Advantages of Submitting Websites to Online Directories

February 14, 2023 /

Advantages of Submitting Websites to Online Directories

If your business is going to benefit from having a website, the one thing you need is to get more visitors. Only that way will more potential customers find your products and services and buy from you. In this post, we’ll explain how submitting your website to online directories can help grow traffic in more ways than one. We’ll also explain some of the pitfalls to avoid when submitting your site.

Benefits of submitting websites to online directories

  1. Get noticed by more people

    While your website might not be so well known on the internet, some online directories are incredibly popular and get millions of daily searches. The most important business directories you should sign up for are Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business. With these, when someone searches for a type of business directly on Google or Bing, you have the potential to be listed at the top of the page, sometimes with a map showing where you are located. If someone searches for your business by name, then your business info will be shown with lots of relevant details. As a result, you can massively boost your search engine traffic.

    In addition, you can also submit your sites to other major directories, like Yell, or to local directories and those that are specifically linked to your line of business.

  2. Get more backlinks

    Backlinks from reputable websites can help boost SEO and help your site perform better in search engine results, boosting the number of visitors you get. Most online directories let you include a link to your homepage. As a result, the more directories you submit to, the more backlinks you will get.

Pitfalls to avoid when submitting to online directories

  1. Inappropriate backlinks

    While backlinks from reputable and related websites are generally good for SEO, backlinks from low-quality or unrelated sites can cause problems. If search engines think you are submitting to lots of different directories purely to get backlinks and boost ranking, you could end up with a penalty and find your site disappearing from search engine results completely.

    To avoid this, only submit to directories that are genuinely beneficial to your company. By all means, sign up with Google and Bing and other major directories, but with others, make sure they are relevant. If you’re a local business, sign up to local directories, if you make wedding dresses, submit to a wedding directory. Search engines will accept these as genuine. But if you’re a hairdresser in Croydon and have signed up to a pest control directory in Sydney, Australia, that’s going to ring alarm bells.

  2. Have a regular NAP

    NAP is the abbreviation for name, address and phone number. When you sign up for any online directory or publish this information anywhere on the internet, including your own website, it is important to ensure the details are exactly the same everywhere.

    The reason for this is that, as lots of businesses have the same name, search engines have to be very precise in knowing which one is which when looking for them on the internet and listing them in search results. Ensuring your NAP is identical everywhere prevents search engines from being confused about whether a web page is referring to you or another company with the same name. Even little differences like using St or Street, Yorks or Yorkshire or putting a gap in the middle of a postcode can have an impact. Keep it the same!

  3. Avoid duplication

    Duplicate content on online directories can cause major issues for websites. When search engines find websites with the same content, they have to make a decision about which one is the best to put in search results and which to ignore.

    The problem starts when online directories allow you to put lots of detailed content about your business on their pages. While this is great for a directory’s SEO, what most companies do is cut and paste information from their own website. This leaves search engines with the dilemma of ranking your website or the equally detailed directory. If the directory has more authority than yours, it’s quite possible that instead of sending visitors directly to your site, they’ll be sent to the directory instead. This could affect your ranking in other searches too.

    To avoid this, make sure any content you submit about your business to an online directory is less detailed than what is on your website and is worded differently.

Conclusion

Submitting your website to online directories can generate new visitors from the directory and boost SEO to grow search engine traffic as well. However, to do this successfully, you need to be judicious in which directories you submit to, ensure your NAP remains consistent and that you avoid duplicate content.

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Author

  • Arjun Shinde

    I'm an experienced digital marketer with expertise in planning, SEO, SEM, and social media. I'm good at creating engaging content and optimising campaigns for a strong online presence.

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1 Comment

  1. I would suggest to do it manually rather than quick way through any software to gain links.

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