When it comes to promoting your Joliet business online, casting as large of a net as possible is one of the best ways to ensure your customers can find you. Long gone are the days where you could just advertise in a single place and be found by your customers and search engines. Users are now scattered across social networks and various information-supplying websites, and business listing websites can act as information aggregators to give people searching for your services as much information as possible. Not only is it important to put your information out there for search engines, but it is also important to direct how your customers interact with your company through social media and reviews.
The Mechanism
Local listing services from search engines (such as Google My Business) use the number of references your company name has alongside your address as one indicator of how relevant your business is to a specific geographic location. Search engines understand that someone searching for, say, an architect in Joliet, will benefit from a listing of local architects as close to the center of Joliet as possible. To this end, a major factor in deciding which business to show the searcher is the number of times a business appears around the web with their physical address tied to the company name. Business listings typically include a company’s address to specify their physical location, creating another “reference” for search engines, and boosting the company’s position in local listings.
How to Make Your Listing ‘Work’?
The more targeted a specific service, the more relevant the result in search engines’ (metaphorical) eyes. Search engines can learn to associate specific websites, and even companies, with certain keywords. Smart companies use this to their advantage by ensuring that their company name and websites are found along with services that they offer, such as “drain unclogging” for a Joliet plumbing service provider. Business listing websites often allow a company to list the services they provide to their customers, allowing search engines to create positive correlations and present the right companies to users.
On the flipside, searchers can view negative associations a company has, such as “scammer,” or “never showed up to complete the work.” This is just as integral to search engines and business listing services as the positive correlations, because it helps the end-user decide which companies to avoid and which ones they should consider. Businesses see it as the double-edged sword that it is — after all, who hasn’t had an angry or irrational customer — but no business should have a short supply of happy customers who can provide positive reviews to outweigh the negatives. Some directories go a step further and allow a business to list its social media accounts so that users have multiple ways of contacting a company.
Finally, most business directories will allow you to link back to your own company’s website so that the searcher can get even further information if they wish. This link to your website counts as another “vote” in the search engine’s eyes for your company, and it’s one of the more critical aspects of search engine optimization (SEO).
The Wrap
Business listings (or “directories”) are an effective method of promoting your business and should be an integral part of any company’s online marketing efforts. Not only do they solidify your business’ physical location for local searches, but they also tell customers about what services you offer, let them know if your previous customers are (un)satisfied with your services, and can boost your website’s ranking in search engines. With signups taking less than 5 minutes, and with a user base in the hundreds or thousands, getting listed might be one of the best investments you could make for your business.
Looking for a Top-rated Listings Management Agency in Joliet, Illinois?
The team of search experts at Digital Destination can help your Joliet business position itself in front of potential customers and ahead of market rivals. With our listing management services in Joliet, Illinois, we can help you maximize your profitability by driving more qualified leads to your business. Contact us to request a free quote!