If you are one of our Website Management Plan customers, there is no need for you to do anything in regards to True Local as we would have carried out the following SEO activities for your website already as part of our ongoing SEO work.
If you are currently not one of our valued clients, please read on as today’s SEO activity might give your Coffs Coast local business a much-needed push up the search engines rankings ladder. In this article, we talk about making sure that your True Local listing is set up correctly and is indeed assisting with your Search Engine Optimisation efforts.
What is True Local?
True Local is one of the biggest Australian online business directories connecting consumers to local businesses. The company was acquired by Sensis, the directory subsidiary of Telstra, in 2013 which is also known for publishing the printed Yellow Pages and White Pages telephone directories as well as providing the Yellow Pages Online, White Pages Online and WhereIs.com which deals with online maps and street directories.
What are the benefits of a True Local listing?
First, a basic True Local listing is free, and the detail to which you can complete your business profile is excellent. You can include your location, phone number, email and, to the delight of any SEO minded person, a link to your website.
Secondly, Google regards True Local as a reliable authority regarding business information and therefore allows the business directory to directly feed information such as contact details and reviews into the search engine. This unique relationship is what makes True Local interesting to us Search Engine Optimisers. Submitting listings for the businesses we are promoting has direct benefits to be found in the online directory but also creates a positive flow-on effect with search engine rankings.
Does True Local already have a listing for your Coffs Harbour local business?
You can easily check whether True Local already has a listing for your Coffs Coast local business. Just go to truelocal.com.au and type your business name and location (e.g. Coffs Harbour) into the search boxes and hit the search button. If your business does not appear in the search results, you can go ahead and create a free True Local listing by clicking the ‘Add Business’ button and filling out the forms on the following pages. Please ensure that your address, phone number, email address and website address are identical to how they appear on your website. This also applies to any other directory that you submit a listing to as search engines love to match data to gain information about how particular valid bits of information are.
I do have a listing on True Local, but the listing information is not 100% accurate.
If this is the case one of these scenarios might apply:
You have already created a listing.
This is the best-case scenario. Try to login to your True Local account, or possibly recover your password and then log in. If successful, you can update your listing yourself.
Your True Local listing was generated indirectly.
This might be the case if you previously interacted with a partnering Sensis service such as the Yellow Pages. Get in touch with a True Local representative via email or phone to correct your listing and to set up a user account for you. You might also have to get in touch with the partnering service provider such as the Yellow Pages to correct your information as incorrect details are not good for the online presence of your business and might be misleading for potential customers.
Someone else is managing your True Local listing.
It might be a co-worker, former employee, an SEO company, a stranger or even possibly yourself using another email address or alias for the account. In any case, please get in touch with a True Local staff member and try to arrange for access to the account managing your business listing. You might have to provide evidence that you are the legitimate owner or representative of your business and it might also take a few attempts to get this issue sorted, but it will be well worth it.
Conclusion
Once your True Local listing is sorted and up and running with your correct business details, you can rest assured that you successfully completed today’s SEO activity which is a small insight into the day-to-day work of an SEO company like us. A professional Search Engine Optimiser not only works with this one directory but altogether maintains over 400 of them. Also, directory submission by itself is just a small facet of the SEO toolkit.
If you find yourself spending a lot of time on these tasks which you most likely could spend more wisely on other business responsibilities, you might be better-off to hire an SEO professional who works more efficiently and at less cost. Our Website Management Plans provide low-cost fixed-price options which make budgeting easy. Feel free to talk to us about details anytime.
