Free Business Listing Guide to Grow Local Business

In this day and age of technologies, business listing is the key to driving traffic to your brand. Without any add-on investment, free business listing site could be instrumental in boosting your business. Now speaking of business listing, "Google My Business" is the King of all!

Creating a successful business listing profile on Google or business listing portal requires accurate business information. Browsing Google, you come across multiple companies with incomplete data or random information. Do you trust them?

Probably Not!

A successful business profile requires a curriculum of data that proves the authenticity and validity of the company. It’s important to pay attention on NAP whenever listing businesses or services at business listing sites. Here are a set of data fields that you need to fill every time you list your business:

1. Name
2. Address
3. Phone Number
4. Working Hours
5. Website Link
6. Business Categories
7. Short Description
8. Your Tagline
9. Logo/ Brand Image
10. Social Profile
11. Associated Brands
12. Certifications
13. Mode of Payment

Whether you create a citation manually or fill a pre-defined form, make sure to include the following details for a successful listing. Each of the above-mentioned data set is essential for the growth of your local business. Even if you go for an automated data management approach, fill in the exact details that match across all the platforms. 

Tip: Do check each field twice before proceeding to the next to make the most of your Google My Business Profile.

Guidelines to Create A Successful Business Listing for A Business

1. Acquaint the People with Your Real Name

The famous adage – “What’s in a name?” – does not really work in the world of business! Your brand name is everything in this world! So, make sure to use the real-world name of your company: the name that is encrypted on the signboard of your company, on hoardings, the name in the trade license.

Do not add any extra word or keyword or location to the name. Google is smart enough to read the street signage, so make no modifications to your name. If you have a multi-location business (i.e., multiple chains or franchises), list your locations separately, but keep the original name the same. Do not add the area/ street name to the "name" category for Facebook.

Where Google and other free listing site consider a company name as an entity, Facebook's name category goes a bit different here. Facebook treats each name individually. You cannot have multiple listings with the same name. You got to add the city name/ place name to your company name to make a new listing.

No 2 listings in the same name are accepted by Facebook. If you run a multi-practitioner business like an insurance company or something, follow Google's rule and register only the business name. Do not go with adding the practitioner's name at the end. For example, the name of your insurance company is Amy Life and your name is Kiran; list your business in the name of "Amy Life" only.

Follow the same principle for a business in container locations. If you have a store in a shopping mall, simply list that store in the company name, not the mall's name. This way just list your business in the real name for all your business, whether it is a multi-location business or a single store or a multi-practitioner business or a co-located business or a multi-partner business or anything. 

2. Let the People Reach You at Your Correct Address

Give your real-world address. Remember there is no escape lying to Google; Google knows everything. Real-world address means an address with a street name, location, Pin Code. PO Box numbers aren't considered to be an actual address. Therefore, you shouldn't consider creating local business listings on a virtual address.

Add the street name of your area in the first line of the address bar and other relevant details in the following bars for a better enhancement. Do mention the city name and the area Pin Code without fail of your registered business location.

If you are a door-to-door service provider, like an electrician, a plumber, or a carpenter with no fixed office location, mention your company as a SAB (service area business) in Google listing. Once you register yourself as a SAB, the business listing platforms will automatically hide the street line for your business.

As a service provider, you got to register your business only once, giving the address of your registered office or your home. 

3. Share the Contact at Which You are Reachable

Contact number is a vital detail in a free business directory. The moment a person finds something online, their first step is to contact them. If your number isn't reachable, you lose the customer at this stage itself.

Google listing gives a preference for a local phone number of the country. Along with it, you can also register a toll-free number if your business is widely expanded, like Airbnb. If you do so, make sure the same toll-free number makes its way to your business website, all social channels, and all the business listing sites.

Preferring a local number over toll-free numbers, Google also gives you the option to add an alternate number which can be an alternate mobile number or a landline number or a toll-free number or as you want.

4. Let the People Know When are You Working

Online listing attracts customers from different corners of India and worldwide. So, make sure to enter your working hours along with the time zone.

For example, Working hours: Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm IST – This will help the people know when to connect with you and your time in their time zone. Google automatically converts the time if the region is mentioned. You can also mention your days and the timings as per it.

5. Share Your Website Link for a Quick Go Through

Enter your website's homepage URL at this section to increase the traffic generated to your site with an online listing. Google stipulates driving traffic to a site's homepage instead of other-directed pages or a third-party link.

It is always a wise choice to link your company's homepage with the main office listing and direct the link to other landing pages for your multi-location franchise or stores. You can have a separate landing page for each of your locations. This way, you will have diverted traffic to the entire website.

6. Categorize Your Business for A Clear Approach

No other business listing platform has a detailed category approach like Google. With Google, you not only have the option to select the main category your business belongs to but also the detailed subcategories for a better approach. Go as accurate as possible while categorizing your business to pop up immediately when a person looks for the respective.

7. Describe Your Business in Simple Terms

It's good that you exist and have made it to the online world, but what do people know about you? This is the section where you can take a persuasive approach by highlighting the best parts of your business.
Most of the online listing sites will show this description section as you say. Do not go too fancy in your approach. Follow a simple communicative approach for more reach.

8. Your Tagline Is Your Key Player

Your tagline is unique to you! If you have that one catchy slogan that connects people with your brand name, do mention it. If your business doesn't have a tagline, then it isn't essential to create one. The free business listing sites in India give you the freedom to create your listing the way you want.

9. It's Time to Show the Face of Your Brand: The Logo

As a brand, you must have a logo of a profile picture or a brand image, as you may call it. As witnessed, pictures or media have a much better click-through rate than texts, so adding the logo in the image section is always viable.

Google gives preference to brands that upload their images in their listing. There are many other options where a company can upload their photos as and when they want for a faster return.

10. Say Hi to All Your Social Profiles

Many online business listing sites give you the liberty to link your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, or any social channel. Linking your social media to your business listing profile is a win-win situation for your company. This drives in traffic and engagement to your website along with other platforms at a go.

11. Welcome All Your Associated Brands

If your business is a by-product of a famous brand, entering the brand name attracts loyalty to your business. People who follow that brand will automatically check out your brand in turn.

12. Certify Your Brand's Authenticity

If trust is a significant factor in your business, certify your authenticity by displaying your license or certificate. Showing a certificate is vital for service providers as their authenticity lies in the certificate.

13. Approve Your Payment Gateway

If you are a part of free listing India, you must know the value of the secured payment. How much do Indians fear online payment and the risks associated with it. This section allows you to specifically mention the payment gateways your business accepts to let the people know how to transact with you.

Along with these, you also have other options though not the compulsory ones. You are free to choose the business details you want to show the world.

The Final Takeaway

The quality and authenticity of the details given by you make your presence in the online world. The top free business listing sites in India like Justdial, Business Haarway, Sulekha, and YellowPages give you the complete freedom to present your business in the digital world. You are free to choose which detail you want to add and which to ignore. Witnessing the value and returns online listing brings to your business, it is worth the time.