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Paying to have your location data directly managed on tier-two directories is like buying Twitter followers: you might think you’re buying more visibility, but ultimately you’ll waste your money and effort. The recent experience of a healthcare provider illustrates this point vividly.
Not all directories deserve your attention
A directory becomes “tier-two” when it lacks visibility in search engine results pages. Tier-two directories might have once been favored by Google’s search algorithm for local queries but aren’t anymore.
They remain part of the local search conversation primarily because of their past reputations, not their current performance — which can make it more difficult for businesses to make informed choices about where to invest their location marketing spend.
For example, a healthcare provider (a client of ours) contacted us after a location marketing vendor tried to convince one of the doctors in their network to pay for a listing on one such tier-two directory, Insider Pages.
The vendor noted that the client was not listed on Insider Pages and suggested that the client could make the problem go away by paying a monthly premium to the vendor, which, in turn, would update the client’s physician data on Insider Pages.
This approach is fraught with a number of problems. First of all, Insider Pages operates as a closed-loop advertising network through an exclusive relationship with the vendor that had contacted our client. Essentially, the vendor was relying on a racket: you have a problem with a site that is a partner of ours. Pay us, and we’ll make the problem disappear. How convenient!
[Read the full article on Search Engine Land.]
Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.
