If you manage a small to mid-size business, you are among the millions of UK SMEs that collectively contribute to more than 99% of the business carried out in the country. The SME industry provides employment to almost 60% of workers in the UK and is responsible for half of the business transactions in the private sector. Consequently, with so many businesses and companies part of the SME the competition is stiff. In such a situation any edge that a business can gain will be advantageous in the market. Online commerce is a 24-hour business therefore having a strong digital presence online is an absolute necessity, Furthermore ensuring your business is listed on a reputed online directory as a free business listing is an effective way to reach out to prospective clients.
Free Google Business Listings
If you looking for a world class platform for your online business listing they do not come any better and bigger than Google. Using the Google My Business option in a well-planned manner will be beneficial for any new business owner to have their listing set up at no cost. For the location the physical address can be denoted using Google Maps. Other features to fill in are the kind of services or products, contact details and your company website. This info is then used by Google’s search engines in deciding the ranking, with search results as per web pages. While setting up the listing initially on Google is simple it will need regular tweaking to ensure everything is perfect. For that a good place to start is to check out your competitors listings on Google to see how their business is displayed. You can make any amendment as you want until you get it right.
Be Choosy
To become part of an online listing directory selecting Google is the ideal choice. However, after that you need to be choosy as where else you will be listed. Most online directories these days offer free basic listings as an option, but do not get drawn in easily as trying to get on all of them may prove counter-productive. If your business is based in the North of England, you ned to cater to potential clients from the surrounding areas and not on all over the UK. Alternatively, if your business involves selling products all over the UK it will not be prudent to only feature in a directory that caters to the local region. The business listing needs to be customised in order for prospective clients looking to find businesses like you have to offer will find them easily at a relevant site. Plus, if you feature in listings that are not geographically relevant it will harm your ranking with Goggle.
Monitor the progress
Once the business is listed online it becomes digital marketing and in becoming so must be regularly tracked. While keeping track of any business’ record offline is important, it is much more essential to do so in the digital world. The listing and having an online presence are something that needs constant attention. You just cannot have everything set up and leave it to work on its own. This is one of the top reasons to be choosy as to which directory your listings feature in. Being spread out all over the place may cause you to skip monitoring some of them, which could negatively impact your business. E.g., if your listing is on an obsolete and not too active directory it will harm your business. This is because of the SEO process of Google that trawls the world wide web 24/7 that will show the listing in an obsolete directory as negatively. Apart from that being on an obsolete directory will bring in no potential customers to your business.
Help With Free Business Listings
With so much at stake for your business it only makes sense to look for a reputed and well updated online business directory that is relevant for your business to succeed. The best part is this can be at no cost and bring in positive results in a short span. If your business appears at the right sites on search queries. Google will consider it relevant. Thus, earning greater online visibility will translate into more clicks and ultimately the potential to attract more customers.
