Many B2B companies ignore the mass of local online publicity available to them because, well, they’re not local businesses. If only a tiny proportion of our customers are in our town, what’s the point?
The point as ever is SEO. Sure, the amount of ‘link equity’ we’re going to get from a local business directory isn’t great, but it’s something. For companies who don’t dominate the searches for their own name, every listing can be a real asset.
I was inspired to write this when I came across the website of a science park which listed all the companies based there, but many of them had clearly provided little to no information. What a wasted opportunity.
Most local directory opportunities like this will be free, unlike national ones, which will probably have been created as a commercial opportunity. I’d be somewhat wary of the value of these, as I’ve discussed here on numerous occasions. However, there are good, free opportunities nationally too. The big beast of course is Google My Business, which I hope every reader is using to its utmost. But there are many more listings and directory sites available, sometimes from suppliers or customers. For example, from the start of this business, we set up a directory of companies we’d worked with, just as a courtesy to them. It’s worth investigating.