Directory Updates - Greater Control & Customization Options for Publishers with More Value for Local Businesses
Monetizing your website, growing page views and ranking higher on Google
A directory is an opportunity to share local businesses but it's also so much more, it anchors critical community engagement and monetization features throughout your website.
We've been particularly busy as of late working on one of our largest updates to date which focuses primarily on the directory and how it can be leveraged to provide greater value to local businesses.
These updates have already started to roll out.
What's New?
Added Greater Distinction Between Free and Upgraded Listings
There's a delicate balance between enticing paid upgrades and providing too little value in your directory to visitors.
To improve that balance, we've paired back layouts for free (Express) listings which will now only show Name, Address, Phone Number, Website, Map, Description, Meta Data (see below), and Hours while upgraded listings will have the hero and logo prominently displayed along with link-outs, video, photos, pdf downloads, and more.
This gives businesses a more compelling reason to upgrade their listing in the directory.
Articles and events will remain on both layouts as this provides value to the publisher in the form of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) via cross-linking.
Added Publisher Specific Fields for Directory Listings
The addition of site-specific listing data for each publisher allows even greater customization of each listing without having to worry about how that information will be used within our shared database of local business information.
Each publisher will be able to add their own hero, video, article link-outs, owners welcome message, and more to each listings allowing them to create greater value for their advertisers while still being able to leverage the shared public info like Name, address, phone number, etc. to build a robust directory.
We've also added the notion of Meta Data which allows publishers to add customized fields to each listing for additional information such as whether or not a business is pet of family-friendly which is useful for making guides more searchable and creating better-curated resources.
Updated Directory Page with New Search and Filtering Options
We've updated the layout of the main directory page to be more scannable within a single column and also added the ability to customize what is shown with the following settings:
- Hide All Unclaimed Listings from Directory
- Hide All Free (Express) Listings from Directory
- Hide All Permanently Closed Listings from Directory
- Hide the Search Bar from the Directory
- Only show Guides on the main directory page (Grid View)
This gives publishers the option to choose which type of directory resource they want to create for their community.
We're also deprecating the Wide Skyscraper Banner Ad in favor of an updated sidebar that highlights sidebar ads which is a better fit for mobile and provides a more consistent ad experience for advertisers.
Queuing and Spam
You will be able to add or remove individual listings in the directory as you see fit with a mix of control and automation options.
You can also choose whether or not to auto-approve certain types of listings with the following options:
- Queue all new listings for approval except those added by administrators (Default)
- Auto-approve all verified listings within a zip code and radius (listings can be verified by Locable or other Publishers in the network)
- Auto-approve all listings within a zip code and radius which would include user-generated content (Least Restrictive)
Spam will automatically be flagged for review as well.
Guide Updates
In addition to adding the same search functionality you find in the new directory, we've added the ability to add a custom description for each listing included in the directory making it easier to build guides with editorial content or Guide specific details.
Learn more about our technology and programs for local publishers
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