You spent some time and money building a website, but the phone is still not ringing any more than before the website. In the old days (15-20 years ago) things were pretty simple: Just make sure you have a listing in the phone book.

Now, amazingly, phone books are still delivered to our doorsteps. But the books are most likely never opened; and that's making the huge assumption that they even make it inside your home and do not go straight for the recycling bin.

Those few print directories have been replaced by various on-line directories. The good news for you is that there are many different ones and most of them offer at least some level of basic listing for free. And they all capture a different audience.

The big question for you is: How many listings do you have?

There's pretty much no excuse since as we just mentioned, the price is right for any small business.

Prepare Yourself

Below we'll provide you with a pretty healthy list of directories to get you started. But first, you'll want to do a little prep work and have some information ready and at-hand. Each listing can take 15-30 minutes to complete. This depends on the depth of information you provide, not to mention how fast you can type!

Some of the directories have very basic listings, some get quite detailed. This is one area where the old "less is more" minimalist approach does not work. In this case, more is more. If you have information to provide for a question, by all means, enter that information! Those details in all likelihood become additional keywords for the search engines.

This is a project that should take the average small business a couple of weeks to complete, assuming you complete 1-2 listings per day, a few days per week. We would not recommend trying to bang all of them out at once simply based on fatigue error rates. You want the listings to be accurate. Treat each one as if it were an application for a job. And with every "job application," there are a myriad of standard questions to answre.

A high-level list of the basic information you'll want to have ready (where applicable):

Name of business
Physical Address
Telephone Number(s)
Fax Number
E-Mail addresses for sales, service, etc.
Website
Blog
Contact page on website (URL - e.g. mycompany.com/contactus.html)
Hours of Operation, by day
Directions (some will allow additional information beyond what gets generated by the automatic mapping programs)
Parking information (e.g. street parking, municipal lot, etc.)
Methods of Payment (e.g. cash, check, credit cards (be specific), net terms, etc.)
Type of Business (e.g. Italian Restaurant, Law Firm, Dry Cleaners, etc.)
Specialties within industry (e.g. catering, real estate, silk garments, etc.)
Technical contact information for listing (e.g. who is responsible for the information being provided) - Usually name, e-mail address and telephone number.
EIN / Tax ID number as well as any other relevant license numbers
Brief description / elevator pitch of your business. Somewhere in the listing there will usually be a free-form text field where you will typically be allotted 100-500 characters to sum up your business in just a few words.
Pictures - This is vital if you have a retail business. Make sure you at least have a picture of your front entrance. Additionally, applicable product pictures. This is vital for the restaurant business and many others.
Company Logo

Tip: Type all this up in your favorite note taking software or word processor so you always have it ready. This way new listings become largely a copy and paste exercise versus a remedial typing lesson.

Prepare To Be Verified

Many local listings (Google and Bing to name just two) have a physical verification process to ensure people who are less than scrupulous do not create fake / spam listings. They do this by mailing you a postcard a week or two after you submit your listing. The postcard will have a simple code to enter. When you receive the postcard you will log back into the respective account and enter the randomly assigned code.

I have to claim my own business? (Yes, you do.)

In many instances, and this is actually an idea case, the most basic listing (meaning name, address and telephone number) for your business will already be in the directory in question. By "claiming" your business you are stating that you are the rightful legal owner of that business.

The reason that this is a good thing is it means that without any effort on your part, people were already finding your business.

By claiming the listing you'll be able to add all the additional details and manage those attributes as the situation warrants.

The aforementioned verification process may be a part of the claiming process. Meaning said directory will likely mail you a postcard and / or call your main number.

Start with the big search engines.

All of them have "local" sections.

Google Places - http://www.google.com/places

Yahoo! Local - http://local.yahoo.com

Bing Local - http://www.bing.com/local

As of right now, the big three, which is really a big one with two other somewhat well used brands comprise over 90% of the search engine market. Google has just over 80% of the market, with the Yahoo and Bing at approximately 6% and 4%, respectively. Everyone else has less than 1% market share.

Now the rest...

SuperMedia - http://www.supermedia.com

SuperMedia is the reincarnation of one of the "Baby Bells" (Verizon) yellow pages business. It should be one of your first stops, especially if you have local Verizon telephone service.

YellowPages - http://www.yellowpages.com

YellowPages is from AT&T, but not for much longer. They recently announced the spinoff of their advertising division. Regardless, a very worthwhile listing.

infoUSA - http://www.infousa.com

This listing cuts both ways. They are marketing company. Their primary business is selling mailing lists for lead generation. So go in with the understanding that you may wind up on a few more cold calling lists, but as a small business owner you're probably already used to that reality of life. You get in many directories and people can find you and that's the point, getting your name in more places. It's another means of feeding the directory ecosystem. Many companies will buy / license their lists for their initial data loads. Meaning when some smart cookie thinks they've got the next great local advertising website in their head, they'll probably hit infoUSA first to build their initial list.

Note: All of the following sites have local sites within them. Meaning the webpage listed is for the mothership, the parent organization, the HQ, etc. In many cases you'll need to go to the local site for your geographic area then find the registration link.

Yelp - http://www.yelp.com

Yelp is very important, especially if you have a restaurant. Their "secret sauce" is their review process. They work very hard to quantify trust. Meaning they have developed a means of eliminating garbage reviews. Garbage on both ends of the spectrum, from the ridiculously shameful plug that is coming from a relative of the owner or a marketing company or on the other end the ranting lunatic who doesn't like anything. Additionally, their mobile apps for iOS and Android are must haves and are pretty much "the" directory of the smartphone for now. While they become most famous for their restaurant reviews, they have category breakdowns for just about every business type. As smartphones become more and more ubiquitous, their value goes up and up.

Patch - http://www.patch.com

Patch is a division of AOL. They are primarily a hyper-local news organization. Their unique offering is that they are focused on small towns; over 800 of them all over the United States of America. They are now in 22 states, plus the District of Columbia.

To give an idea of how local they are, in Westchester County in New York State, just north of New York City there are over a dozen "Patch" sites covering close to 20 different municipalities. (Some sites cover two towns bordering each other.) Patch has a free directory service, complete with reviews. If your town is listed, you need to be listed in that directory.

Related Tip #1: Complete a personal profile for yourself. In the profile reference your business. When appropriate make a few non-controversial comments on stories that capture your attention. You would be suprised how many people will click on your name, read your profile and find your business.

Related Tip #2: Since they are so relatively new, the quantity of review are relatively light. If you can convince a few of your biggest fans to say some nice about your business, chances are you'll move to the top of the list, being that Patch's default sort order is by rating, not by name.

CitySearch - http://www.citysearch.com

This is the company whose lunch was eaten by Yelp. They pretty much started this space, but got lethargic and forgot about making the customer first. They paid a heavy price for it. Over the years they've essentially now followed in Yelp's footsteps, somewhat clawing their way back to respectability. Still, they have enough traffic and a mobile app to make a listing worth your time, assuming your business falls into one of the categories they cover. Their primary focus is entertainment / expendable income, so this means restaurants, salons, spas, theaters, etc. They are in larger cities.

Timeout - http://www.timeout.com

Timeout only covers the largest of the large cities. They are a magazine and travel guide publisher. As their name implies, they are focused on leisure. While their basic listings are free, they do not guarantee inclusion. If you have a sizeable noteworthy business in one their covered metropolises, then this would be worth your time as well.

Wrapping Up...

This should be plenty to get any small business started on their quest for more name recognition. We'll post an addendum to this list from time to time.

Coming in a future posting - social media listings.

What's in a Directory Listing? (Your Future Business)