[20 Methods] How to Market Your Directory Website Business

You have now finished creating your directory website. So what’s next?

If you want your directory website to start earning money, you need to increase the number of directory listings and the number of users.

To do that, you need to promote your website.

In this guide, I will show you 20 methods to market your directory website business to increase your listings and users.

Let’s get started.

Before you start, populate your listings first

Marketing your directory website when it’s empty won’t do you any favor. That’s why before you start promoting your website, populate it first with listings.

Because the truth is, you will have a hard time bringing in more businesses to list their websites if your directory website isn’t completely developed. Yes, the website itself may be done, but it’s empty without any listings.

For example, would you consider using a directory website that looks like this:

Probably not…

Showing others an already populated directory will also let businesses picture out how much visibility your website would give them. It could also bring in traffic brought by search queries related to the businesses in your listing.

Doing this requires some work on your end since you need to research and gather data. But if you have some budget to spare, there are lots of good-but-affordable freelancers on Fiverr or Upwork you can hire to do the work for you.

Whether you do this part yourself or not, what’s important is you do this first. Remember that listings are the bread and butter of a directory website. Without them, you won’t get any users or businesses to list their websites.

How to promote your directory website

1. Tell everyone you know about your business
2. Create shareable blog posts
3. Build links and connections through guest posting on other blogs
4. Optimize for local searches
5. List your directory website on a bigger directory website
6. Make viral videos on YouTube
7. Promote on social media websites
8. Contribute to Facebook groups
9. Grow a community on Facebook
10. Run display network campaigns
11. Create a badge/rating widget
12. Hold fun contests and challenges
13. Have consistent email marketing to your subscribers
14. Run exit-intent popups on other websites
15. Collaborate with businesses in your niche
16. Host sponsorships and events
17. Contact non-competitor but relevant websites
18. Partner up with influencers in your niche
19. Find and join your local Chamber of Commerce
20. Use traditional offline advertising

1. Tell everyone you know about your business

Currently, the only people who know about your business are you and your mom.

So before you spend a dime on paid methods, spend some time spreading the word about your new directory website first.

Start with your family, friends, and local community (especially helpful if your niche is more localized). Make some noise on your personal social media accounts and spread awareness about your business.

Your friends and families who see your posts will likely share your posts (even better if you ask them to share). This leads to more people seeing your post, visiting your directory website, and starts rolling off the organic reach of your website.

Remember, this method might not reach as many people compared to most of the methods listed here. But the people who hear about your new business with word-of-mouth have a higher chance of actually visiting your directory website.

2. Create shareable blog posts

Content marketing is one of the best ways to promote your website due to its long-lasting effects.

When you publish high-quality blog posts on your directory website, Google and other search engines will increase your ranking, which results in increased organic traffic (and it will keep getting better in the long run).

When your directory website keeps showing up on the first page of Google, people will see your website as an authority in the space and a good resource for content related to it — more than simply being a website that lists businesses and websites.

But for that to happen, you need to publish high-quality blog posts all the time.

Your blog posts should be for those who have a need for your listings. For example, if your directory website contains listings related to parenting, then you must think about what parents search about online.

Some examples include

• Best kid-friendly restaurants and cafes
• Sea-side birthday party venues for kids
• Best mom-approved doctors

If you can distinguish what potential users of your directory website want to know about, then you will have an easier time finding good topics to write about. You can make use of Google Trends and other keyword research tools to help you.

When creating your blog posts, pay attention to their “viral” potential. Some of your posts will have a better virality than others, especially those that users want to view and share on social media.

The main goal of this method is to create content to help users who might be looking for information related to your directory website niche. Consistently create high-quality content around those areas and you will soon see an increase in organic traffic.

3. Build links and connections through guest posting on other blogs

If you manage to get an authoritative site with an excellent domain authority to link back to your directory website, then Google will reward you by giving you a more stable ranking (and it might even go up in the long run).

But that’s easier said than done…

After all, you cannot just email some of the most authoritative sites around your niche and ask them to link back to you —  at least not yet.

One way to build more backlinks is by guest posting on other websites that are related to your directory website niche.

You really don’t have to do the outreach and article writing yourself, since there are people on Fiverr and Upwork that offer such services. You can also go to guest post services websites like Link Publishers and Searcharoo.

The goal here isn’t to directly ask for a link back to your directory website (although that would be nice). Instead, you want to help the site owner publish more content in exchange for a link back to your website.

Guest posting is also a great way to establish connections with others in the industry who might just link back to you — or even collaborate in the future.

Guest posting isn’t something you can do overnight. It’s definitely not easy, especially for newbies to the industry who don’t have connections yet — but it’s worth putting in time and effort (since it has a great long-term payoff).

4. Optimize for local searches

If your directory website contains physical listings, then it’s a good idea to optimize for local searches. After all, people looking for businesses or websites in their area don’t really want to know about companies elsewhere.

When you optimize for local search terms, Google will show people those results who are searching from within the same city.

For example, if I were to search for the “best restaurants near me” while in Kansas, Google will show me restaurants in Kansas:

Even if your site doesn’t show up on the first page of Google in general, it can still be relevant to users who are looking for specific businesses in their area with the right keywords.

Of course, you need to target terms that would help people find local businesses or websites. An easy way for this is to actually mention the place or location in the headers and in the body of your content a few times.

If you want to take this further, you can also use geotargeting with the help of some plugins. However, don’t take this approach at an early stage since this limits how much content is shown to a user depending on where he or she is located while visiting your website.

5. List your directory website on a bigger directory website

There are thousands of directory websites out there, and the bigger ones get a lot more traffic than smaller directories. Since these bigger sites are more authoritative in Google’s eyes, the search engine shows them more frequently so searchers can find information easily and quickly.

One way for you to get more exposure and earn links back to your website is by getting listed on other directory websites. These websites might even rank well in the organic search results for your niche, which means more traffic to your website.

First off, get your directory website listed on My Business Directory by Google, Local Listings by Yahoo!, and Places for Business by Bing. These are trusted directories that have good domain authority and allow free listings so no need to spend anything on them.

Then, try looking for bigger directory websites in your niche or related niches.  These are websites with high domain authority that allow sponsored listings.

One example of a directory website with good authority is DIR Journal, which has an overall domain strength score of 54 according to Moz’s Open Site Explorer.

Another good one is the BOTW Directory, which has an impressive domain strength score of 55. Both of these directories may offer paid listings, so prepare to shell out some cash if you want your website to be listed.

Just like with guest posting, this isn’t something that you can do overnight (without paying). It takes time and effort before you can get listed on those sites — but it’s certainly worth doing if you want to generate more links back to your directory website.

6. Make viral videos on YouTube

Earlier, I mentioned that you can also get traffic by ranking for the right keywords. But if your aim is to gain quick exposure and lots of visitors in a short amount of time, then making viral videos on YouTube is the key.

Without a doubt, videos are the future (though that’s not to say written content will go away). It’s just that more and more people are preferring videos rather than content they need to read.

In fact, a study from 2018 revealed that people want to see more video content from businesses they support. It’s already 2022 now so you can expect that figure to be even higher than before.

Now, creating good-quality videos that would go viral takes time, but there are some things you can do to increase the chances of your video going viral.

• First, you need to choose a keyword that’s relevant to your directory website niche. Focus on evergreen keywords that people often search for and avoid seasonal or trendy keywords.
• Second, make sure your videos stand out from the rest of the videos on YouTube. Go with clickbait titles (but make sure your videos can stand up to it) and create eye-catching thumbnails.
• Third, include an interesting keyword in your video description so people will be able to find your videos when they do related searches. It’s likely that your first “viral” video will be from suggested videos. So choose wisely!
• Fourth, share your videos across all your social media accounts and encourage your friends and followers to share them as well. You can also ask other people in the niche to share it if they like what you created.

7. Promote on social media websites

The Internet is a huge place and tons of people are using social media to communicate and share information. So it’s only natural that you should look for places where your target audience hangs out online, too.

One great way to get more exposure for your directory website is by promoting on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram.

Below is a table that shows some interesting details about the various social media platforms:

Social Network	Users	Average Engagement Rate	Recommended Number of Posts
Facebook	2.85 billion active monthly users	0.09%	1-2 times per day
Instagram	1.38 billion active monthly users	1.22%	3-7 times per week
LinkedIn	310 million monthly active users	2%	At least 3 times per week
Twitter (Optional)	330 million monthly active users	0.064%	1-5 tweets per day
TikTok (Optional)	1 billion active monthly users	17.99%	1-3 times per day
YouTube	2.29 billion active users	1.63%	More than once a week

But first, make sure you pick the social media websites that your target audience uses the most so you know where to focus on. How? Use a tool like BuzzSumo to gather data about the highest-performing posts from other fellow website owners in your niche.

Once you have a list, start creating your own posts and sharing them across all the social media channels you have.

As for your social media posts, you need to be creative as well. You could also make use of hashtags and do it in a fun way. For example, if you’re in the parenting niche, then you can ask your followers to post some pictures of the things they need to bring for their kids during tips.

That will create some sort of wave that would encourage like-minded parents to post and share. Some parents may respond and add to the discussion. You can then share those interesting posts from your followers on your own social media pages and tag them.

8. Contribute to Facebook groups

If you don’t want to spend money on advertising your directory website, then consider contributing valuable content to relevant Facebook groups instead.

When there’s an opportunity, you can post a link back to your website in the comments or start a discussion where you can promote your directory website content. Just be sure that it’s actually helpful and not promotional or else people will mark your comment as spam.

For example, if you joined a Facebook group for mommies, you can bet someone will ask the group about kid-friendly places (restaurants, cafes, or vacation spots). That’s your cue to answer with what you know. Depending on how your comment was taken, you can even drop a link.

Make sure you don’t use Facebook groups in the wrong way. If you promote your listings directly, the moderator will likely ban you from the group. The best way to do this requires patience until you spot a good opportunity to mention your directory website.

If you don’t want to post a link back to your site, then consider joining Facebook groups that are related to your directory website niche. Group members are more likely to check out your website if they see that you’re knowledgeable about the group’s topic.

It might take some time before people start recognizing your name, but it’s definitely a good long-term strategy.

9. Grow a community on Facebook

Aside from using Facebook groups, how about building your own community?

Given the popularity of Facebook, building a community around your brand is one effective way to market your directory website. It doesn’t take much time or effort because you just have to focus on relevant topics that are relevant to your niche.

This way, you own the community itself and you don’t have to tiptoe around the moderators. You can interact with the members and answer their questions or concerns related to your niche. Of course, you can throw links in the comments as often as you want.

Though this may be the case, you still have to be mindful that you don’t come off as a spammer. You don’t want people to think that you created the community solely to promote your directory website.

That’s why you need to share helpful content as well. Think of posts and topics that inform and even entertain your followers. You can start some polls that would encourage your members to interact with one another.

10. Run display network campaigns

Google AdWords is a platform that allows you to create ads based on images and texts about your website. The keyword tool can help you find relevant keywords that are popular for search queries. So the more targeted your ad copy is, the better it will perform.

You just have to follow Google’s guidelines because they have strict rules against baseless claims and fake news. The last thing you want is to get your AdWords account suspended!

After creating an account, you can use Google to advertise your website with banners you made that will show up whenever a searcher inputs specific keywords on the Google search page or on websites that display web banners.

This approach, though it could cost you a lot of money, could potentially expose your directory website to thousands of people both on Google and on third-party websites that run Google Ads on their pages.

If you take this route, here are things you can do to improve your results:

• Target less competitive keywords in your niche. For broad keywords, go with broad match types. For specific keywords, go with phrase match types.
• Don’t be afraid to target keywords of your competitors. These keywords have lots of potentials. You can also try targeting large businesses related to your listings.
• Make use of negative keywords so your banners don’t show up on unrelated combinations. This could give you more buck for your bang and ensure every penny is accounted for.

11. Create a badge/rating widget

A unique way to market your directory website is to create a badge or a rating widget that businesses can put on their website to show their rating or that they’re listed on a directory website like the one you own.

You would often see familiar badges and ratings on some websites to let visitors know they’re on directory websites or they’re available on some platforms (like the example shown below).

When people stumble upon the website of those businesses you listed and see the badge or rating, they will start asking questions such as “What is this directory website” and “What could be the other businesses included in the listing”.

This method could bring in some sweet SEO link juice to your directory website which helps improve the total ranking. Furthermore, it brings more brand visibility and encourages other businesses to list their websites on your directory website too.

But without a doubt, the most important thing is to make sure your badge or widget contains an image of high quality and one that will definitely catch people’s attention.

The other benefit of this strategy is that it doesn’t require any manual effort on your part. The widget can be generated with software. All you have to do is make sure that the code of the widget can be easily modified.

12. Hold fun contests and challenges

Another way to get people talking about your directory website is to hold fun contests and challenges. This will create hype around your brand and encourage people to share it with their friends on social media.

For example, you can hold a poll that asks visitors on your website and social media pages which restaurant they think is the friendliest to kids. You can then provide choices from your listing and announce the winner later on.

Holding competitions that are relevant to your niche will help increase brand awareness even more.

For example, you can host a photo competition for businesses in your directory to submit their best photos in terms of quality and background. And the winner gets to be “boosted” or “recommended” for a certain amount of time on the home page.

Of course, you need to think of good prizes or incentives for the winners of your contests or challenges. But it’s all worth it for the following reasons:

• Businesses will share your contests with their audience to increase their chances of winning.
• More traffic to your website/social media pages.
• Increased brand exposure may encourage other businesses to get listed on your directory website as well.

13. Have consistent email marketing to your subscribers

Email marketing is one of the best and most direct ways to communicate with your target audience. This ensures that you’re able to connect with them directly without spending a lot on Google Ads or Bing Ads.

This helps increase sales and subscriptions because it allows you to provide promotional material to your subscribers. In fact, you can market your directory website and every update on the listings in every email.

Since people have subscribed to your email list, it means they have a genuine interest in what you have to offer — which helps grow your business. Data tells that a lot of small businesses rely on email marketing for customer acquisition.

You need to keep the content relevant to the interests of your subscribers and loyal customers so that they will continue opening up to you when there’s anything new happening in your niche or business industry.

Keep your emails short, concise, and to the point. Include a call-to-action at the end of each email — one that tells your subscribers what they should be doing next (like visit this listing, read a blog post or watch a new video).

One thing you need to know about email marketing is that the best times to send an email matter. Shoot for early in the morning at around 3 to 5 am. Why? Because when people wake up, the first thing they do is check their phones for updates and emails.

Before you can do any of this though, you must have an email capture form on your website first.

You need to have a way to collect emails from your visitors so you can use them later on for email marketing. It also helps to have an email lead magnet to incentivize people to sign up with their email addresses.

14. Run exit-intent popups on other websites

You know what popups are. But exit-intent popups are specific since they appear on the page when a user drags his mouse cursor to the edges of the screen (usually to the direction of the address bar) as a sort of last-minute advertisement to the user before he or she leaves.

Here’s a good example from OptinMonster:

Take note that running these pop ups costs a premium. Since ad platforms don’t offer such services (in fact, Google penalizes those who run such popups on pages that have Google Ads enabled), you need to manually find and reach out to websites and propose an arrangement.

On the other hand, if you have other websites that perform really well, you can run popups there without any cost. You can even use the pop ups as a way to collect email addresses for email marketing along with promoting your new directory website.

Manually reaching out to companies may cost you some time. If you want to do this method, I suggest you hire a freelancer to do the work for you. When you do, you must specify the type of websites you want to run popups on and maybe draft the email template yourself.

15. Collaborate with businesses in your niche

Collaborating with businesses in your niche will help you market your directory website business in several ways.

You can run co-branded campaigns and promotions that benefit both of your businesses. This is a win-win opportunity because not only do you get to boost traffic to your directory website, the other company gets the same treatment as well.

If you’re not sure where to look for a business in your niche, Yelp would be a good place. HubSpot also published a good list for local business directories.

Businesses will send customers and subscribers your way when they do either of these things:

• Add your website to their newsletters and email marketing lists.
• Mention you or talk about your directory website on social media channels, on their blog, news site, video series, podcast, etc.
• Recommend your directory website to other businesses or companies they have a relationship with.

You can help them solve problems that your website specialty is solving (or one that’s related).

For example, you can partner up with online retailers that sell something related to your business industry (like if you have a web design directory, partner up with companies that sell web hosting and domains).

Collaborating with businesses in your niche is an opportunity to help you market your directory website business in several ways.

16. Host sponsorships and events

If your directory website is localized, then hosting sponsorships and events is a good idea.

For example, if your directory website is in the parenting niche, you could hold trade fairs and invite mompreneurs to the event. This would create a buzz in your community and will be a good way to let other people know about your business.

If this is something you would like to try, you must also do what you can to promote your sponsorships and events (like boosting a post on social media). This ensures you will have attendees during the event and reach as many people as possible.

On the other hand, you could also sponsor an event hosted by a company in your listing (or someone who might want to be a part of your listing).

17. Contact non-competitor but relevant websites

If you don’t like to pay for ads, you can contact other companies and propose an exchange of advertisements.

There are a lot of spaces on your website where you can run web banner ads (the same spot where Google Ads put up their own banners on your website). You can freely trade those spaces with other websites.

For example, if you’re in the parenting niche, you can contact parenting blogs and see if they are interested in using one of the web banner placements for a time in your directory website in exchange for:

• Shoutouts or posts about your directory website in their social media profiles
• Backlink from their website to yours
• Being mentioned in their regular newsletter to their subscribers

This method of marketing a directory website is unique since you don’t have to spend a dime. You can also get creative on how you want to trade your ad spaces.

18. Partner up with influencers in your niche

Influencers in your niche are people who have established a following online. They can help you market your directory website business because their audience trusts them and will believe what they say (even if the influencer is promoting something they don’t know much about).

For this to work, you need to make sure that the influencer’s following online is related to your directory website niche. You can find influencers from websites like:

• Heepsy
• Upfluence
• MightyScout

Though this depends on the influencer, most of them may ask for some sort of compensation (usually in the form of money). They can then mention your directory website and put up a good word about it and invite their followers to go and visit your website.

Influencer marketing could be really effective especially if you found the right ones. Since their followers trust their recommendations, they are likely going to visit your directory website.

19. Find and join your local Chamber of Commerce

Your local Chamber of Commerce is composed of all the businesses in your area. You can become a member and attend their events to network with business owners who might be interested in listing on your directory website.

This doesn’t only provide you with an opportunity to get to know business owners in your area, this could be a way too for others to see you as an authority in your niche.

Of course, do your best to keep up a good relationship with other business owners even outside the events and contribute to your local community. You don’t want them to think that your only intention was to entice them to list their businesses on your directory website.

20. Use traditional offline advertising

Although we now live in a digital world, traditional advertising like billboards, posters, and print could still work really well especially if your directory website caters to local businesses.

If you want a more targeted approach, you can try finding magazines within your niche where you can buy ad spaces. Billboards and TV spots could help you reach more people in a short period of time.

Take note that this method could cost you a lot of money. Traditional advertising isn’t cheap especially when you go with TV spots and billboards.

Promote your directory website in various ways

After you have created your directory website, the next step is to populate it first and then market it to increase the listings and its users. That’s the only way to earn money with your directory website if you want to monetize it.

There are a lot of methods you can work with on this article to promote your directory website. As I always recommend to others, always start with the free options. Since you’re only starting, it only makes sense to avoid spending money at the start.

Once you start getting more users, you can then double time on what works and try experimenting with paid methods like running ads or boosting some posts on social media. You can even tap on traditional advertising outlets to promote your directory website.

Remember, be patient and consistent in your efforts. Your directory website will grow in time.