Choose Appropriate Local Business Listing Platform and Categories
Local business citations and listings play a huge role in Google rankings, building reputation, and generating revenue. Therefore, look at the big picture, while planning an online marketing campaign.
Just some years ago, the local businesses had traditional offline publicity alternatives like ads in the local newspaper or print marketing, postal mail marketing, local TV or radio ads, and telemarketing. These are still viable options for many sectors but internet marketing is a requirement for every local business. If a business is not visible on the internet today, it is similar to being ‘nowhere’.
Local businesses must not ignore the online business listing platforms offering publicity for free. It can help you gain more visibility and increase your ROI. However, there are some things to consider while choosing the correct online business listing platform and categories.
Decide the relevant platform to list on
For example, if your local business is in Australia, then look for directories like Bleen. Bleen.com.au is an online business directory that connects clients with local traders and retailers around Australia. Make sure that you correctly categorize your business on local business listings.
Choose correct local listing categories
Just like Yellow Pages prints businesses in relevant sections, local business categories convey to the search bots the search types relevancy to your business. Failure to properly categorize can harm your business ranking during local searches.
Concentrate on adding the most specific categories. E.g. when you choose Spa Resort, Google tacitly includes general categories like Hotel, Spa Parlor, and Resort Hotel. Skip adding a category already covered in your selection. Choose a general category, if you cannot find one relevant to your business. Google even identifies category details from your site and mentions them across the web.
Visit website Bleen to list your local business in Australia and attain a solid link as well as strengthen your search ranking on Google!
Understand the gray areas of categorization
Based on Google’s guidelines there are some controversies and dialogues floating on the internet.
- Use few categories to define your core business from the list provided.
- Choose categories as specific as possible but represents your key business.
Google allows choosing a maximum of 10 categories and their guidelines indicate that businesses must choose the smallest number of extremely specific categories. Due to these contradictory guidelines, some people chose 1 or 2 categories to rank high. This lessened their overall visibility. The terms like ‘specific’ and ‘few’ have been confusing. Actually, Google meant that businesses need to choose both a specific and a general category.
Check BusyFox, a blogging platform to learn more about local business listing and categorization. You must avoid spammy repetition while categorizing. You need to experiment with different specific categories and monitor your results.
Correct categorization is cited as a high local ranking algorithm. It has a huge impact on relevant results for searches, which matter the most for your business. Double-check the local business listing categories because you can possibly miss great opportunities.