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Are You Guilty of This Directory Listing Mistake?

In today’s world of connectivity, a person looking for a service or a product will search for that particular interest on internet first. Often many potential customers like to go to a directory or many business directories because they can have a look at many businesses in one place.

In a directory it is easy to go to a category and look for location of businesses and the details provided.

Potential customers in search for a product or service will always shop around. This is not a big secret really. When they reach a directory, they are doing just that, they are shopping around and looking at the product or service provider, meaning looking at your listing.

Many internet savvy searchers will then go to the website of the service or product provider to learn more about you and see if they want to do business with you. This is where of course you must know that your website should be very helpful to people searching for your services or products. But that is another subject all together.

However, the most important thing to note; is that most people searching will actually check out your website if it is listed in the directory.

This means that most people who list their business in a business directory by default should have a website listed. Anyone searching on the net, is most likely to be at least savvy enough to follow a website URL and check the service or product provider.

For this reason businesses that list their websites in serious directories and do not list their website but only their contact details and email, make a big mistake. They literarily give away business to the competition.

By the time the potential customer is browsing, he or she is likely to leave the directory and maybe not even turn back to see your listing. For this reason, one of the most common mistakes businesses make when they list their businesses in serious directories is to leave out their website, for whatever reason. Often directories charge some price for listing a website, while leave the regular listing for free. This is for a good reason, because they know very well that the value of the website url listing is one of the most important on a business directory. That is how you get potential customers to your website. Without this you are losing out on most of the potential of that listing.

Surprisingly enough you will see many businesses that basically save money not to place a full listing on a real business directory. They take what is free and move on. This could be a mistake that can cost a business all the potential customers that click to visit your competitions website.

Though this is perfectly fine, it is often called “penny wise and pound foolish”, because if potential customers reach your listing and you have no link to your website the potential customer basically is left at a disadvantage not being able to further investigate your offerings in detail on your website.

Very rarely, it does happen when customers may not look particularly for a website or may not consider that as a major issue if they are looking for a service that is location related.

If the directory listing includes only your business in your area and that is exactly what the potential customer is looking for, then of course the rest of the listings are not a competition to your listing. That said, it is rare when potential customer is looking only for a business with a specific location and it is even rarer when only one business is listed on one location, which again creates a massive disadvantage to the business that has no website link on the listing.

In summary, it is very important, when you list your business in a directory to ensure that you give all the details of your business and the most important thing is your WEBSITE.

Now you also know exactly why almost all serious directories that cater for serious businesses will charge for the placement of a link; because it is one of the most valuable pieces of information on that listing.

Potential customers searching on a business directory, are doing just that “searching” and “researching”, often they are not likely to immediately call your business without knowing more about your business and where would that find that on the internet? On your website of course.

So are you guilty of this directory listing mistake? If yes, you know how to fix this quickly. Most serious business directories do not charge that much to add your website link, but the benefit outweighs the options of having your competition get your potential customer instead of you.

Sean Wheller is the founder of www.1Directory.co.za, a Business Directory an online Business Directory in South Africa providing quality listings for local businesses.