A Local Site Ranking Below a Directory

The site

An electrician with a reasonable site: services described, area named, a few photographs, and a form.

Searching the obvious phrase for their trade and town returns a map section, then four directory pages, then a competitor, then their site.

Two of those directories list this electrician, one on the second page of its own results.

The business owner reads this as a failure of their site.

The inference the owner makes

• My site is broken.
• Somebody must fix it.
• The directories cheated.
• I need to pay somebody.
• Or pay the directory.

None of those is quite right. A directory ranking above a single business on a generic phrase is the normal shape of that result, and it is not evidence that anything is wrong with the site.

Why directories win that phrase

Which is worth understanding rather than resenting.

Somebody searching a trade and a town is frequently comparing rather than choosing, and a page listing twelve electricians serves that better than a page about one.

Directories also have far more pages, far more links, and are updated constantly, which are the things that produce ranking for broad phrases.

A single business site cannot accumulate those and does not need to.

So the generic phrase is not the battle to fight, and effort spent there is spent against an opponent with structural advantages.

Accepting that redirects the effort somewhere it can work.

What you can win instead

Which is the useful half of this.

The map results, which show individual businesses rather than directories, and which are driven by your listing rather than your site.

Specific phrases: a particular problem, a particular neighbourhood, a particular kind of property.

Questions people ask, which a directory has no reason to answer.

And your own business name, which should be entirely yours and frequently is not.

Each of those brings somebody closer to hiring than the generic phrase does.

A worked example

The electrician stopped trying to rank for the generic phrase.

They wrote six pages: three about specific problems in older houses in their area, two about neighbourhoods they work in most, and one about a certification question customers kept asking.

Within eight months those six pages produced more enquiries than the home page ever had.

They still rank below the directories for the generic phrase and no longer look at it.

They also completed their listing on the two directories that ranked above them, which produced a steady trickle at no cost.

Both moves were accepting the shape of the results rather than fighting it.

Be in the directory that beats you

Which is the pragmatic move people resist.

If a directory occupies the first result for your trade in your town, a complete listing on it is a position in that result.

Most such listings are free at a basic level and most businesses have never filled theirs in properly.

Complete the description, add photographs, add the service list, and get the details consistent with everywhere else.

That is an hour and it puts you in front of the traffic you were trying to take from them.

Whether to pay for a featured position is a separate question and usually the answer is no.

The map results are the real prize

And they sit above the directories.

That section shows individual businesses, is driven almost entirely by your local listing rather than your website, and is where somebody ready to call is looking.

Reviews, categories, hours, photographs, and proximity decide it.

A business that spends its effort on reviews and its listing will appear above the directories it cannot outrank in the ordinary results.

That is a completely different piece of work from anything to do with the website.

And it is available to a business with a modest site and a strong listing.

Check what the directories say about you

Since they are ranking and they carry your details.

Search your own business name and open every directory result on the first two pages.

Look for old telephone numbers, wrong hours, a former address, or a listing you never created.

Correct what you can, since somebody arriving at that page is arriving at a version of your business you did not write.

Several will let you claim the listing free, which is worth doing for the ones that actually rank.

Look at what the directory page actually contains

Before deciding whether it is beatable, since not all of them are strong.

Open the page ranking above you and read it as a customer would: does it list real businesses with real details, or is it a thin page assembled automatically with three entries and an advertisement.

The second kind is common in smaller towns and is genuinely outrankable by a specific page that answers something.

A national directory with hundreds of complete listings for your city is not, and knowing which you are looking at decides where the effort goes.

That takes two minutes and prevents both wasted effort and premature surrender.

Watch what the phrase is worth

Which is the question underneath all of this and is rarely asked.

Somebody typing a trade and a town is at the very start of looking, and a good share of them are comparing prices or doing research rather than about to hire.

Somebody typing a specific problem, or your business name, is considerably further along.

So ranking below a directory for a broad phrase is losing a position on the least valuable search you could win.

Check which phrases actually preceded your last twenty enquiries, since the answer usually reorders the whole priority list.

The counter-case within the site

The site is not the problem here and is not perfect either.

Its service pages are general rather than specific, which is why it has nothing to rank for beyond the phrase it cannot win.

So the finding is real and the diagnosis was wrong: the site does not need fixing, it needs pages that answer something.

And for some trades in some towns the directories are weak enough to beat, which is worth checking rather than assuming.

Look at whether the directory pages ranking above you are genuinely useful, since a thin one can be outranked by a good specific page.

What to change

1. Stop chasing the generic phrase.
2. Write six specific pages.
3. Answer questions customers ask.
4. Work on the map results.
5. Ask for reviews.
6. Complete the directory listings.
7. Correct wrong details on them.

Step four is where the enquiries actually are, since the map section sits above every directory result and is decided by your listing rather than by anything on your website.

The paid version of this question is covered in the directory that wants ninety dollars a year.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.