Tips To Improve Your Local Directory Site
Differentiate your content
There’s no way around this. The days of slapping a brand on a set of Localeze or InfoUSA listings and letting Google do its thing are long gone.If you can’t add value to your content via reviews, editorial or some other way to make this stuff unique, you are not going to fare well with SEO. I would also argue that you are not going to fare well with attracting consumers to use your site in general.
Think about the user
I know you pay lip service to your consumer product guy about this, but one of the things the Panda update did was give the voice of the consumer more of a voice inside organizations that rely on Google traffic.On many local sites, there often is a trade-off between monetization and usability. The next time the consumer guy argues for a little less clutter, you may want to listen because it may be directly impacting revenue.
Get social
Tweet, Facebook, Link in, whatever turns you on. If you are not thinking about a sustainable way for your organization to have an ongoing positive presence in social media channels, you may be missing out on more than just @CharlieSheen’s Tweets
Own the SMB website
A number of the major local search players have rolled out SMB website offerings in the past few years. Have you?
Market your company
In many ways, this is the entire solution to the problem and most companies don’t spend enough time/effort doing it. In order to be a brand, you need to act like a brand. So go forth and market. If you do it well, people might pay attention and so may the search engines.
Source: Search Engine Land
