An online directory will make you easy to find online. As a real estate agent, this is imperative for a successful career. There’s no point in making your services difficult to discover. Prospective clients already become fatigued rummaging through catalogues of real estate agents in their area.The market can feel oversaturated with hungry agents, and a directory will help you stand out among the crowd. Previous clients can rate and review your services, and, assuming you do a great job, it will work in your favor. Positive reviews champion your name and show prospective clients why you’ll be the best fit.
One more thing: you can start using online directories right now. The moment you finish reading this article, you can get yourself listed on a directory. In fact, that’s the goal. It’s to encourage you to start your online directory journey, so you no longer sweat over finding your next client. But more on that in a moment.
What are Online Directories?
If you never heard the term “online directory” before, it can sound convoluted and overwhelming. But, they can be a simple and intuitive part of your online marketing. In fact, you use an online directory just about every day of your life.
Directories are mediums that list businesses and names in a specific order. The most common directory is the phone book. These were (before the meteor that is the internet rendered them extinct) used to find the names and phone numbers in your town or city. One would consult the phone book if they needed a phone number for a business or person. Today, they’re mostly used to prop up your uneven table leg or as paper weight for your doormat. These artifacts are outdated and have been replaced by their efficient predecessor: the online directory.
Similar to how phone books work, online directories are used to discover businesses, companies, and independent contractors. For real estate agents, this changes the way they market their business. Here are common online directories:
- Yelp
- Google My Business
- Yellow Pages
- And way too many others to mention in a short bulleted list.
For simplification sake, we will focus on the first three: Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook (when we say Facebook, we mean creating a business page to list your business information and accrue reviews.) People use online directories to find restaurants, entertainment, services, stores, and more. They judge businesses based on the poetic reviews of previous clients in the form of 1 to 5 colorful stars.
Directories are popular for a reason. They save us time and energy when we research the best business match for our needs. For business owners, they provide endless returns on making your brand accessible to more prospective clients. In the next section, things get technical – so bare with us for a moment.
How Do Online Directories Help
Online directories help people find your services in two ways. In one way, they include you on a list and allow previous clients to review your services. When prospective clients visit the directory, they will see your glimmering reviews and – hopefully – give you their business.
They also help improve your SEO. Every directory allows you to backlink to your own website. Backlink is a digital marketing term that describes the process of linking from another website to your own website. A directory backlink makes your website accessible to those who discover you through the directory. Therefore, visitors access your website by clicking the link. No more typing the URL in the nav bar at the top of the screen. Aren’t computers great?
The perks don’t end there. Adding your business to a directory will boost your domain authority. Here’s another digital marketing term. The domain authority refers to your rank score in search engine results. For example, when people search for “Real estate agents in [insert your city or town name here]” real estate agents with the highest domain authority will be at the top of the list. The more backlinks to your website, the more domain authority your website will posses.
Now that you know what an online directory is and how they help you, the next topic to tackle is how you can get listed.
Get Started with Online Directories
Websites like Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook are prime directories that most businesses and individuals use. Searching for a business will produce results on these directories, if they exist. This way, if the quality of your service blow, people will know.
Getting started with online directories is as simple as creating a business account with the directory you’re choosing. Once done, fill out the required information and backlink to your website. Like we said earlier, this helps with your domain authority. Another thing: don’t forget to include a nice photo of yourself or your business. This helps clients recognize you.
Don’t be coy about promoting your listings either. When you tell clients you have a Google My Business or a Yelp profile, they’ll likely review you. The more reviews you earn the more credible your business becomes in the eyes of prospective clients.
Become Easy to Find
Online directories are a free, simple way for clients to find your services online. They’re also an effective way to present testimonials through glowing online reviews. So, if you’ve been pondering how you can start getting more leads, then consider listing yourself on an online directory. As a real estate agent, becoming easier to find online is never a bad thing.
