Have You Claimed Your Local Business Listing on These 21 Sites?
Several years ago I started compiling a list of the best of the best review, social, and local sites on the web. If a website was out there that offered any sort of review, sharing, or local listing ability I surely tried to get our client’s listing on the site. Not only are these sites great for building local authority, they’re also a factor in how search engines determine your local listing placement. David Mihm’s page on local search ranking factors is pretty epic, if you want to learn more check it out.
Fast forward to today, and my list has grown to an unimaginable size. When I start to think about manually submitting to each of these sites my eyes start to cross. Thankfully business can use services like UBL or GetListed.org to ease the process of claiming and optimizing all these listings, but they don’t submit to every single site. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of 21 ‘little known’ sites that you should check out, just in case your service of choice hasn’t submitted to them yet. Some on the list you’ve probably heard of, and others you probably haven’t. I’ll also introduce a few niche sites that you might not be listed on.
1.) Kudzu.com
This site was launched in 2006 and in February of 2009 integrated Facebook Connect onsite. The site boasts 4 million consumer reviews, over 27,000 local deals, and a domain authority of 78. Quantcast measures the traffic at an estimated 678,000 site visitors per month. Kudzu is a fairly well known site so it might already be on your radar, but if not it’s certainly worth a look.
2.) LikeList.com
Recently coming out of beta, LikeList.com is a “social-local referral service” with more than 510,000 business “like’s” in the system. LikeList has more than 2 million friend relationships on their current user base. NeatStat.com estimates their monthly traffic at about 20,000 visitors. Just recently the site launched Sharelists – “A collaborative list for groups of people with interests or tastes in common to share what they like and help each other”.
- List Your Business for Free Here
3.) OpenList.com
Touting itself as “your local guide”, OpenList.com was founded in 2003 in Seattle. Initially the site just focused on restaurants, hotels and attraction listings. Today it is open to all businesses. A domain authority of 44 and site traffic estimates from NeatState.com at 2.5 million a month, the site has seen incredible growth since 2003. To get on this site you’ll likely need to submit to Localeze and eventually will get added to the site. Or inquire on their site here.
4.) MatchPoint.com
Helping users find the right business, MatchPoint.com has been around since 2007. In Vertical Measures’ post “10 Good Citations You Can Get Right Now” we featured MatchPoint in 2009, and the sites value still holds true. Quantcast estimates monthly traffic at 12,000 visitors, which in comparison to other sites is quite small. MatchPoint, however, offers free business listings and additional advertising options like most of the sites on this list so they are worth a look.
5.) Jayde.com
Jayde isn’t so much a local search site per se, it’s more so a B2B and business search engine that’s been around for many years. You’ve probably heard about it; the site has been around since 1996. Quantcast estimates traffic at 13,600 visitors a month, and domain authority on the site is 76.
6.) YellowBot.com
YellowBot lets you “do. tag. write. share.” since 2006. With an average of 744,000 visitors a month, the site stays active and is fairly authoritative with a domain authority score of 61. They also offer international versions of YellowBot for Canadians and users in Bermuda. Tip: Add a variety of tags to your listings for better optimization.
MacRae’s Blue Book is America’s original industrial directory since 1893. Today with more than 1 million active users monthly, the site can help users find the industrial and manufacturing products and services they’re looking for. They have a wide array of categories your listing can fit into, and they offer free listings.
8.) Zidster.com
Helping online users find coupons and local businesses is what Zidster is all about. With an estimated half a million visitors a month (according to NeatStat.com), the site has grown in popularity since launching in 2007-2008.
9.) iBegin.com
iBegin provides businesses in the US and Canada with listings for free, and helps users find your businesses through their incredibly easy to use local search site. The site has been around since 2006, and since then has grown to an estimated 1.5 million visitor per month site (according to NeatStat.com).
10.) MerchantCircle.com
This popular site once talked about by many local search experts is still alive and kicking, allowing businesses to claim listings, respond to reviews, and create deals for their prospective customers. The site averages a whopping 5.8 million visitors a month. If you still haven’t found the time to claim your listing – do it today! Tip: Use the coupon functionality on MerchantCircle to get more traction with your weekly/monthly deals.
11.) MatchLocal.com
Get found online with Match Local. A fairly new site online, their parent company Matchbin has been around for quite awhile revolutionizing the traditional media industry. NeatStat.com estimates MatchLocal’s traffic at a few thousand visitors a month. While the site still has some growing to do, it’s yet another place to get a listing for your business.
Niche Local Search Sites
Do your due diligence when finding sites to add your business listing to. It might seem daunting, especially after you’ve added your listing to the hundreds of sites already out there. Tip: Set aside an hour or two hours a month to look for new sites to list your business on. Search for niche local search sites that are specific to your area.
Below I’ve listed a few that I’ve found that have a decent amount of traffic on a monthly basis and are fairly authoritative. Tip: Use advanced search commands like “local keyword directory” “city/state” “claim listing” or “local keyword” “city/state” “submit business listing” to find sites specific to your location. Or –try these search commands in Rand Fishkin’s post.
12.) WickedLocal.com
- Specific to New England area
- Estimated 3 Million visitors per month
- Find and edit your listing today!
13.) Gazlo.com
- Specific to Walworth County Wisconsin
- Estimated 11,000 visitors per month
- Add your business for free today!
14.) ShopCity.com
- Over 8,000 local marketplaces including ShopPaloAlto.com, ShopBuffalo.com, & ShopCorona.com.
- Over 35,00 estimated visitors per month
- Add your business for free today!
15.) WebLocal.ca
- Canadian specific
- Estimated 1.7 million visitors per month
- Signup today!
16.) Qype.co.uk
- UK specific
- 5 million UK visitors per month
- Add your business for free today!
17.) WeLoveLocal.com
- UK specific
- Signup today!
Industry Specific Local Search Sites
Additionally, business owners should look to place listings on sites that are specific to their industry. Whether you’re a local restaurant, doctor, hospital or even an accountant, there are industry specific sites your business should have a listing on. Tip: Use advanced search commands like “industry keyword directory” “city/state” “claim listing” or “industry keyword” “city/state” “submit business listing” to find sites specific to your industry.
18.) HealthGrades.com
- Physician and hospital local search site with reviews
- Estimated 8.3 million visitors per month
- Add your business for free today!
19.) UrbanSpoon.com
- Restaurant local search and review site
- Estimated 4 million visitors per month
- Add your restaurant for free today!
20.) RestaurantRow.com
- Restaurant local search, review, and reservation site
- Estimated 20,000 visitors per month
- Add your restaurant for free today!
21.) Ratingz.net
- Network of rating sites allowing users to review accountants, camps, child care, mechanics, therapists, and more.
- Explore the list of sites in the Ratingz Network today!
Update
I’ve received quite a few great additional suggestions via the comments, Facebook, and Twitter too. Thanks for your suggestions! Below are a few more sites to add to the list of little known local search sites:
22.) Manta
- A local search site dedicated to small businesses.
- Estimated 23 million visitors per month
- The site has over 30 million business listings!
- Add your listing for free today!
Have some great local sites that you’d like to share, or some tips I missed? Add your feedback to the comments below.
Similar Posts:
- 5 More Local Link Building Tips
- 5 Geospecific Link Building Tips
- Using Facebook Interest Lists to Market Your Brand
- Why LinkedIn is a More Powerful Social Network for Lead Generation!
- Local Paid Inclusion – Get Up to Date
"Ask Gerald" Gerald answers SEO questions on a monthly basis through his newsletter.
About The Author
Kaila Strong
Kaila Strong works for link building services company Vertical Measures, based in Phoenix. She’s an avid tweeter (@cliquekaila), link builder, and marketer.21 Comments
Leave a comment
Top Commentators
biobank (8)
Lukas Pleva (8)
Obaidul (5)
Ray (5)
AmandaD (4)
Bill (4)
Marbella (4)
Debbie (3)
Dennies (3)
Thomas (3)Friends
Recent Posts
- Will the New Google Knowledge Graph Have an Effect on SEO?
- Who Will Do a Better Job of Capturing the Right Tone and Feel of Your Blog Business?
- Do Your Images Attract Google’s Attention?
- How to Use WordPress to Communicate in Every Language
- Why I Chose the Plain Jane WordPress Comment System Over Others
Twitter: ignitewebsites
October 7, 2011 at 9:41 am
Kaila thanks for the great list. I was not aware of a lot of these. I am going to claim ours now.
IgniteWebsites recently posted..Slide1
You’re welcome! I’m glad I could help. I figured a nice updated list of all the ‘underdogs’ in local search would be helpful.
There are some new ones on here that I haven’t been using. Thank you, Kaila!
Sarah Schager recently posted..Web Analytics to Measure Your Content Marketing Progress
Found some new ones on this list. If you find some more niche sites especially for automotive please do a follow up post.
Joey Abna recently posted..Tweet Follow Like +1 Stumble Oh My
Hi, excellent list, thank you. Does UBL really work. We notice many of the listings and directories we send our information to require more than name, address, phone, website link. Google Places business description is 200 characters, Manta, CitySearch and others you can submit paragraphs of information. Some allow you more categories, pictures, etc. How would UBL gather that information?
Thank you!
Susan, services like UBL take some of the hassle out of submitting your listing but there is still a bit of manual work required. Manually logging into the sites it opens for you, optimizing the pages, adding additional information, etc… is what you need to do if you use a service. No “one” service is going to do the job 100%, at least none that I’ve found.
Hi!
I was recently thinking about websites on which to list my business on and I thank you for providing this list to me. Being listed on websites, gives more exposure to any business and may also contribute to some revenue generation. Being industry specific is what I learnt from your post.
Rodrigo Valenzuela recently posted..Las historias de amor mas bonitas
Excellent list. Really usefull
Hi Kaila,
Thanks for this very interesting list, I will immediately notify my company at all if possible, even if we are in Spain, but we are real estate broker and looking for customers from all over the world.
Great List!
Twitter: Tubeblogr
October 10, 2011 at 10:54 pm
Great list. I’m glad I found out about this. I’m saving up for a new Mac so I can start freelance video editing again =D
Nicko recently posted..Why Seek The Advice of Clairvoyants
Excellent list. Hadn’t even heard of most of them. I’ll certainly be joining some of them. Thanks
Twitter: BlogStashDotCom
October 20, 2011 at 4:38 am
Wow Kaila, thank you very much for this list.
I didn’t know abut any of them but Kudzu. I have my work cut out for a while now. Thank you Kaila.
Satrap recently posted..Make Money with Google Places- Step by Step Guide
You are very very welcome, glad it was helpful!
Yikes, I suppose 4 out of 21 ATv listings isn’t a passing grade. Thanks for the reminder!
You’re welcome Nick!
Twitter: ChaparralMoto
November 28, 2011 at 9:43 pm
By far this is one of the best local site lists around. Just when I thought that I knew them all you provided me with a few new ones (I almost forgot about Kudzu).
[...] all those profiles. New local search sites seem to pop up every day, so when they do be sure to claim your profile and ask for a few [...]
I have been looking to submit my site to review places, and your article has given me some great places to start. I am excited to check these sites out. I am a manager at a heating and air conditioning and have been trying to get the website more traffic. Thank you so much for the great site ideas.
Great free service
Jean-Claude Suffrena recently posted..Hello world!
There are some great place about which I was not aware earlier. Even I can’t share my score.
Australian business directory recently posted..PBR RACING BRAKE FLUID 500 ML