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#1 Free Online Business Listing Sites (the best Online Directories)

FREE Online Business Listing Sites

Because 85% of customers use the internet to find a local business listing, having yours listed on a local business directory is a must.

In this quick and easy post, I compiled together a list of the most important top business directories in USA.

1. Google My Business (GMB)

It [should] go without saying that if you want to come up on Google searches, you need to be on one of the most important online local business directories (wHiCh HaPpEnS tO bE theirs).

If you’re wondering just how important Google My Business is, I can tell you that I personally know of MANY successful businesses (mostly local) that do extremely well only with basic Google My Business SEO (creating a profile using their best keywords, uploading lots of great pics, posting regularly, and responding to reviews when they come in).

The reason Google My Business is #1 on this list is because with the right keywords, your business is guaranteed to be seen both ranking on Google maps, in local searches, and even on regular broad searches (right there by the PAID ads).

If you want a dramatic increase in local traffic, more exposure, enhanced brand credibility, and valuable insight on how customers search for you, Google My Business is a no-brainer!

2. Yelp For Business

This is a love-hate relationship for me.

I don’t like Yelp because because they spam users and even worse, they trick you into believing you need their paid services.

That said, create a FREE listing then unsubscribe from Yelp emails.

In truth, millions of customers turn to Yelp for information on restaurants, stores, and home services so not being there just doesn’t make sense.

If your business falls in any one of these categories, Yelp is definitely a platform you should be listed on – just try not to fall for any of their paid advertising scams (they’ll repackage and reword and reprice the same crappy offer so it looks affordable / tempting but trust me, it’s no bueno).

You’ve been warned!

3. Facebook

Sure, the “kids” don’t use Facebook like they used to but lots of people that buy stuff still do.

Unless you cater specifically to teens and not their parents (and even then, there’s still ANOTHER GREAT REASON your business should be listed on Facebook), this is another no-brainer.

Facebook is the social platform with over 2.7 billion ACTIVE users.

Facebook owns Instagram (and WhatsApp as well as some other lesser known platforms / technologies) and tends to cross-channel content from time to time which extends your reach to more potential customers you could be reaching.

Having an active Facebook page is an important marker Google uses to determine how well you’ll rank for keywords… or if at all!

If you haven’t already created a business page on Facebook, do it.

It’s free and it’s a highly lucrative channel for engaging new customers and growing your business.

4. Better Business Bureau (BBB)

I added this one because it’s a mostly overlooked resource that many people still use and there’s years of credibility that you can associate your brand to (especially useful if you’re newer in town or recently changed management and trying to improve a negative reputation).

Many customers turn to the Better Business Bureau to check the authenticity of a local business.

Why do I like it?

Listing yourself is free.

It can sway opinions and get customers into your store or website.

It’s especially beneficial if you cater to an older people.

Its an extra spot on the Google search listings that you can “own” when people search for reviews or your brand (that could otherwise be taken by a competitor or an old bad review).

If you’re not currently ranking on Google maps or on local searches for the products and services you sell, it’s likely because you aren’t listed on the directories above.

If you found this useful and you want to take it a little further with a Customized BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGY (in under 60-seconds), click here.

As always, I hope after reading this you leave with more value / insight / etc. and this was helpful to you in some way — please do let me know in the comments below as I read them all and try to respond to each and every one as quickly as I can.

Also, your comments (and shares) help me to gauge the helpfulness of these posts and my #1 aim is always to HELP AND PROVIDE VALUE IN ALL WAYS AND ALWAYS!

Sincerely,
—Ivan

P.S.: If you found the content of this page (or on any of my channels) helpful in any way, I’d greatly appreciate it if you took a minute to say so here: https://g.page/DIGITALIVAN/review?id

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My Daughter… and Boys

Last night over dinner I was asked how I felt about my daughter “and boys”. For my initial response, see clip below from one of my all-time favorite movies:

For those of you that don’t know, I have a 14 year old daughter.

My wife asked my brother, who has 2 daughters around the same age and after some avoidance maneuvers, the question was kicked back to us.

We’ve talked about this a lot over the years because (A) it’s inevitable we’d eventually have to deal with it and (B) we have a son that’s 3 and a half years older and (C) we wanted to make sure both kids were clear on where we stood with regards to respect, relationships, and self-worth.

Because of that, we knew how to respond… and it was a great response.

It included expectations, respect, understanding (and everything nice) but the response was kind of a “canned” one.

The truth is, we’ve been proactively trying to be the man and woman that we want our kids to surround themselves with and more importantly, who they themselves want to be.

Generous. Confident. Caring. Self-assured. Strong. Kind. Respectful. Honest. Intentional. Steadfast. Creative. Open.

I’ve had moments when I was all of the above and I’ve also failed miserably at times but in the end, I understand my daughter will gravitate to someone that treats her the way I treat her and the way I treat my wife — my son, though he’s his own person, in times of hardship and in times of abundance will also model his actions on what he’s seen in me.

So the truth is, how I feel about my daughter and boys (or even my son and girls) has more to do with how I feel about the job I’ve done as a husband, as a father, as a friend, as a mentor, as a confidant, as a family man, and as a business man.

We all [naturally] lean towards the emotionally easy stuff (which tend to be lazier, selfish, and generally not-that-good-for-us) however in a weird twist of events, having kids has taught me how to be a better businessman and how to provide real value for clients and customers… and in a weird way, I was reminded of that in a profound way last night which made me want to share this “nothing to do with marketing” post.

As always, I hope after reading this you leave with more value / insight / etc. and this was helpful to you in some way — please do let me know in the comments below as I read them all and try to respond to each and every one as quickly as I can.

Also, your comments (and shares) help me to gauge the helpfulness of these posts and my #1 aim is always to HELP AND PROVIDE VALUE IN ALL WAYS AND ALWAYS!

Sincerely,
—Ivan—

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$$$ Why Is SEO So Expensive $$$

Why SEO Is So Expensive


The cost of small business SEO services varies greatly because every small / local business has a different starting point and therefore its monthly scope-of-work to improve rankings will be different.

That said, it’s hard for generic SEO pricing to take all these nuances into account.

As a result, there’s a lot of companies paying $5,000 a month that could be paying less and others paying $500 a month that should be paying much more to get quality leads and generate real sales.

Either way, most fixed SEO pricing fees will work against you (unless you truly understand how it works) because what you really need is someone to do their homework, understand what you need, and then quote pricing that fits your needs exactly.

Now if you want to know how fixed SEO pricing works at your local internet marketing company, here goes:

1. Your digital marketing company will analyze your site and hypothesize on what’s needed to rank your site on page 1 of Google for the keywords you’ve given them (ideally they’ve done their own research and found additional keywords you didn’t know of as well)

2. The internet marketing service will determine the hard costs of the work and resources needed (i.e., hours, outside party costs, etc.)

3. The internet marketing service company figures in their markup

4. Based on your budget (or the fixed monthly SEO fee), the internet marketing service divides the total cost to SEO your site by the fixed monthly SEO fee

5. Using the formula above, we know how many months it’ll take to complete your SEO

For example, if the total cost of SEO’ing your website is $12,000 and they’re charging you $500 a month, that means it’ll take 24 months to complete your work.

If you’re in a low-competition industry or don’t have strong local competition, this type of deal would probably work well for you since even the smallest optimizations will generate results.

If you’re in a more competitive industry however or if your competition is relatively savvy, this wouldn’t work for you because your SEO is working too slow to keep pace with the competition.

Most people have a good idea of how strong their competition is but in case you don’t, it’s important you talk to an honest SEO consultant that’ll take the time to carefully analyze your needs and your competition and then tell you straight what it’s going to take to get you where you want to be.

So how much do SEO services cost?!

What you’re going to pay for your SEO depends on a number of things … here are the main ones.

  • Is your website already [relatively] optimized?
  • Is your website optimized to work perfectly on all desktop and mobile screens (i.e., is the design responsive)?
  • Does your website load lightning fast?
  • Do you have already have keyword-optimized product and service pages?
  • Do you have supporting content with highly searched (and related) keywords?
  • Does your website already have optimized title and description meta tags?
  • Do you have the rest of your copy tagged with proper alt tags, heading tags, etc.?
  • How many “questionable” sites do you have linking to you?
  • Do you have enough good / authority sites linking to you?
  • Is your internal linking structured correctly?
  • Are you now, or have you ever been penalized by Google?
  • Does your site have (or has it ever had) black hat tactics implemented either with or without your knowledge?
  • How authoritative are the sites already ranking on page 1 of Google for your keywords?
  • Has there been any significant ranking change on the 1st page of Google for your keywords?

Reviewing all these factors (and more) tells an search engine marketing professional how much work is needed to make your website SEO-ready, how much content creation is needed, and how much link building will be needed given your competitive position.

With an understanding of how much work you need, a digital marketing company can then be in a position to tell you what it’ll actually cost to SEO your website.

Some SEO pricing guidelines

Most monthly SEO pricing falls into one of the following categories depending on strategy and scope (and of course, you can always find cheaper more affordable SEO services but then again, you get what you pay for).

Here’s what quality SEO done by in-demand (that’s important) internet marketing services companies will typically charge:

Local SEO pricing typically ranges between $1,000 to $2,000 per month for single-location campaigns targeting small to medium-sized cities (pricing increases for multi-location campaigns or single-location businesses in larger or higher populated cities)

National SEO campaigns generally cost more than local campaigns and usually start around $3,000 per month

Niche products / services businesses with lower search volume and competition carry a smaller monthly SEO fee (could be as low as $500 a month for the least competitive businesses; as competition increases, so does SEO pricing)

E-commerce sites with hundreds to thousands of products almost always carry a higher cost ($4,000 a month and up) due to the number of pages requiring optimization, platform complexities, and higher levels of competition.

To see if you even need SEO, click here.