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In this 7-minute read:\n21 free listing sites for your retail business\nManage your listings with reputation management software\nOne of the most important things you can do for your retail business is to increase its online visibility. This allows you to get reviews online, helps your business to get found by more customers, and increases cash flow.  \nA great way to help improve that visibility is to claim all of your free online directory listings, commonly referred to as citations. Research shows that when businesses claim multiple free listings, they earn 78% more money than businesses that don’t claim any. \nLet us help you get started with these free listing sites for your retail business. \n1. Google My Business is essential for retailers\nGoogle My Business is always the first place that you want to start. This is how you get into the Google maps and show up on the first online source people use when looking for a new store. \nList your retail business on Google with our guide: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\n2. \nFacebook is a must for your retail shop\nFacebook is another huge one that consumers are using more and more to contact businesses. When someone has a question about your store and they can’t find the answer on your website, they’ll often ask a question through Facebook’s messenger app before coming into the store. \nThis is also one that tends to show up on the first page of Google when someone searches for your business (if you have a business page, of course). \n3. Don’t forget Bing Places \nBing is a popular search engine as the default for Microsoft's web browser. Don’t miss out on valuable opportunities by missing this one. The best part is, if you have your Google listing claimed, you can just sign in to your Google account on \nBing Places\n and import your store’s listing. \n4. Retail on Yelp? Yes!\nMillions of people are on Yelp every day searching for new places to shop and take their business to. As the third most popular review platform, this is definitely a place you want your store to be. \nCheck out our guide: \nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\n5. \nTripAdvisor is good for retail also\nMany people use TripAdvisor when they are traveling, and whether you have a souvenir shop or simply a grocery store that someone will need during their travels, it’s a good idea to list your retail business here. \nCheck out our guide: \nHow to claim your listing on TripAdvisor\n6. \nFoursquare is helpful\nWith 55 million users every month, Foursquare is a pretty popular listing site. On their platform, your store visitors can “check-in” to your store and leave helpful tips for other visitors. Get more feedback for your retail business by listing it on this site. \n7. \nBetter Business Bureau (BBB): a no-brainer\nHaving your store listed on and rated by the Better Business Bureau sends huge trust signals to customers and potential employees. This is important for any business. So get your store listed on BBB.org today with \nthis form\n. \n8. \nYellowbook: specialized local digital marketing \nYellowbook is another “yellow pages” directory site. They are run by a digital marketing company called Hibu. Hibu specializes in local digital marketing and they know what it takes to help retail businesses like yours show up better on Google and other search engines. \nList your store on Yellowbook with its simple-to-use \nform\n. \n9. YP.com (remember the Yellow Pages?)\nThe traditional “Yellow Pages” has digitized its platform to bring us YP.com, a huge online directory service that gets more than 60 million visitors every month. They know the importance of improving your online presence. \nYou can go to \nYP.com\n to claim your free YellowPages business listing. \n10. MerchantCircle for local retailers\nMerchantCircle is all about directing users to the best local merchants—that’s you! They separate merchants by category to help their visitors easily find the service or products that they are looking for. \nGet started in claiming your MerchantCircle listing with \nthis form\n. \n11. People still use \nMapQuest\nAnother popular one for travelers, MapQuest is still a widely used directory site. Their support team is awesome and will help you get your store added to their database quickly. \nJust \nsubmit a support ticket\n to MapQuest and see your store’s listing in days. \n12. Manta for cross-platform listings\nManta is a little different from these other sites in the extra features that it offers you. When you put your business information into Manta, they will scan other business listing sites to make sure your information is consistent across multiple platforms. \nThis consistency is super important to the search engines in order to provide customers the most accurate information for your store. \nManta makes it simple to sign your store up for a free listing \nhere\n. \n13. Citysearch: essential for local retail\nCitysearch wants to provide users with the best experience in finding great businesses in their neighborhoods. Customers shouldn’t have to travel far to find what they are looking for. \nCitysearch prioritizes fun with cool features like voting for your favorite places, special deals, and award badges. \nAdd your store to Citysearch by adding it to the \nCityGrid\n database. \n14. Hotfrog: the “freshest” local business directory\nHotfrog boasts itself as the freshest local business directory in the United States, and for good reason. Its directory is constantly growing with more businesses each day to help users find the best local places to be. \nGet your store listed\n on Hotfrog for free today. \n15. Local.com\nLocal.com wants to help customers find the hottest local happenings in their cities. Make sure your store is one of them!\nLocal.com will provide driving directions, reviews, and contact information for each listing on its site to help give customers the best information available. List your store on local.com by signing up for an account \nhere\n. \n16. Verify your retail shop with ExpressUpdate\nExpressUpdate is a big one that you want to make sure your store is listed on. They are what’s known as an “aggregator,” meaning once your store’s information is verified on their site, they’ll pass it along to other partner sites. So you just got multiple free listings from one site. Pretty neat, right?\nExpressUpdate does require a little more on the verification side of things than some of these listing sites. Once you’ve added all of your store’s information, they’ll do a phone call verification to confirm that your info is accurate. Then, the listing is all yours and ready to go. \nGet started by \nsearching your business\n on ExpressUpdate. \n17. Solo profile\nWith a free Solo profile, even the smallest local retailer or pop-up can have a helpful, functional SEO-friendly online presence for free. Building and maintaining a traditional website is simply too much for many small retailers to deal with. This is one reason a Solo profile can be such an amazing benefit. \nYour customizable Solo profile can list your business’s location, relevant contact information, links to your social pages, and any business details you want included. Sign up at\n \nSolo.co\n.\n18. Brownbook: comprehensive retail listings\nBrownbook.net is a fun one because it allows you to add so much more information than several of these listing sites. You can add tons of images, videos, history, business accommodations, and so much more. \nJust make sure you get your business name spelled correctly the first time, because they don’t allow you to change it (without contacting their support team anyway). \nList your store on Brownbook.net with \nthis form\n. \n19. Instagram is huge for retail\nInstagram is super popular among younger demographics, so if the target audience for your store falls in that category, make sure you are active where they are! \nIf you are going to get into Instagram, just be sure to have lots of awesome photos and “heart-worthy” content that will get you tons of followers. \n20. YouTube? Yes tube!\nYouTube is another great social media channel to take advantage of. Create a channel for your store where you can show off new products, give fun tutorials, and share advice about the different ways your products can be used. \n21. Local chamber of commerce\nYour local chamber of commerce is all about helping its community succeed—and that includes helping small businesses like your store get found. Most chambers have an online directory in their community, as well as free resources to help businesses market themselves better, so take advantage. \nManaging all of these listings sites and then trying to get new reviews to these sites on top of that can seem like a lot of work. But online reviews and engagement is super-important, even for the smallest retail business types, so make sure you develop a plan to stay on top of it.

21 free online listing sites you should add your retail business to

In this article:\nClaim your Google My Business listing\nGet customer reviews and respond to them\nAdd your restaurant to other online directories\nSteps to improve local SEO\nUse Google Ads\nThink about the last time you needed a new service or wanted to try a new restaurant. Where did you go to find it? If you said Google, then you’re right there with about 90% of your customer base. \nConsumers often ask Google first when they are searching for a cool new place to dine out. That’s why it’s so important that you know what you can do to promote your restaurant on Google and improve your search rankings. \nWe have some great tips to help you do just that. \nClaim your restaurant’s Google My Business Listing\nThe first thing you need to do to help your restaurant show up in what we call the local search results (also known as Google’s map pack) is to create and claim your Google My Business listing. \nGoogle My Business is a free platform that allows your business to show up better on Google, get customer reviews, and help guide customers to your restaurant. Most people’s phones are connected to Google Maps to get from place to place, so in order to help them get directions to your restaurant, you need to be on Google My Business. \nHere’s a quick guide to help: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\nOnce you’ve created your restaurant’s Google My Business listing, be sure to include all of the following information on it to best support your customers:\nBusiness name\nBusiness address\nBusiness phone number\nCategory (what type of restaurant?)\nOpen hours (including any special holiday hours)\nWebsite\nRestaurant description\nPrice range\nPhotos of your restaurant, branding, and food\nGet more Google reviews and respond to them\nOnce your Google My Business listing is out there, it’s time to get some customer reviews for your restaurant. \nThe problem with online reviews is that happy customers don’t always think to leave you a review and unhappy customers are all too willing to go online and share their distaste. We have a few solutions to help with this. \n Simply let customers know you appreciate their feedback. Find the opportune moments to ask your customers to leave you a review on Google. \n Post “Rate us on Google” signage strategically throughout your restaurant. This can be in menus, in the lobby, or on the door on the way out. Just give a little reminder that you’d love your customers’ feedback on Google. \n Consider reputation management software. Solutions like this will help you streamline the process of getting your customers directly to your Google listing to leave you a review. \nOnce you have reviews coming in, it’s important to respond to them promptly. It’s also crucial to respond to all reviews–good or bad. Give those good reviews a personalized thank you message. Respond to the negative reviews with a sincere apology and ask the customer to reach out so you can resolve the issue. \nCheck out our guide on \nresponding to Google reviews\n for some deeper insights. \nAdd your restaurant to other online business directories\nGoogle My Business is not the only online directory that you should add your business to. One way to help improve your online visibility and increase your restaurant’s local rankings on Google is, ironically, to add your restaurant to other online directories. \nGoogle uses other references to your restaurant across multiple sites to help verify that your information on their platform is correct. The more reputable online directories that list your restaurant’s information accurately, the better chance you have to rank higher on Google. \nHere are a few directories and guides you can use to get started:\nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\nHow to create and claim your Facebook business page\n\nHow to add your restaurant to OpenTable\n\nGet even more listings for your restaurant with this article: \n24 free listing sites every restaurant should be on\nBoost your restaurant’s Google rankings with SEO\nBeyond adding your restaurant to other online directories, there are several things that you can do to boost your Google rankings through search engine optimization. Here are a couple suggestions to get you started. \nProvide well-written and relevant content on your website\nContent is king. In order to rank well organically on Google, your website needs to have good content that is valuable for your users and optimized well for the phrases that you want customers to find you with. \nMake sure your contact information is listed on your website\nProvide valuable information about your menu and prices with lots of photos\nStart a blog that offers free tips for people whether or not they choose to visit your restaurant\nGet other websites to link to yours\nA huge factor in ranking higher on Google is getting other websites to link to your website. When another website links to yours, it sends trust signals to Google that help them to know your website can be trusted by their users. \nTry out some of these ways to get links to your website:\nGet involved in your community. Host local events, sponsor community sports teams, get involved with non-profit organizations. This kind of involvement will likely result in mentions on the websites of these organizations. \nGet into the local news. When local news organizations do a story on your restaurant, be sure to ask them to link to your restaurant in their online article. \nGuest post on other blogs in the food industry. Within the bio for your guest article, link back to your website. \nGo deeper: \n15 free tips for better search rankings\nTry advertising your restaurant on Google\nGoogle has some powerful advertising capabilities that you should definitely take advantage of for your restaurant. \nWhile traditional SEO takes a lot of time and effort to show up at the top of the search results, Google Ads can place your listing near the top—if you pay for it. \nGoogle Ads have great targeting capabilities, so you can select the target audience for your restaurant—location, age, interests, other demographics—to show your ads to the customers who will most likely visit your restaurant. \nGoogle Ads are pay-per-click, which means that you pay a specific cost each time a user clicks on your ad. So it’s important to make sure that the cost you are paying will result in profits. \nLet’s say it costs $1.50 for each click your ad gets and you only get a new customer for every 20 clicks that your ad receives. That’s $30 to convert one customer with your ad campaign. If you have a higher-end restaurant where customers pay this much or more for a meal, it may well be worth it, especially if they turn into a repeat customer. \nJust do the math as you determine the costs and decide if the investment is worth the return. \nUltimately, you’ll get a better return on your investment with organic SEO because the efforts you take with this strategy compound over time and stick with you even if you stop doing SEO. With Google Ads, you might see immediate results, but as soon as you stop paying for those ads, your restaurant will no longer be showing up well in Google search results. \nThis is why Google Ads are a great supplemental strategy to help you show up on Google while you’re starting up your SEO efforts.\nRead more: \nGoogle Maps advertising for local business\n

5 ways to promote your restaurant on Google

In this article:\nThe big three: Google, Facebook, and Yelp\nOther important review listing sites to focus on\nWhich online review platform is THE most important?\nCustomer review tips\nOnline review sites are crucial for developing a good online reputation for your small business. Research shows that claiming your profiles on 3 or more platforms correlates with a whopping \n78% increase in revenue\n compared to businesses who claim none.\nYou should strive to create as many profiles for your business as you can across several review platforms. \nHowever, there are a few important business profiles that you should spend a little extra time on to make sure you really round out your profile and provide customers with as much information as they need to choose you over your competitors. \nBest online review platforms for your business: the big three \nGoogle My Business, Facebook, and Yelp are the three review sites have the largest impact on consumers. People trust them and spend a lot of time on each of these platforms. They are important even to sole proprietorships, microbusinesses, contractors, freelancers, and more.\nGoogle My Business\nGoogle My Business is how you get your business to show up on Google. Google dominates more than 90% of the search engine market, so it goes without saying that people are definitely searching for new businesses here. \ncell phone with google business for best online review sites\n\nGoogle reviews have a large impact on how well you show up in the Google map packs and influence a customer’s decision to pick your business over a competitor’s. \nQuick guide: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\nFacebook\nFacebook is huge for brand awareness. With more than 2 billion monthly active users, this social media giant reaches far and wide, even within your own community. \nWhile most users on Facebook aren’t shopping for new products or services, they are spending a lot of time on this channel. Take advantage of that by promoting your brand on Facebook with ads from your business page, and make sure to get good reviews from your customers on Facebook. \nThen, when people are in research mode, they’ve already seen your business in ads while scrolling through their feed. \nQuick guide: \nHow to create and claim your Facebook business page\nYelp\nYelp averages 37 million people on its mobile app alone each month, with a total of 100.5 million monthly unique web visitors. \nYelp started out intending to be used by consumers for finding the best local restaurants, but today multiple other industries get plenty of Yelp traffic as well. \nEvery small business should have a Yelp listing and encourage their customers to leave reviews there. Just be careful about how you get your reviews on Yelp because they do have strict policies about soliciting reviews. The best way is to follow Yelp’s guidelines and encourage customers by posting official “We’re on Yelp” signage throughout your business and on your website. \nQuick guide: \nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\nGo deeper: \nWhy bad yelp reviews might be a good thing\n\ncell phone with yelp for best online review platforms\n\nOther top review platforms you should add your business to\nWhile Google, Facebook, and Yelp are by far the largest online review platforms to focus on, there are several others that still pose valuable opportunities for your business. \nBing\nBing is the default search engine for Microsoft Edge, which is the default browser for Windows operating systems. What that means is that a lot of people are still using Bing when they do their online searching. \nBe sure that your business is available to those customers by claiming your business profile on Bing and keeping it updated and accurate. Keep current on your holiday hours, photos, and information like you would for your Google listing. \nQuick guide: \nHow to create and claim your Bing business listing\nOpenTable\nOpenTable is an absolute must if you run a restaurant, cafe, coffee shop, bar, lounge, sandwich shop, or anywhere else that serves food or drink. Follow our step-by-step guide to \nlist your business on OpenTable\n. \nBBB (Better Business Bureau)\nGetting your business listed with the BBB is important for your online reputation. When customers are getting serious about doing business with you, they’ll often research your company to make sure that they can trust you. \nThe BBB is one such site that consumers look to when trying to determine how well a business can be trusted, whether they have questionable business practices, or if they’re well-liked by customers. \nQuick guide: \nHow to get your business listed with the BBB\nTripAdvisor\nWhen people are traveling and looking for the best hotels, entertainment, and food options, they often look to TripAdvisor. So, if you fit into any of those categories (and more), this directory should definitely be on your list. Or more correctly, your business should definitely be on \ntheir\n list.\nQuick guide: \nHow to claim your business listing on TripAdvisor\nreview us on tripadvisor sign for online review sites\n\nManta\nManta is an important directory website to get your business listed on for two reasons:\nIt gets a lot of traffic from users who trust it\nManta provides a powerful and free tool to help you check the consistency of your citations across the web\nList your small business on Manta to take advantage of these features and improve your online presence even further. \nQuick guide: \nHow to create and claim your free business listing on Manta\nFoursquare\nFoursquare is a popular online directory where consumers share the things they love about their favorite businesses. Users provide tips about business they’ve been to and can get badges for engaging with businesses on this platform. \nFoursquare attempts to make the online review process a fun and interactive game for its users, which entices them to come back and rate other businesses—like yours!\nQuick guide: \nHow to list or claim your business profile on Foursquare\nSo which online review platform is \nthe\n most important?\nWhile you should definitely claim and optimize your business profiles on all of these sites (if relevant to your industry), starting with “the big three,” data shows that reviews on \nGoogle\n impact revenue far more than other review sites. If you had to pick only one review platform to focus on, it should be Google My Business.\nImportant customer review tips to remember\nBe sure to really round out each of the profiles that we’ve mentioned by including high-quality photos of your business and products (if applicable), updating your hours regularly, and engaging with your customers on these review platforms.\nOnce you have claimed each of your online business review profiles and start implementing your review strategy, here are a few important tips to keep in mind:\nDon’t stop reminding your customers that you appreciate online feedback/reviews. You can’t just ask a few customers one time to leave you a review online. You need some kind of system to continually grow your review count and build a steady supply of fresh reviews on your business profiles. \nRespond to every customer review. Engagement with your customer reviews is important. It shows them that you saw what they said and acknowledged it, whether the review was good or bad. This also shows potential customers that you are involved and want to provide a great experience. \nMake it easy for your customers to leave you a review. Asking a customer to leave you an online review is an awesome first step, but if you leave it at that, you won’t get many new reviews. You should find a way to guide your customers directly to your review platform so they don’t need to try to find it on their own. 
\n

Top 10 most important online review platforms for your small business

If you haven’t searched using the terms “near me” on your smartphone, you’re in the minority. According to a Google report, “near me” searches have increased by 200%. What is a “near me” search? It’s simply when a smartphone user searches retailers, restaurants, gyms, ATMs, dry cleaners, pet services, pressure washing services, and whatever else “near me.” It’s a hyper-local way to search and is exploding in popularity. This can mean big business for you, if you know a few key ways to show up in “near me” search results.\nMobile searching is completely changing the way people shop today. Uberall polled holiday shoppers in the US and UK and reported that 83% of US shoppers used “near me” searches, which aligns with previous data from earlier in the year stating that 82% of shoppers use “near me” searches. One of the most critical points about these “close to me” search results is that more than 90% of survey participants said they were likely to click on the first set of results. You might be asking yourself, “How can I make sure my business shows up in searches ‘near me’”? \nIt’s not rocket science to improve your online presence and maximize local search results, but there are a few key steps you must undertake.\n1. Claim your business listings and keep them updated\nThe first step to taking control of your online business reputation is to claim your listings on all the popular online review sites like Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Facebook. Even if you have never intentionally created a business profile on these sites, chances are your customers are already leaving you reviews, and these platforms automatically create a profile for your business (whether you know it or not). Yet, according to a national study, only 33% of of all Yelp listings and 44% of Google listings have been claimed. Ridiculous! Don’t be “that guy.” \nIt’s also very important that you regularly review and update your information listed on these sites. That same national study showed that only 23% of businesses update their listings, meaning they’re less likely to show up in local searches and are probably ignoring customer feedback posted online. So you can get a jump on the competition by simply claiming your listings and keeping your business info current. After all, if potential customers are searching for businesses like yours “near them,” and are comparing hours of operation or ratings, it stands to reason that you want that information to be correct and your reviews to be positive and recent. That leads us to step two. \n2. Read and respond to all reviews\nDealing with online reviews can seem like a daunting task at first, but it’s the nature of doing business these days. And it’s actually not too hard if you keep it positive and look at every review (good and bad) as a chance to show all of your potential customers that you take feedback seriously and you value their opinion. \nResearch suggests that \nsimply responding \nto reviews has a positive effect on revenue. Just responding, independent of whether you resolve any concerns, shows current and future customers that you care and are willing to take the time to engage with them. This may seem like a small thing, especially when “business is good,” but when you engage with customers on review sites, you can learn how to improve your product, services, or even attitude. \nLook at it this way: large companies pay huge amounts of money to collect customer feedback, and online review sites provide it absolutely free. Occasionally you’ll get an unfair review from a “negative Nellie,” but others will provide useful feedback on how you can improve. Don’t underestimate the power of reading and responding to online reviews.\n3. Get more reviews to boost results in “near me” searches\nThe best thing you can do to improve your rankings in local searches “near me” is to increase your “star rating”–and the way to do that is to get more reviews. While it’s up to your customers whether they will post reviews or not, you can improve your chances simply by asking them to provide feedback. Remember, asking for a “5-star” or even a “positive” review is a huge no-no. Just ask your customers if they’d be willing to share their feedback and you’ll be surprised how many have good things to say about your business. Seven in 10 customers will leave a review if you simply ask. So, just ask! \nAnd don’t even think about trying to influence customers with special deals, freebies, or promotions if they leave a good review–or try to buy positive reviews from companies promising they can improve your star rating. Review sites have strict policies about this, not to mention the FTC, who will smack you down with the fist of doom if you violate this policy. \nSources:\n
\nhttps://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/330040/\n
\nhttps://searchengineland.com/survey-82-percent-of-smartphone-shoppers-conduct-near-me-searches-304512\n

How the explosion in “near me” searches can drive more customers to your business

In this article:\nHow-to guide for claiming your Nextdoor business page\nNextdoor is a social networking service for neighborhoods where users can exchange information about local goods and services and share other useful tips for their area. Businesses can join in their neighborhood network by getting listed on the website for their location. \nLocal business listings on website directories like Nextdoor help businesses improve their online reputation and create more opportunities to gain new leads. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of adding your business to Nextdoor.\nHow to add your business to Nextdoor\nTo get started, you can go to business.nextdoor.com. \nStep 1: Create an account and search for your business\nThe first step to adding your business to any online directory is to see if your business already has one. Sometimes businesses get automatically added to directories when they’ve been around for awhile, and you never know if a previous marketer or owner of the business set up a listing before you did. \nThis first step helps to ensure that you don’t create a duplicate listing (which can cause confusion for users and the search engines). \nTo search for your business on Nextdoor, you’ll need to go to business.nextdoor.com and click either “Sign Up Free” or “Claim Your Free Business Page.” Each of these options will take you through the same process if you don’t already have a business account on Next door. \n(Image)\n\nSelect the business type that describes your business best. Most will probably fall under professional business, but if you’re an independent contractor you might select neighbor for hire. \n(Image)\n\nClick “Sign Up” on the next page and then follow the prompts to create your account. Add your first and last name, email, and password. \n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nOnce your account is created, you’ll be brought to the page where you can search for your business. Enter your business name and address into the form and click “Search.”\n(Image)\n\nNextdoor might then list out several businesses that could be yours. If you do see your business listed, click it and proceed to Step 3 to claim your listing. If you don’t see your business, click “Create a new business page with this name” at the bottom of that window.\n(Image)\n\nStep 2: Create your business page on Nextdoor\nOn the next page, you’ll need to confirm your business address and click “Continue.”\n(Image)\n\nThen, add your business’s contact information, including email, phone number, and website. \n(Image)\n\nLastly, select the category for your business and then click “Create a new business page.” You can add more than one category here too. \n(Image)\n\nAfter you click create, Nextdoor will prompt you with the option to Start for Free or See Pricing for their premium plans. For your basic listing, just click “Start for Free.” You can always opt for their premium plans later if you feel this platform will help your business get leads. \n(Image)\n\nStep 3: Claim your business listing on Nextdoor\nNow that your business listing is created, you can claim it to make sure you have ownership of it and can lock out other people from making edits to your business page. \nIf your business was already listed when you searched for it, click on your business and follow the prompting to claim it. You’ll need to have Nextdoor text or call your business phone. They wil then provide you with a code that you have to enter on the next page that appears. Enter your code and click submit, and your business will be claimed. \n(Image)\n\nIf you just created a new listing, your business is automatically claimed. Congratulations!\nStep 4: Fill out your listing page\nOnce you’ve claimed or created your business, you’ll be taken to your Nextdoor dashboard for the listing. \n(Image)\n\nFrom here, go to “Your Page” in the left menu and start filling out your business page. \nAdd a logo and cover photo, your business information, additional categories, your story, and more photos if you have them. The more information you can include, the more helpful the listing will be in guiding potential customers your way and in helping with your local search engine rankings. \n(Image)\n\n
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\n(Image)\n\nLooking for other free listings that you can create for your business? Check out our guide: \n25 free business listing websites for small or local businesses\n   \nAfter you’ve created a business listing in an online directory it’s easy to leave it be and forget that it exists, especially if it’s one that you don’t need to actively manage for leads. However, it's important that you regularly monitor your online listings and make sure to keep them current, especially if it's a platform that allows reviews from customers.

How to claim your listing on Nextdoor (step-by-step walkthrough!)

In this article:\nWhy list your business on Foursquare\nHow to create and claim your business listing on Foursquare\nWhat to do next\nFoursquare is used by more than 50 million people each month. Consumers join Foursquare to find the best local businesses and share what they love about their favorites. \nStill not sure how Foursquare can help your business? Read on to learn how you can help improve your online visibility by listing your business on Foursquare.  \nWhy should you list your business on Foursquare?\nFirst, we just want to express how important it is that you list your business across multiple online directory sites. These directory listings, also known as citations, help search engines verify your business information from a bunch of trustworthy sources. \nThe more directories you have your business listed on (with the correct information), the better opportunity your business has to rank well in the local search engine results. \nGo deeper: \n15 free tips for better local search rankings\nFoursquare is a popular directory site that you should list your business on, not only for potentially better search engine results, but for the other benefits that it can offer your business. \nBenefits of Foursquare for your business:\nFoursquare users love sharing information about their favorite businesses, from tips for other customers to reviews that promote what they love\nYou can send offers and promotions through Foursquare\nYou have the ability to track customers’ behavior and give them rewards for engaging with your listing on Foursquare\nFoursquare turns its platform into a game by rewarding users with badges or naming them the “mayor” of a hot spot for engaging with different businesses\nFoursquare syncs with other social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook\nHow to create or claim your business account on Foursquare\nGet started on creating and claiming your business profile on Foursquare with this step-by-step guide.\n1. Create a Foursquare user account\nThe very first thing you’ll need to do is create a user account on Foursquare. Go to the \nFoursquare City Guide login page\n and click “Sign Up.”\nCreate a new user with at least your email, first name, birthday, password, and gender, and click “Sign up.” Or sign up with Facebook or Google.\n(Image)\n\nOnce you’ve completed the signup process, proceed to the next steps. \n2. Check to see if you already have a Foursquare listing\nDirectory sites like Foursquare often collect data from other sources and could already have your business information listed on their website. Before you create a Foursquare listing for your business, it’s important to check if your business is already listed so you don’t end up with two potentially conflicting listings on the same platform. \nGo to \nbusiness.foursquare.com\n to search for your business on Foursquare. Type in your business name (or previous names if you’ve ever gone through a name change) and the city where your business is located.\n(Image)\n\nWhen you click “Search,” Foursquare will show you whether or not your business is listed. If they did find your business, you’ll see a screen like the one below. You can then click “Claim My Business” to get access to your listing. If the business displayed isn’t yours, then select “Not your business? Click here.”\nIf the business listed is not yours, then do another search with a variation of your business name, and if it’s still not there, that means you can start fresh and create a new listing. \n(Image)\n\nIf the business displayed is your business, after you click “Claim My Business” Foursquare will take you through a three-step verification process.\n3. Claim your business on Foursquare\nFirst, you need to check that you are the owner or working on behalf of the owner to claim the listing. Check this box, then click “Get Started.”\n(Image)\n\nNext, you’ll need to validate ownership by entering your business phone number. Foursquare will use this number to verify that you are a real person who is connected with the business. \n(Image)\n\nThe last step of the verification process is to pay $20 to get immediate access to your business profile. \nPlease note:\n Foursquare allows you to list your business for free (see #4 below), and if you’ve been in business a while it’s likely you already have a listing created by customers or by Foursquare importing data from other platforms. However, if you want full control of your listing you need to “claim” your business, which Foursquare currently charges $20 for. This is optional, but once you’ve done this, you will have full access to edit your listing, add photos, update your info, add links to your social media pages, and use Foursquare’s marketing and customer management tools for your business. \n(Image)\n\n4. Create a new listing\nIf your business is \nnot\n on Foursquare, then go to \nbusiness.foursquare.com\n to get started on creating your listing. Log in to your account and click “Get started now.”\n(Image)\n\nFoursquare will take you to another page to search for your business once more. They just want to make sure you don’t create two listings. Enter your business name and city and hit “Search.”\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nWhen your business doesn’t show up, you’ll be given the option to add your business. Click “here” to get started and you’ll be taken to a page like the image below. \nEnter all of the required information. Even though it doesn’t require you to add your address or phone number, these are important items of information to add if you have a physical storefront where customers can reach you. And you will need to select a pin on the map for your location. \n(Image)\n\nClick “Save” and, if you wish, go back to step 3 of this section to complete the “Claim your business” instructions. These are the same whether you are claiming an existing listing or creating a new listing.  \nWhat next?\nNow that you’ve created and/or claimed your business listing on Foursquare, what’s next? As we mentioned previously, it’s important to list your business across as many online directories as possible. \nCheck out this list of \n25 free listings sites for small businesses\n. This will help you improve your online visibility and rank better in local search engine results. \nMake sure to keep track of your listings and reviews on all appropriate sites, and work to earn fresh reviews.

39 articles found in “Seo”

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How to claim your listing on Nextdoor (step-by-step walkthrough!)

How to list or claim your business profile on Foursquare

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