There is some controversy surrounding signing up to a business directory. In most cases business owners themselves barely ever sign up to a business directory as they simply aren’t aware its something that needs to be done and don’t understand what is to gain from doing so.

This article tries to enlighten you on why you should sign your business up to a business directory and what benefits come with this decision. Initially the process of signing up to multiple directories seems time consuming and of no tangible benefit to your business, however – reconsider and broaden your horizons to the perks of a business directory.

The first major benefit of placing your business website on a business directory is the backlinks you will receive.
A backlink/inbound link (IBL) is important to consider as various search engines such as Google will determine websites with more backlinks as more relevant in its search results pages.

If you aren’t sold on the backlinks at the very least let us blow your mind with the fact that most business directories are free to sign up or charge very small fees to feature your company information. I’d say that is a good return on investment (ROI) and value for money. Think of it as an unorthodox online marketing campaign. There are of course other factors involved in getting increased exposure online and in most cases a knowledgeable web developer with a background on search engine optimization is highly sought after and recommended as they will know all the ins and outs of marketing your website on the web.

Another factor a business directory brings to the table besides its relevance to search engines is the rich snippets of content available over and above your website content. These rich snippets are a way of expanding on the indexed content already included in search engines. In short Google and the likes will feed off a business directory and further index those rich snippets to improve your web traffic and exposure online.

Ultimately your website resembles a big billboard that effectively markets your company in its entirety. Why then would you choose to put little or no effort into getting it onto a business directory where you can gain further exposure? We can choose to be skeptical to a business directory but the statistics don’t lie and maybe being “in the know” is safer and more beneficial to your business than palming the idea off ignorantly.