Frequently Asked Questions

Below is a list of frequently asked questions about our products and services.

What is an online business listing?
What are these terms I hear like SEO, White Hat and Black Hat?
What is local search, or local search traffic?
I’m already listed online, why do I need Indexmybusiness.com?
How does indexmybusiness.com work?
What kinds of do-it-yourself strategies are you suggesting I do, and why?
What if I don’t have a website?
There are websites offering free submittals to many sites at once, why should I pay you?
Do you offer any kind of guarantee on results?
How long does it take to be found?
How much does online business listing cost?
I see you accept PayPal, but I don’t have a PayPal account. Do you accept credit cards?
What if I have any concerns about privacy or the use of my business information?
What if I have any questions that are not answered in this FAQ?

What is an online business listing?

An online business listing is a formal registration of your brick-and-mortar establishment with a widely distributed or accessible business registry on the internet. It includes your company's general business information including, but not limited to: street address, telephone number, Website URL, email address, maps and directions.

Your business may already be listed online with the internet yellow pages or even some of the major search engines like Google and MSN. However, these listings are often pulled from paperback yellow pages lists and only contains the very basic information. These listings are often entered by hand and contain inaccurate or outdated information.

Indexmybusiness.com gets your listings not only updated and accurate, but noticed. Click here to see how.

What are these terms I hear like SEO, White Hat and Black Hat?

SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization.’ It is the process of increasing the traffic to your business through the internet by increasing your company’s visibility. SEO fits under two broad categories: white hat and black hat. White Hat SEO are methods to improve your visibility that are approved by the search engines. They are means that help improve the experience for internet users by helping them find exactly what they are looking for with the least amount of effort.

Black Hat SEO are methods that exploit loopholes in the way the search engines provide valuable content to users. While these methods may initially show higher returns in visibility and sales in the short-term than white hat methods, the risks often outweigh the benefits for the long-term. The search engines are known to hand out stiff penalties to companies employing black hat methods including completely blocking your website from being found altogether. Email spam and keyword stuffing are the two most popular examples of black hat marketing tactics.

Indexmybusiness.com exercises the highest in standards when optimizing your content for the search engines and business directories. All of our services are 100% white hat, including the tips and strategies we teach you. You will find our legitimate competitors disclaiming that your business listing could take as long as 60 days to show up with some search engines. This is because white hat methods take longer to work than black hat, but it is worth waiting 60 days than the alternative of being blacklisted by the major search providers.

How long it takes for white hat methods to get your business the most visibility depends on a number of factors that are out of our control and your control. Several of these factors include when Google’s automated ‘crawlers’ (automated programs the search engines employ to seek out web content to keep data up-to-date) visit your site and/or add your approved listing to their global registry, how competitive your product or service is, and the level of demand for your product or service.

What is local search, or local search traffic?

15.7 billion local searches were conducted in 2008, up 58% from 2007. – Yellow Pages Association & comScore, March 2009

Examples of a local search would be an individual looking for a nearby dry cleaner, pizza shop, pet store, staffing agency, barber shop or hair stylist to name just a few. The most popular method is to go to a search engine on the computer or cell phone and type in the type of business and the city or zip code. Example: “pet store Los Angeles”

The explosion in popularity and usage of mobile internet and GPS devices means the ability for your business to be found through all of these search vehicles is critical. And getting your business found through these outlets has the highest return on your investment.

If I’m already listed in the online Yellow Pages or search engines, why do I need Indexmybusiness.com?

It is excellent to have a listing already established with online yellow pages or search engines. If all of your company information down to the finest detail, like daily operating hours, company logo, videos, products/services offered, and even accepted payment options are listed on BOTH online yellow page directories and the major search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo!, et. al.), AND your business is listed on the first page of these search engines, then you are all set.

However, if you found us, odds are it is because your business does not yet have that kind of visibility. We promote your location, products and services and partner with you to develop winning strategies to maintain that level of visibility long-term.

How does Indexmybusiness.com work?

Indexmybusiness merges the attributes of over 50 online business listing directories and search engines to develop the most comprehensive local business listing service in the industry. Not all directories and search engines display the same information. They all display the basic information like company name, address, phone number, etc. But some allow you to post pictures and videos, others allow you to provide information about what forms of payment you accept, or business hours, or even provide promotions and coupons.

We separate ourselves from our competitors by offering the best price while gathering and processing the most attributes possible for directories and search engines. The forms we ask you to fill out are long, and it could be intimidating. But every bit of information you provide about your business goes toward getting you noticed. And since your objective is to get noticed over your competitors, we go the extra mile over ours.

Step 1: We design a search engine and directory listing using over 50 attributes and about your business, including products/services, hours of operation, street address and website URL. We get as specific as you want, with many optional fields including links to videos, languages spoken, accepted forms of payment, “In business since…” to name just a few.
Step 2: If needed, we also provide web design services to create an online presence for you to educate customers about your products and services
Step 3: Your business information is published too all the relevant internet data providers and directories.
Step 4: Potential customers search and find your business or product online.
Step 5: You are found through organic search results, mobile searches, maps and directories.
Step 6: We provide free consulting on how you can incorporate highly-effective strategies in your day-to-day business efforts to maintain and further enhance your visibility.

What kinds of strategies are you referring to in Step 6 that I would be responsible for, and why?

Our competitors charge you exorbitant monthly fees to do things that take little or no effort and time. We believe in the “Teach a person to fish…” method to save you from paying these high monthly fees. One example is in posting customer reviews. Our competitors offer to post reviews as if they were customers who bought your products or services. However, Google and other search engines are becoming wise to some of these tactics and penalizing companies (in the form of reducing visibility) for having reviews written by anyone other than legitimate customers.

We provide, free of charge, a series of high-impact, zero cost, and low effort strategies and tips you can employ to get even more visibility. It makes no sense to charge you hundreds of dollars a month to implement these strategies on your behalf. Our motivation is simple. By providing that extra value and considerable cost savings, we hope your satisfaction will be a greater motivator to spread the word about our services or even post a positive review.

What if I don’t have a website?

You do not need a website to be listed and found by the search engines and directories. Search engines, however, do favor businesses that have a web presence over ones that do not. Therefore, we provide custom and professional web design services at a fee based on your needs and the products and services you provide. Because of our global presence, our resources are a fraction of the cost of marketing and design firms in the United States, yet you will have the luxury of speaking with representatives where English is the first language, and hours of operation are US-friendly.

There are websites offering free submittals of my business information to many sites at once, why should I pay for the same service?

Be very cautious of any website claiming to offer anything free, let alone one collecting your business information. All search engines and directories have their own set of fields to fill out to create your unique business profile. To prevent themselves from getting spammed by ‘free’ automated services like this, they have enhanced security features that require manual tasks (email or phone verification, or entering a code seen on the page). Since Google and other search engines consider the ‘free’ business submission sites as spam, it could have long-lasting negative affects on your business that could take years to reverse.

No automated system can register all the relevant information about your business to these sites without considerable manual labor and time, to which they would not offer to do so for free. So why would they claim to offer this service? Each site may have their own motivation to do so. It may require the purchase of other products or services which were hidden in the fine print. They may simply be looking to capture your email address since list brokers make the most money off of selling the email addresses of business owners (a practice Indexmybusiness.com does not, nor will ever engage in).

When you register for our business listing service, you will see the hands-on approach we employ because we have to. For example, Google requires a simple telephone validation process in order to have your business listing approved. Our live customer service team will work directly with you to complete the registration process.

Do you offer any kind of guarantee on results?

Due to factors out of our control and your control, neither we, nor any other business listing service can guarantee first page placement. We wish we could, since only 2% of users go past page one of a search engine. Run away from anyone who claims otherwise!

One key factor, for example, is the amount of competition you have relative to the geographic density of your area. If you own a pizza shop, and you are among only 5-10 pizza shops in town, the chances are very high you will be visible on the first page. However, if your shop is in the heart of Chicago, the deep dish capital of the world, your chances are much lower.

It is not impossible, however, to be ranked on the first page in the most competitive markets. We have the resources and partnerships to stretch your advertising dollar with additional SEO services. Simple law of supply and demand would suggest that if you are in a highly competitive market, you have a higher potential customer base to draw revenue from than a smaller town with a significantly lower population. Partnering with a firm specializing in local visibility via the ever-expanding web is going to give you an edge over traditional marketing companies with high-cost, old-fashioned marketing strategies like direct mail, billboards, newspapers and media that lack residual effect.

A website and your search engine / directory presence is permanent and provides the greatest long-term visibility and ROI.

How long does it take to be found?

Every search engine and directory listing has their own time frame for approving and displaying new or updated business listings. Many of these sites will begin to show your listing within 7-14 days. Some can take as long as 60 days.

Over time, your rankings will improve. How fast they improve depends on competition in your area, the quality of your website, and other marketing efforts you employ.

Indexmybusiness.com partners with you to develop a long-term strategy to maximize traffic and minimize your marketing costs and efforts. We do not feel it is necessary to charge you a monthly fee like our top competitors do. We will freely provide marketing advice and tips. If you choose to take advantage of our custom web design or SEO services, we would rather charge you a one-time small fee instead of recurring monthly fees.

How much does online business listing cost?

We charge a flat fee of $299 with no additional monthly fees for getting your business listed on over 50 search engines and online business directories including all the major ones like Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Yellow Pages Online.

Our top competitors charge much higher fees:

Localsearchtraffic.com
Localsplash.com
Businesslocallistings.com
Myvipwebdesign.com

$499
$99 setup fee / $159 per mo.
$299 setup fee / $149 per mo.
$500 <<Google Only!>>

We provide discounts for bulk submissions of more than one location. Contact us for a free analysis and quote for your business.

I see you accept PayPal, but I don’t have a PayPal account. Do you accept credit cards?

We are partnered with PayPal to offer you the highest level of security. Through PayPal, we accept all major credit cards without requiring a PayPal account. After filling out the forms, and confirming the accuracy of your information, you will see a PayPal “Buy Now” button. This will take you directly to PayPal’s secure payment processing page to enter your credit card information.

What if I have any concerns about privacy or the use of my business information?

Below are links directly to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Disclaimer. We believe in full disclosure and if you have any questions or require clarification regarding any matter pertaining to our services or our website, please do not hesitate to Contact Us.

Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Disclaimer

What if I have any questions that are not answered in this FAQ?

Please enjoy the toll-free, live support we provide to all of our customers. It is refreshing to talk to a human being, and our enthusiastic support staff enjoys helping small businesses grow. If the lines are busy, please leave a detailed message with your name and number and we will call you back as soon as possible.

You can also email us with your questions.

To contact us via phone or email, visit our Contact Us page.