There are many factors to any DIY link building campaign and one of the most commonly used techniques is adding your links to free business directories or portals. There are a huge amount of business directories out there that will add your business completely free of charge to their website. All you have to do is fill out your information, add your website link and a catchy business description and voila! You’re done!
DIY Link Building: Does Free Really Mean Free?
Keep in mind however, only the sunshine comes free these days, and you will most likely be contacted by a sales rep of that directory to see if you want to spend a couple of euros per month to become a featured business. It will not make your website rank any faster if you do this, but it might help you get more clients, so check out the popularity of the directory site on Alexa, to see if they are ranking well. If they are in fact a very popular directory site, then heck why not? You might want to give it a try for a couple of months.
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With so many directories to choose from, we have listed the most popular directory sites that are the easiest to add your business to:
Top 10 Business Directory Listing Sites for DIY Link Building:
This online tool with give your business excellent exposure even though you might have to put in a bit of effort to get the set-up right. Here’s a tutorial on how to add your business to Google without any trouble:
Verifying your business might be a problem, or perhaps you don’t receive mail where you are? There are Google Verified Companies that can instantly verify your account so contact them and get it done quicker and more efficient!
Just like Google, Bing has their own map and you can add your business to this map. The process is very similar to Google Business so to verify your business, you must first enter the code received per mail.
Of course, where Bing and Google go, Yahoo will follow, so add your business to your Yahoo Local Listing too! Yahoo makes it a little more complicated (is that even possible?) than Bing and Google, but once you are in, you are set for life!
Yelp is a little like Tripadvisor, but better! You can add any business to yelp, and add your images, ask for reviews and much more. The set up is easy and straightforward so add this one to your list at once!
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Okay… not really meant for us Europeans… but you can get away with creating a profile and then adding your correct details in the description of your business… one has to be creative. If you are reading this from the USA though… rock on!! You have full access!
Okay, this link is for our Spanish Compadres, but you can check the yellow pages for your country:
Paginas Amarillas, Gouden Gids, Yellow pages, same thing, different pronunciation 🙂
Scoot is a UK based business directory, so if you are a business not in the UK… forget about signing up. They verify your account by calling the number you provided, so that’s where you can’t really cheat the system. A great site if you are in the UK though!
US again… the US is HUGE in link building, and free directories are overflowing the internet, so here’s another one for our US friends. You can get by , by being clever, add your European business, but it is quite difficult, and we’re not sure it’s worth the effort.
Foursquare is awesome…even for us Europeans! Well at least we think so. No trouble adding a business, no complicated verification issues, but keep in mind, once you are listed, you will be there to stay! We have yet to find a way to delete a business, so give us a shout out in the comments if you found the way to do it, so we can all sleep at night knowing we control our online content!
Last one in the sector of US web directories. No chance for any European to fool the US systems here, so Gringo, this one’s all yours!
DIY link building with Social Media
Another great free tool to use in DIY link building are the social media portals. Create a nice profile and add your description and website linking to them.
Of course, to make these accounts work even better, you should use them once in a while by interacting with your followers and fans. This can look like a tedious task, but if you allow yourself 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening you are already doing better than probably 90% of your competition! And what’s better, you can do it with a glass of wine in one hand, in your onesie on the sofa with Eastenders playing in the background – Now who said DIY Link Building had to be hard work!
So here you have it, our gift to you:
The top 10 most popular Social Media Platforms for Business:
Facebook is an awesome tool to get your business to be seen online. You will find that once you have opened your business page in Facebook, almost immediately you will find it on the first page of Google when searching for your business name.
Make sure you open a business page, and not a personal profile for your business, and choose the right URL extension. It should always be your full business name if it is available so the Google Bots can find it.
Of course, content is king, so stuff that profile with all the info you can get, and don’t forget to entertain your followers at least once a day!
Even though many online marketing specialists detest the Google Plus Platform, you need it, desperately! Google owns it right? So if anything, it will help your rankings. Google Products are king, so get over yourself, and add your business to Google Plus for Business.
The up-side is (as explained above) you will get your fancy map marker and people will find your business easier; but remember you do need to post once in a while to keep your account “alive”. Reviews are a great feature on this portal, which show directly in the search result, but they are open for abuse and Google is very un-forthcoming about rectifying things if you receive an attack, so know what you are getting into!
LinkedIn is great for you to show off your personal profile, but did you know that you can also open a LinkedIn page for your business? You will have to be active on LinkedIn for a while and collect over a certain amount of “followers” but once you are there, you can start building your professional LinkedIn page for your business and we highly recommend you to do this.
Good old twitter! As with Facebook, when you create a profile on Twitter and use it properly, your business will show on the first page of Google quite fast when searching for your business name. So definitely one to have!
Instagram is owned by Facebook, so you can imagine the force behind this portal is immense. You should have a business account and occasionally get involved with your followers, uploading pictures of your new stock, your office, your clients and more.
YouTube is owned by Google, so you guessed it! Make a promo video of your business, a short introduction on what you do, add it to YouTube and start using your account! You tube videos show in the search pages now without even looking for just videos, so make your channel interesting and you will soon see the return on effort (ROE is what we call this!)
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Another portal owned by Big Brother! Pinterest is super popular, especially with the female population, and they usually have the upper hand in decisions made in the family (hehe) get your business on Pinterest and collect those leads for free!
A profile on Yelp will give your clients the opportunity to add reviews and comments about your business and that’s content, and guess what… Content is King! So off you go to Yelp and start filling out your details!
Foresquare like Yelp gives your business a great platform to show it’s ware and shares. All of these portals show in Google and some even on the first page so don’t waste any more time and add your business to Foursquare.
This platform is a little different than all of the above. It is a great way to share content, links and business information. You will have to create a personal profile first, make sure your website link is added to your account! Then search the “answer” section for unanswered questions in your expertise area, and start answering!! If you are super knowledgeable about shoes, then type in the word shoes, and be amazed by the amount of questions waiting for you to be answered! Add a cheeky little link to your website in your reply, or talk about your business (At shoes.com we always look after our feet etc etc). Every time you reply, Google starts to love you a little more and you will find your website getting the link juice it so desperately wants!
DIY Link Building or Outsource Link Building?
There are thousands of portals like these out there, so choose your favourites and start adding your business name and website to these pages.
Of course, you could always let an SEO specialist look after these tasks for you so you can ACTUALLY enjoy Eastenders (big fan here!) while someone else is witty online on your behalf.
SMO (Social Media Optimisation) specialists can look after your social media accounts and business directories for you, and if they do a good job will very likely create viral content faster, keep your fans endlessly entertained by creating catchy memes and interesting information about your niche.
Are you ready to take it a step further? Then look at this article on other factors that make up your DIY link building campaign:
