When you do an internet search and see an entry pop up such as “The Best 10 Dentists in New York City,” you have found a business directory. A local online directory is a list of businesses within a specific category and location.

There are many directories on the internet. Here are a few examples that you probably have seen: Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Yellow Pages and Yahoo! Local.

Here’s how it works: The directories have programs that dynamically create a profile for your practice by pulling together information from the internet – from anywhere on the internet. Therefore, some of the information may be incorrect such as the wrong principal names, wrong phone number and wrong address. But your business’s listing on the directory is out there, having been created without your knowledge and possibly having wrong information.

Action Step: Review and Correct All Local Online Directories

The last thing you want in terms of marketing your practice is to have incorrect or misleading information available to web surfers:

• The wrong telephone number? A potential client will not be able to contact you easily.
• An outdated address? Even if a patient has an appointment, they may find it difficult to find your office.
• A missing specialty? A potential patient or client would pass your practice by and look for others to fit their needs.

It’s important to correct your information on as many directories as possible. If you have more than one location, this task is multiplied as each of your listings must be fixed.

Yes, you are right – this is a tedious and time-consuming process. And the first review and correction process is not a permanent fix. Once corrected, you should review them monthly as the directory engines will continue to overwrite them.

Let a Marketing Expert Handle Online Directories for Your Practice

Consider your options: You can assign someone in your organization to continually clean up the online directories or you can hire a professional marketing firm to manage this for you. Remember, the more directories that you correct and maintain, the stronger your search results will be.

Not only that but when you have consistent, accurate information on many directories, the search engines will recognize your efforts and push your listing to the top of the search results.

Some marketing companies will manage 10 or 30 online directories for you. But the experts at Blue Orchid Marketing will correct and manage 70 directories for your practice and suppress any incorrect information that continues to appear.

Hiring a digital marketing company like Blue Orchid Marketing will take this tedious chore off of your hands! Give us a call to get your directories in order – and make sure that your prospects can find both you and the right information about your business.

Ask Us About Our Comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy

Blue Orchid Marketing offers custom-written marketing elements designed to increase your bottom line.  We also focus on external marketing by placing your practice on more than 70 local online directories and writing weekly custom blogs and social media posts to ensure your practice is found on internet searches.  That’s more than 40 posts a month … it’s a service you need to stay competitive!

Need a website?  Live chat?  Adwords?  We have the solution!

To learn how our internal marketing solutions can put money in your pocket and our internet presence solutions and websites can help you to attract new patients and clients, please call us at 203-746-5901 – ask for David – or send an email to DavidB@BlueOrchidMarketing.com. We’ll create a package that’s right for you!