Online business directories are more popular than ever these days. There are literary hundreds of such directories all over the internet, some generic, some more specialized. Their abundance though doesn’t always mean good news for the average business person. Besides, many of these online directories are merely copies of one another, offering little or no advantage to their listed companies. It becomes clear then that for an online directory to be worth your time and money, it has to be able to offer more than just a taxonomy of companies.
Naturally, there are a few business directories on the web that break away from this pattern. What they do is provide the visitor with some useful information that is somewhat related to business and investments. This encourages the visitor not only to stay longer on their pages, but is also a way to be more appealing to the search engines, as it can improve the on-site SEO of the whole directory. This translates into more visitors to the directory and better chances of someone visiting your company’s listing in it. However, having quality content on a directory site takes a lot of work, which is probably why it is something rare. Yet, with the abundance of relevant information on the internet, it is something easier than ever before, and it is a matter of time before more directory owners pick up on this.
Another aspect of the directories that stand out from the crowd is having an attractive graphical user interface. Simple as this may sound, very few online directories out there seem to do anything about it. The vast majority of them use a text-based approach with minimal graphics or anything else that could make the whole experience something more than going through a yellow pages book. It’s not like there needs to be anything fancy in the directory’s web pages, but a few carefully selected images can really make a difference. And with more and more sites adopting this approach, it is a matter of time before online business directories follow suit.
Based on the above, it is not far fetched to say that the future of online business directories lies in directories that offer a better experience to the visitor. This can be done by having better quality content, that is relevant to the businesses promoted in the directory, and improved graphics. What’s more, some online business directories have already started employing this approach, gaining a niche in this area of online business promotion.