Free Business Profiles Published In Real Time On Brownbook
Another favorite local business directory to which I submit client websites is Brownbook.
At the end of August Brownbook announced two major changes. After reading Chris Anderson’s book, “Free,” they announced that the directory would be completly free. They even went on to explain that theye didn’t mean free for a limited time or free with limited features, but rather that free actually means free period. Until that point there had been a nominal optional charge of ten dollars to claim your listing. You still need to claim your listing, but now it’s totally free.
Even after you do claim your listing, however, any registered user can go in and edit it. I, myself, still don’t see what possible good can come from the user modification capability after a listing has been claimed, with the possible exception of additional helpful user added tags.
The second new feature added is endorsements. A Brownbook merchant endorsement is different from a user review.
An endorsement is a link that appears on the Brownbook profile page of each business. Because an endorsement is an actual link from another Brownbook listed business, it not only implies credibility and trust in both directions, but also has a positive effect on major search engine rankings.
Real Time Seach Results
Again on a positive note, with regard to search engine rankings, when you create a business profile on Brownbook, it self-publishes immediately. In fact, the answer to the question, when can you expect to see your listing, is right now. With the current hoopla over real time search results, you can also expect to see your Brownbook listing in the major search engines shortly thereafter. Simply search “your comany name Brownbook.”
Brownbook on Twitter
One final competitive advantage Brownbook offers is that when you add your business profile to the directory, it’s published immediately on Twitter at @BrownbookUpdate. This is also important for real time search. I can’t imagine too many people following every new profile addition and update on Twitter, so credit the founders, as they each have their own individual Twitter accounts at @daveingram and @marc_lyne.
Helpful Links
My complete list of local directories
My free no-obligation 20 point SEO website analysis
Please feel free to comment or contact me if you have any questions at all about improving your search engine rankings by listing with 30 local directories or how to use SEO to promote your business.
[...] a post last week I mentioned that after reading the book, “Free” by Chris Anderson, the founders of Brownbook converted their local directory to completely free, meaning free with no strings [...]