Local Listings

[ClickIt]

I use getlisted.org as my local listing guideline.  For some of the local listings you can "upgrade" the listing for a price instead of doing just the basic free listing.  I was wondering do people pay for the listing and is it worth it?  Are some of them better than others to get an upgraded listing?

Thanks for the help!

[BeardoCo]

I don't upgrade any of my client's listings.  As long as your citations are consistent across the board that will benefit them enough.  The only reason to upgrade is if your business benefits specifically from one site like Kudzu or YP.  You are just paying for more exposure on that specific site you upgrade on.

[David-Mihm]

I tend to agree with BeardoCo, in general it's not worth paying for an upgrade.  There are two notable exceptions:

#1 if the site in question is very heavily trafficked in your industry and provides real eyeballs as part of their premium listing package.  An example might be a TripAdvisor ad for a hotel or B&B -- especially one that's brand-new and hasn't had time to accumulate enough reviews to reach critical mass in TA's internal algorithm.

#2 Sometimes it may be worth paying for an enhanced listing on one of the major data aggregators like Localeze -- in order to include your URL and social information in the results that they syndicate to secondary and tertiary sites.  Additionally, paying for an Enhanced listing on the "back end" like this means that if there aren't any advertisers in your category on the sites that Localeze is syndicating to, your listing is likely to rank pretty well in the "organic" listings of that site.

[ClickIt]

You mentioned Localeze as one that might be worth it.  What others would you say that send info to other places that would be worth it.  One's that may not be on getlisted.org.

[David-Mihm]

In the US, Localeze, Infogroup, and Acxiom are the "big three" data providers.