Online Business Directory

[stephangrobler]

What do online and offline businesses seek to see in an online business directory, paid for of course, but really cheap?

Feature wise?

[Ian J]

I would look to see the words "paid for" replaced by the word "free"

[skillipedia]

Usually they are free when they have low rating and traffic, but when they are OK they switch. check directorycritic.com for most directories -general and niche

Cheers

[stephangrobler]

the problem with free directories, are the fact that most of them have incomplete information, most of the time there are also scammers and spammers on the directory. With paid for listings, you get a listing that you know that, if the business paid for it, they will make sure all the details are correct, otherwise they would just be wasting money.

There is a free listing available, but it is very limited compared to the paid for listing.

[fisicx]

Why would anyone want to pay for listing in a directory? Admittedly a business may get some traffic from a paid listing but because the net is already flooded with directoies the benefits of a listing are diluted.

If you offered a niche service or a specialist directory, then you might generate some interest if you supplemented the directory with information pages about the specialist area that the search engines could index. But your potential customers are probably better off paying for adwords than a directory listing.

A question for you: do you use a directory to find stuff on the net?

[EquusTrade]

I think the main benefits of being listed in directories are for SEO, therefore I think if I ever used a directory, I would want the ability to key in up to a 300 word description of the business.

Having said that, personally I wouldn't pay to be listed in any directory

[squalid]

I think the main benefits of being listed in directories are for SEO, therefore I think if I ever used a directory, I would want the ability to key in up to a 300 word description of the business.

would a description next to the url benefit an SEO campaign - as opposed to good, short backlink text ?

[stephangrobler]

say that for instance i provide an additional service, free of charge to users of the site and they return and then use the directory, would that attract a person to advertise on such a directory?

[squalid]

directory advertising may be different in Guateng, South Africa. ( if that is where you are planning to aim for)

here in the UK there is one or two that are okay and worth advertising on - but only one or two and they are local ones set up very early on in the age of the internet - they offer free listings etc and payment for banner ads and are v.cheap. run as a hobby business i think.

what is the situation in your area regarding directories ?

[fisicx]

Stepan,

How often do you use directories to find products or services?

The SEO benefits are almost zero from directories - there are just too many of them. The current trends are to build up your social bookmarking hooks or get an RSS feed, both have far better SEO qualities.