In my last post Cast a wide net with local online directories I discussed the benefits of listing your business in as many legitimate local online directories and guides as possible. It’s all about being found when it counts: when people are looking for you or looking to buy what you have, an area where local online directories like YellowPages.com really shine. Here’s the kicker, getting listed in major local online directories also improves your organic local search engine rankings by raising your page rank on search engines like Google.

These are powerful advantages that you need to employ in any local small business online marketing plan.

I wrapped up my post by mentioning that there are tools and services available in the market today to get your business listed in the multitude of online directories in one easy step. Most of the solutions in this arena are in the $200 to $300 range and I believe that this represents a very fair value given the amount of time it takes to enter/correct these listings yourself.

That got me thinking that it would be great if there was a non-profit organization that standardized these listing practices and helped both the directory companies AND the small business owner get their information listed both “accurately” and “everywhere” for FREE.

While that nirvana HAS NOT been fully realized yet there is a good effort underway that could get us there and it’s damn close to free.

Users of UniversalBusinessListing.org pay only $30 to get listed in over 25 local online directories and guides. Further, business users can keep their records fresh in those same directories for only $18 per year. The money, time savings, and practicality of this tool just blow me away.

Here’s my impartial testimonial. Before I found UniversalBusinessListing.org I planned to start my own service doing much the same thing and beat my competitors on price…by a lot. Because of UBL I’ve scrapped that plan. I now include UBL in all the work I do with clients, and starting today I’m bundling it in with my new product The Percolator, without raising my prices. The reason I’m using UBL now is the same reason you should. Saving loads of time and money. For me, I can replace hours of work in developing and maintaining automated robots to place client listings (OR doing it manually just like you would) or I can give UBL thirty bucks. There’s a tough choice.

Here are the basics of what you get with UniversalBusinessListing.org

• You input your business information once at UBL’s site and get listed in 25 or more major local online directories/city guides
• You pay a $30 fee
• You pay an annual $18 fee to renew your listing in the same online directories
• UBL provides you with confirmation of your listing in the directories with a url pointing to your listing
• UBL lets you update your information at any time
• UBL allows you to include additional ‘enhanced’ information in your listings such as pictures, directions, logo, etc.
• UBL now includes the ability to get listed on online mobile directories and phones through their new partnership with MobileGates.

For a great interview about UniversalBusinessListing.org with co-founder Chris Travers, head on over to the Local Biz Bits blog penned by fellow online small business marketing Pro, Larry Sullivan.

Julian, ed Local Na8ion

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