One possible step in marketing your business online is putting it into the big local directories.  I’ve been on the hunt for good ones but keep coming back to the big guys.

Link builders, start your engines.

If you are just getting started, remember to track your ROI by first installing this analytics bad boy.

Big guys

• Give getlisted.org a shot
• If you do nothing else, get in to Google Local Business Center. It ties into Google search and maps.
• I keep seeing DMOZ Open Directory Project being recommended, but I have no personal testimonial for it.. yet.
  
• Yahoo Directory – not free; is it worth it? It is Yahoo, at least.

Physically local directories, chambers of commerce

• One near me would be the Orange County Chamber.  Where’s your Chamber of Commerce?

Customer review sites

• Yelp
• Trip Advisor for the travel-related service

Listen

• Set up Google Alerts so you can immediately see where your business is popping up

Beware

As with all things web, there are countless no-name sites that are probably just harvesting your data for a nasty spam blast.  Be skeptical; I would stick with the big guys.

Just getting started

Getting into web directories should only be one part of your online marketing strategy and ROI’s will vary.  There is no silver bullet with link building.  Keep looking for ways to be visible online.

From here I might progress to popping up in:

• Yahoo Answers
• Squidoo
• Facebook’s Pages
• and, uh, maybe Twitter.  One note about Twitter: it seems whatever keywords are in your  Twitter username will rank favorably in Google for those keywords.  Twice I’ve seen Twitter users be the first results in my searches, regardless of follower count.

I should mention one little thing: your website should be awesome, useful and worth linking to! Good luck with that.

Please leave comments with your own suggestions!