Business Directory Marketing: Why You Should Add Your Vape Shop To An Online Business Directory

The easiest way to increase your customer base is by adding your vape shop to an online business directory. Online business directories are significant because they have a large pool of active users looking for local vape shops. Adding your shop to an online directory can also boost your online presence and possibly land you on Google's first page whenever someone searches online for a vape shop near them.

In this guide, we explain what online business directories are, why you should have your vape shop listed in a directory, and how to boost your listing so it ends up on the first page of Google.

Table of Contents

1. What are Online Business Directories?
2. Why does it matter to list your vape shop on an online directory?
3. Which online directories should I list my vape shop on?
4. Things to Include in your Listings
5. How to Boost the Ranking of your Listing
6. Conclusion

What are Online Business Directories?

Online business directories are a collection of businesses from a specific area. Most of the time, to join these business directories, you have to reach out to them and go through an online process to verify the business is real and you’re the owner. Thankfully, most of the listings are free and a great way to promote and get your vape shop known within the community.

Why Does it Matter to List your Vape Shop on an Online Directory?

Listing your vape shop in an online directory is essential because it attracts customers, helps out with SEO, and makes your vape store discoverable by mobile.

Attracts customers

The main reason to list your vape shop on an online directory is to attract more customers and increase your revenue. Online directories have become essential now more than ever since 97% of search engine users search online to find local services and businesses.

Suppose you have an e-commerce site and a brick and mortar store. In that case, you can list both on an online directory and get the added benefit of increasing your website traffic, which is super important since visitors to your website can become potential online customers.

SEO

By pairing your business contact information with online business directories with high domain authority, you're more likely to appear on online engine search results. If your vape shop is listed with Google My Business, you're more likely to appear on Google's first page as a local business.

Discoverable by Mobile

Another great advantage of online directories is that most are mobile-friendly. 76% of people who search on smartphones visit a business within a day. More and more people expect that reputable companies appear online when using their smartphones. 

Which online directories should I list my vape shop with?

There are tons of business directories online, but not all of them help you with SEO or generate potential clients. Below you can find some of the best directories that will generate website traffic and real customers:

• Google My Business: Possibly the most important directory to sign up with. Google My Business will help you appear on the first page of Google, the world's largest search engine. It also helps with SEO and allows you to include your social media information as well. It contains reviews and even has a section called "Insights" that shows you how your customers find you. If you only sign up for one directory, it should be this one.
• Yelp: Known better as a review site, Yelp has active members who are continually reviewing their favorite businesses. To date, it generates 28 million monthly mobile app unique users, making it a great place to list your vape shop.
• Bing Places: Bing is the search engine created by Microsoft and currently the second most used search engine online. While not everyone uses Bing, there are still some people out there that do, and it's essential to reach them as well using this business directory.
• Yahoo: The third-largest search engine, Yahoo, is another great online business directory. Signing up with Yahoo local will also add your business to 60+ directories, including maps, search engines, and voice-activated search; however, it costs $8.25 per month.
• Foursquare: While Foursquare plays second fiddle to Yelp, the review website still holds value and receives more than 55 million monthly active users, equating to a large pool of possible customers.
• Yellow Pages: The Yellow Pages you've always known, but now digital. It is a great online directory that is not only free but still relevant. According to the Yellow Pages, "2.3 billion searches were made on yp.com and the YP Local Ad Network in 2015."

Things to include in your listings

Depending on the online directories you choose to go with, you’ll have to include some information to complete all of your listings. It’s important to remember that the more information you use, the higher you’ll rank on search engines. Here are some ideas on what to include:

1. Photos: Making sure to take a photo of both the outside and inside your vape shop will help your customer recognize it when they visit. It also gives your listing more credibility.
2. Videos: You can take it one step further, create a video of your store, and upload it to all your listings. It could be a brief video inviting them to the store and showing them your selection of e-juices.
3. Social Media: In the information age, the most important thing is reaching your clients where they spend their time, and these days, they spend it on social media. Add your social media pages to your listing so they can follow you and visit your store.
4. Link to Website: Adding a link to your website is super essential, especially if you have an e-commerce site. The local visitors could drive lots of traffic to your website and become potential online shoppers.
5. Company Description: Including a company description is essential for a listing. You need to describe your vape shop and the services you offer so people reading the description know what to expect.
6. Business Hours: Include something simple in all your listings.

How to Boost the Ranking of your Listing

You can further boost your listing ranking by doing the following:

• Using keywords, you rank for in the company description.
• Encouraging customers to leave reviews.
• Making sure the information for your vape shop is the same on all the online directories.
• Fixing duplicate listings.

Using Keywords

A great way to boost the Google ranking of your business listing is by using keywords in the company description. Using keywords, you rank for will generally help visitors discover you more often. For example, using “NYC vape shop” in the description of your listing, if your vape shop is in New York City, can boost your listing.

Reviews

Reviews are a form of small-sized content. Encouraging your customers to leave a review in your business listing will help your business have more scannable information assisting the listing in ranking higher. It can also be the deciding factor that makes customers visit you if you have glowing reviews.

Accurate Information

Having the same information throughout every single one of your listings is very important. You don’t want to have a past phone number or an old address since potential customers could try to reach out and not find or contact you. It also gives you more SEO authority if more links have the same information.

Duplicate Listings

You might find while browsing online that there are two listings for your vape shop in a directory. Some directories automatically add your business before you get a chance to. If this happens, make sure to correct it so only one shows up once. Then, Google knows which listing to rank higher.

Conclusion

All in all, online business directories are a great aid in helping you find more customers, gain more online visibility, and become known within your community as the vape shop to go to.

We recommend that if you don't sign up for all the business directories, you sign up for Google My Business since many times, this is all you need to appear on Google's first page.