Remember the old directories talked about in the 80’s movies which contained numbers of famous local shops and emergency authorities? And the time when you explored your grandfather’s closet and found diaries with entries of various shops and their addresses. Those were the days when manual business listening was made by people.
Nowadays, with a click on search, you get every detail of all the local, national and international businesses at your doorstep. How? It’s all about the free business listing sites created with the advent of technology.
Overview of Business Listing
Before you get confused about free business listing sites in India and beyond, Let’s understand what it truly means.
Business listing is creating a public profile of your business. It shares vital information like business name, location, website, operation hours, products and services, partners and many more. In simple terms, a business listing is creating a media profile for your company or business.
Business listing is part of Local SEO. Your entry of business information on free Google listing sites shares details about you.
Overview of Business Listing Sites
Like phone directories, Business listing sites are directories for business. My Google Business Profile, Yelp and Bing are the few major business listing sites that show reviews and comments for your business.
Business Listing Types
Local Directories
It is business listing of your organisation about a certain town or city often seen on Yelp and Google Business Profile.
Industry-Specific Directories
They specify your business based on the industry of operation such as food for Zomato, travel for MakeMyTrip and e-commerce for Flipkart.
Social Media Business Profile
These are business listings on different social media business platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram and others.
The free business listing opportunity is present on many websites, but they also have a paid version. Paid listing allows diverse advanced features for your business promotion. Starting small is enough and free business listings are effective to create your initial brand presence over the Internet.
Major Statistics About Business Listing
Before you doubt the need for business listing on sites, here are a few major statistics to help you understand its current urgency.
· 97% of search engine users look for online to find any local business
· 61% of consumers are likely to visit a local business if they have an accessible mobile-friendly informative profile on the internet
· 88% of consumers go through company and product reviews on business lists to trust in buying from them
· 27% of consumer search for business by their voice on Google App to find their list
· 86% of consumers look for business location on Google Maps
· 50% of mobile searchers for business listings look for local business address
· 78% of online searches of business listings result in offline buying of products
These figures prove the value of business listing on online.
Now, why do you need to know about the top 100 free business listing sites in India?
Everyone knows Google My Business is the top performer to list businesses. So why waste time on others?
Benefits for Business Listing on Many Websites
Increases Online Presence
Irrespective of your offline presence and digital rating, online presence matters to consumers. I consider the presence of my business over online to create value for me. The belief developed when my business skyrocketed from the initial days. I listed it on few of the famous sites such as Google My Business Profile, Yelp, YellowpagesUSA, etc. The Internet shares pool of data to target consumers and broaden your connection with them. Thus, business listing on sites provides you the platform to highlight your brand and develop a substantial digital presence apart from consumer awareness. It is crucial for your success in the competitive world.
Boost Local Visibility
Forbes mentioned 3.8 million searches on Google were performed to look for local businesses. Free Google listing of businesses in local areas over different sites creates high visibility among nearby competitors. By correctly using keywords and business descriptions on business listing sites, you can create increased prospects to be ahead of your competitors in the locality. It is essential to create more visitors and consumers of your business to help you achieve wider goals. Greater online visibility is your boon to easily reach your target consumers.
Consistency of Your Business
While searching to write this blog, I found many business listing sites to be temporarily or permanently closed. It helped me to refine my list while sharing them. Your listing of business creates similar advantage as it shows your consistency of operations. A less active business list would show a poor display of phone numbers and addresses with no updates. It will make your consumers avoid considering you for their purchase decision as they suspect your existence.
Creates Brand Name
Free business listing of your organisation helps you gradually create a brand name. For example, your business is a restaurant that provides Mughlai and Afghan foods. When the customers search for such foods, apart from known restaurants, your business will be shown to them if you have listed it on the Google Platform. They may not buy from you the first time but they locate your brand presence. It creates further opportunities to buy from you when they want to try food from any new business. Thus, business listing is essential as it gradually builds your brand name.
Business Expansion
By listing your business on different sites, you create increased directories to your name. It creates an increased possibility of frequent appearances of your brand on search results. Think of it like, you are sharing your business card with consumers from different cities and states. Whenever someone ask for a recommendation, they share your business card. It creates plenty of leads for your business while allowing its smooth expansion. The higher the number of business listing on different sites for your business, the greater the chance of your expansion. You do not even need to promote it.
Better Business Reputation
When your business are listed on different sites, many consumers leave reviews about you. It helps consumers to learn about your business efficiency. Eventually, it creates a reputation for your organisation. However, it is long if you maintain regular communication where all reviews are responded. Consumers on seeing the reviews analyse your business reputation and think of either or not buying from you.
Higher Credibility
A published business listing on Google creates a general trust factor among customers. This is because you allow to be found on the web at every nook and corner. Additionally, getting your business listed is not child’s play. Websites perform thorough research and create appropriate criteria to show your authenticity. Thus, it creates the opportunity for you to be legit among your customers.
Enhanced Networking
Increased business listing of your operation on various sites will increase your B2B networking. This is because other businesses can look for you creating increased chances of partnership with them.
Factors for Identifying Authenticated Free Business Listing Sites in 2024
You can find thousands of free business listing sites in India and abroad. However, the difficulty is identifying which are to be considered for your business. So here are a few tips:
Focus on Domain Authority
Domain Authority (DA) is the ranking score of the website on search engines to predict their level of appearance. The score extends from 0-100 with 100 being best with a greater likelihood of showing first on the SERP. Listing your business on a high website with high DA increases your chance to be shown frequently in searches. You can check domain authority on Ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz.
Mobile Optimisation
As previously mentioned, mobile are more frequently used than ever to search for all context. Ensure you select a business listing site which is mobile-friendly to share your information within the screen space.
Follow Links
All go for the websites that allow Do Follow links. This is because it helps to pass the link juice and enhance its rank to show your business on top searches.
Spam Free Sites
Always check for the spam score for the site of business listing to avoid irrelevant ads to be supported. It would block your true intent of business and lead people to avoid looking for your business.
Supports All Nature of Calls-To-Action
The key call-to-actions for business listing are name, social media page, maps, real image, contact no and official websites. Quality business listing sites provide all these for creating a better business directory.
In business listing, Google is the top choice. I will share the way you can list your business on Google Business Profile.
Steps to List Your Business on Google
1. The initial step is to log into Google Business Profile. Here, the account for your business is already created or make a new account. Add your business email to the profile to maintain a professional workspace.
2. After signing in, the profile asks to include the name of the business. Remember to enter a unique name that is not taken over by others. It is to avoid confusion and appropriate registration. For example, I chose DigiPov instead of other options like Digital Provider, DigiPro, etc.
3. Now, select the type of your business such as hotels, travel, marketing, etc. You can always create a business profile on Google as long you are selling directly, have service providers and physical location. Click on Next after setting the business type.
4. The next step is entering the location of your business. In case you are online, you are asked to add your official website. On offline presence, add your physical address. In the case of a physical address, you should add your business on Google Maps to show the exact location.
5. Now add contact such as phone number and/or official website.
6. You need to verify your mailing address irrespective of the lack of any physical business location. Add the code received through email.
7. Now optimise your profile. Try adding business hours, chat, business descriptions, photos, videos and many more. Add voice search options. Google says a well-optimised business profile makes consumers 2.7 times more inclined to consider the business to be reputable. Moreover, 70% of consumers views and 50% of consumers buy from companies with well-optimised business profiles.
You can google my business profile DigiPov to understand how a listing may look like on a Google Business Profile.
Steps for Managing Business Listing
Your task is not complete with a free business listing on sites. It requires effective management to experience the benefits of listing.
1. Audit and track all the sites where you have listed your business. Create a spreadsheet for your listing, search for keywords and business name to track them.
2. Review and optimise the existing business profile after listing to help with regular conversion and solid online availability.
3. Keep expanding your business listing to draw an increased digital footprint for your site.
4. Perform real-time updates to your official business websites.
5. All the customer reviews to your business listing are to be regularly examined and responded. It would create positive customer experience and better business management.
Here are the key 100 free business listing sites in 2024 where you can submit to online directories about your business.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is a Business Listing?
Business listings are information about your business on online business directories to help customers and other businesses have basic information about your company.
2. Are Free Business Listing sites worthy to be used?
Yes. Just because they are free does not mean they hold any less value than paid sites. Paid sites offer additional optimisation of your business listing but for initial online presence, free sites are enough.
3. What are the factors for authenticated free business listing sites?
The authenticates free business listing sites are non-spammy, has high domain authority and provides do follow link.
4. How to manage business listing?
You can manage your business listing on sites through regular monitoring and review along with optimisation in real-time.
Conclusion
I think you have understood the importance of business listing for your digital marketing. It is simple to register your business listing on any site, but the process and management are essential aspects. So, happy listing!!
