesses 

• Improved Local SEO: Listings on platforms like BizFinder and Google My Business (GMB), Bing Places for Business, Facebook Local, Apple Maps, or Yellow Pages would help your business rank higher in local search results, making it easier for nearby customers to find you.
• Increased Online Presence: Being listed on multiple directories enhances your online footprint, improving the chances of your business being discovered by potential customers.
• Trust & Credibility: Consistent and accurate listing of your information across directory platforms would build trust with customers and search engines alike, showing that your business is legitimate and established.
• Enhanced Customer Engagement: Listings on platforms like GMB allow for reviews, photos, and Q&A sections, which engage customers and influence their buying decisions.
• Mobile Optimization: Local business listings are especially valuable for mobile users searching for services on the go, leading to increased foot traffic to your shop and customers’ inquiries.

 

Now, here the important information you must include while creating your business profile on these local search engines in your neighborhoods. For an effective local business listing, make sure to include the following key details:

 

What to Include In Your Local Business Listings and Citations Sites:

 

1. Correct Business Name: 

Before creating and managing your business listings on directory sites, decide on the name to give your business online and ensure this is the same thing everywhere on the web. Use the exact name of your business as it appears on your signage, website and other marketing materials to maintain consistency.

If you add or update your business on multiple business directories, make sure you’re providing the same company information across each directory.

Such that; when a user enters a search query like “web designers in Lagos” on search engines; such as Google or Bing; the search results will return accurate information about your business and its activities to the searcher.

 

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2. Company Description: 

Again, make sure you have written out a well detailed description of your business; including the key operation, product and/or service that you offer. And if possible, reflect on things such as your company’s mission, culture, your corporate values.

What features and benefits are in there for the customers? Providing a concise, keyword-optimized description of what your business offers can be one thing that differentiates your business from other competitors.

Your company description should (at least) be up to 250 -300 word counts for maximum exposure and to ensure clear communication of sales goals. It should also contain some of your business keywords or other information that can attract and convince the target audience to contact you.

 

3. Physical Address:

Include your business address in your listing. If you are a freelancer or your businesses is working virtually, kindly indicated it here. Otherwise, ensure the address is accurate, including street, city, and zip code, for customers and local search algorithms.

 

4. Phone Number:

Your company phone number is the most important direct contact information. Using a  local phone number for easy contact is essential. if possible, avoid toll-free numbers to enhance local SEO impact.

 

5. Photos & Videos:

Online customers love quality images and videos so much. And sometimes, they will hope to see the video formats or other file documents that make things fun and legit! If you’re in to event planning or mouth watering bakery business for examples, you can always have a product’s story to share with your customers each weekend.

High-quality images or videos of your products, services, and location can attract more attention. Image they say ‘speaks more than word’. So include multimedia contents in your directory profile if possible. Be sure to use good camera or your smartphone to take products pictures and videos if these features are well integrated in your mobile phones and PAs;

Alternatively, you can use online graphic tools like Canva to create beautiful designs and quality images for your business. Giving your searchers a visual taste of your business may include a picture or video of your office, your employees’ happy hours, or your daily business operations.

These can be some ways to illustrate how you prepare the products, thus remember to include your company’s pictures, and products videos in your local business directories.

 

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6. Business Hours:

Clearly indicate your store opening hours or working hours to inform potential customers.! This is very important for local businesses.

Maintaining up-to-date and accurate listings information will therefore increase your chances of being found by online shoppers.  Again, you can use aggregator tools to update all of your directory listings at once if supported by your local business listing sites.

 

7. Accessible Amenities:

Include your flexible payment methods, good access road, parking space, wheelchair accessibility, uninterrupted power supply, friendly shop attendant, free Wifi or accessible internet facilities among other amenities.

 

8. Business Category:

Choose the most accurate category that describes your business to help customers locate your business based on what you do and to enhance search relevance.

It’s important that your business information appears correctly in local search results. Why? If your business details are outdated or incorrect, you’ll miss out potential customers who are looking for your services online.

 

9. Website URL:

Getting your information listed on local business directories or local business listing sites helps you to improve your online visibility. Most importantly, getting backlinks or linkbacks from these directory sites also have a great impact in your website search engine optimization (SEO).

Backlinks — also known as inbound links — are crucial to your company website’s domain authority and growth in the World Wide Web. So, consider adding your website address or the uniform resource locator (URLs) to all your preferred listing sites where possible.

Although, most high value listing sites may required you to purchase a premium package or advance listing plans to be able to get backlinks to your website. In this case, look for SEO friendly local business listing sites like Bizfinder.com.ng which is optimized to strengthen your website ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).

 

Related Post: How to Write SEO Optimized Content for Websites

 

10. Verification Badges:

Online visitors place more trust in verified businesses with blue badges so this is another important feature to implement in your listings.

When you claim your business listing citations sites and review sites, your business can appear ahead of the rest free listings. Customers consider verified businesses with positive reviews. Verifying and securing a positive reviews for your business list online gives your customers a sense of trust to hire you or buy your products or services.

Most directory services, offer verification for users’ accounts via physical store visits, email verifications of legal documents, calling your phone number, and prompt you to enter a verification code. Some local business directories may be required to upload valid business registration documents (CAC), proof of address (utility bill) or other  means of identifications (IDs).

Once you are a member of such sites, ensure you provide the necessary details required to claim and/or verify your business listings as soon as possible. By doing so, customers will see your business as a trusted brand always. Again, you will not have to loose your business name to other rivals.

 

11. Customer Reviews:

When customers are searching on the directories, they also consider positive reviews from your past customers which usually appear on your business profile. Customer reviews are crucial for building trust and credibility in any business. They provide social proof, helping potential customers make informed buying decisions.

Positive reviews would enhance your reputation, while negative ones offer valuable feedback for improvement. Reviews also improve search engine rankings, especially for local SEO, driving more organic traffic to your business.

As trusted online reputation management agency in Lagos Nigeria, we help businesses manage their online reviews and encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on their profiles which can significantly boost brand visibility, customer loyalty, and overall sales.

Today buyers are researching a lot, and are more informed. When they are looking for information online, searching for business reviews and comments here and there. However, it is not advisable to get false people, friends or colleagues to start writing reviews for your business online. This is because your business review should come from your real customers who have good testimonies and case studies to share about your products or services.

Potential customer who would ordinarily want to patronize your business may suspect these kinds of reviews which are usually too professional, and therefore may end up stopping people from buying your products. Instead of using false or spam reviews, encourage your happy customers or clients you’ve worked for to visit some of your popular local business listing sites or review sites and drop their honest reviews in the form of success stories.

This information will be more helpful for your to-be customers and be able to convince them and supercharge their decision making process. As Seth Godin, an American author and former dot com business executive once put it: “People don’t buy goods and services, they buy relations, stories, and magic”.

 

Wrapping up: What to Include In Your Local Business Listing Sites

Local directory submissions or adding your company’s NAP to local business listing sites is one of the first steps to dominate the local search results in your area or city. While doing this, make sure that you have the same correct information about your business everywhere your potential customers might find you (both local and global).

Contact us now for a free consultation on how we can help you list your business on popular directories in Nigeria and across the world; refine your products and services for better customer experiences; generate positive reviews from satisfied customers and give your business boost with effective digital marking strategies.

As a provider or small business owner, remember to include your company registered or legitimate name, location or street address, your valid telephone number(s), company email address, and well written product description with key features and keywords. If you’re building an enterprise, you’ll need to create a new business listing online for your company; otherwise, you can just update or claim your existing business name as these are critical to your online marketing efforts.

If you are looking for online business listing sites in Nigeria; don’t just wait — Add Your Business — to Bizfinder.com.ng and join over 10 thousand registered businesses in Nigeria, UAE, UK, USA, India, Canada and other countries of the world. Don’t forget to select the appropriate business category for your listing so people can see your business among others when searching for products or services under your category.

Get your business in front of the right audience today! Start with the Free listing package. The set up is easy! If you have the capital, consider priority listings and claimed listings, featured listings and promoted listings to boost your search ranking on the website and on Google search results.

As top digital marketing agency in Nigeria specializing SEO services, we can help you reach the right people, drive more organic traffic and increase sales using proven online marketing strategies, SEO, social media marketing, email marketing campaigns, and custom website development.