With recruiters heading towards digital platforms—looking at you, Glassdoor and LinkedIn—it’s pretty unusual to state that we, the prospective employees, don’t refer to Google for hunting down job ads. This is primarily because today, we are going digital—or perhaps, have gone digital with technological advances such as AI and automation shifting our gears for us. 

From job seeking ads to marketing agencies online, every click depends on a ‘5-star’ positive review and with good reason. Reviews and citations leverage trust—and we wouldn’t want to collaborate or acquire services from a brand that doesn’t offer what we exactly want, now would we?

Similarly, for local brands and small businesses alike, the internet is a treasure trove of marketing opportunities. People today trust marketing web directories instead of looking for a referred company in the Yellow Pages.

One, you will never find a detailed account or picture of a brand you plan on working with or for in the Yellow Pages. You will be lucky to come across a contact number and their address, at the very most. And two, you will never be able to locate a Yellow Pages today, so that leaves you with newspapers or online ad directories.

Online Ad or Web Agency Directories—Yay or Nay?

A genius once thought of taking the Yellow Pages online—and the advertising industry hasn’t been the same ever since, only better. Online ad or web agency directories serve as a sorority or frat complex where similar industries can enlist themselves and get discovered by their leads interested in their services.

Search Engine Optimization helps local brands enlist their companies on agency directories and use content that is rich in location-centric keywords and high authority backlinks. With Google’s Algorithm getting trickier day by day, web agency directories are seemingly increasing in popularity but only for local businesses. It’s because Google prefers external links from high authority websites as compared to the grueling process of scrutinizing businesses on web directories.

For local and small businesses alike, web agency directories, offer key marketing opportunities as brands can benefit by improving their on-site and off-site SEO. Almost 8 in 10 leads prefer searching for local businesses online in web agency directories, especially when they are in dire need of purchasing services promptly. 

Since web agency directories market a local brand keeping its full potential in view, an interested buyer is bound to come across positive and critical reviews, including recommendations about competitors and other similar industries, 

Consider Google My Business, one of the web’s biggest web directories that helps enlist local brands along with its details in an effort to endorse select segments of industries indirectly. 

To shed some light on why the best online marketing companies advocate listing your business to agency directories as a good idea, consider the following benefits below.

1) Offers Exposure and Increases Visibility

Having your website listed on a web agency directory, such as Google or Bing, enables you to pull in twice as much traffic as compared to an active CTR advertisement on search engines. Visitors who land on your website’s URL by getting redirected from an active CTR advertisement online are considered as direct traffic flow.

However, in the case of enlisting your company on a web agency directory, your visitors can search you by using a generic keyword. Suppose you’re a merchant specializing in the food and beverage industry. If you’re offering ‘frozen food online’, your company will pop up whenever your leads are found searching for this category in the web agency directory. 

This will enable the web agency directory’s visitors to redirect to your website, therefore, contributing to your website’s indirect traffic flow. All it needs is a listing in a popular web agency directory to promote both your direct and indirect traffic, thus, contributing to leads and promising customers. 

With leads pouring in, a web agency directory is not only increasing your online visibility but also opening your website’s doors to potential clients who are actively searching for your services on search engines.

2) Boosts your Website’s Overall SERP Ranking

To boost your website’s overall SERP ranking, it is necessary that you update your on-site content so that a web agency directory can offer off-site optimization accordingly. Look at this way, by listing your website on an agency directory, your URL not only serves as a high authority inbound link but also as a source for providing relevant information to potential clients. 

Relevant information means that whenever a lead uses a keyword that coincides with the ones you’ve used on your website, your URL will pop up in search results, and hence, will boost your website’s overall ranking as well. 

3) Cost-Effective Way of Strengthening your Local Presence Online

Despite having the opportunity of listing their business online, local business owners are still struggling in finding cost-effective ways for advertising and marketing their brand. When you’re trying to market your services online as an emerging business, there is no hidden secret that there will be several brands that have already established an online presence.

Online business directories, however, might have a huge list of businesses that offer services similar to yours. Gaining prominence through them seems a bit difficult, but if you play your cards right and use keywords that highlight your brand locally, your online business directory might catapult you right on top of the search. 

To understand what we’re saying, you have to use location-centric keywords and optimize your content for relevant searches so that a web directory can feature your business and display your services accordingly. 

Wading through competition can be hard, especially when you’re struggling financially and still trying to make your brand known locally. Enlisting your business on a web agency directory can help you gain attention and redirect traffic to the URL of your website as enlisted for relevant searches. 

Search business directories that don’t require any charges for endorsing your website. Try conducting your research on business directories and their policies by taking up your queries to a reputed online marketing agency. 

Author Bio:

Evie Harrison is a blogger by choice.  She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs. Find her on Twitter: @iamevieharrison