In tonights listed page I give you solicitors.u121.com
U121 is the website and solicitors is the sub domain category. Its free to advertise to your business although they do have some other premium listings available.
They have some functionality including image and video upload, maps. I don't particularly like the website design, its a bit buggy, but I'm sure this sort of website which drive some customers our way.
It also appears to be dofollow at the moment so it may also help with extra backlinks as such.
Its not brilliant, but these don't have to be. I can't honestly say I'll go to Google and go to u121 to get the link. In essence I'm more likely to go with a big branded website like yell or 118 if at all.
Marks 4/10 Could be better designed.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Monday, 30 January 2012
Yalwa
Yalwa.co.uk is another business directory website which I have recently updated for the company. I'm not personally a fan of the website design which is a bit web 1.0, but they have almost made up for that with the functionality offered including logos and images, map and detailed information.
It doesn't score highly and there isn't much else to say about the website in what will be one of the shortest blog entries that I have made thus far.
For a basic business directory it doesn't really what you need, especially when I realised when writing this message that there isn't the contact details, address etc. I'll be sure to update those in the coming days and on my todo list.
There also isn't any review ability sadly.
Overall 3/10 Could and must do better
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Lawyers-UnLtd
Apologies for the lack of posts from the lack couple of days, I've been rammed with work call out during the day and night. My first post for a few days is about Lawyersunltd.com
Its a lawyer specific website which lists are lawyers and firms with the United Kingdom. Initially my firm was not listed on this directory for an unknown unspecified reason, but I emailed them and they have now rectified the omission, which has enabled me to update the listing.
I suppose in terms of functionality this is the first issue, that you can't add/signup, the listings are already there are can only be updated/edited. It wasn't clear at all on the website, but I emailed them and they kindly listed. Not that bad really, but these days its not that difficult to drop in a content management script to allow for registration. Its one of the few websites you don't login.
I like the site layout allowing for a logo, website link, email link (more on that in a mo) and all the usual contact details. The email link is obfuscated so I won't end up with a **** load of spam coming in, which is always a bonus.
I've also been able to submit more information and give a detailed summary of the firm and what they do.
Overall I'll give it a generous 5/10
Back to tomorrow with more.
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Linked in is not a directory per se but a social network that does allow businesses to create a business page. Well at least it should. There are no links for your to checkout in the post, although you all probably know the URL to LinkedIn.com anyway.
So heres my story.
Registered a site on LinkedIn and tried to create a business page for the company. Unfortunately there is a firm with an identical name in another area of the country. No matter what variation I tried upon the name is would not let me create the damn thing.
Eg
Mortons Solicitors
Morton's Solicitors
Morton's Solicitors Ltd
Morton's Solicitors Limited
Mortons Solicitors Ltd
Mortons Solicitors Limited
Mortons
So anyway I rolled up the help support system and wrote them an email. I did get a response within a few hours where they suggested using an apostrophe. Didn't work again. Therefore I went back to help and requested assistance.
I appreciate they don't want the same firm created 20 times on the website but at least they could do was manually create it, given I provided them with all the details to be able to differentiate between the two firms, different addresses, web addresses and contact numbers.
So my support ticket sat their for days without a response. 3 days later I googled LinkedIn and support and discovered they have a worse rating than TalkTalk for customer service and so I immediately expunged the account. I could have done with creating a linked in profile but then again I can't spend hours waiting for them to make a decision about what to do.
That is my experience with LinkedIn I won't be using them on a personal level and you could guess that despite the design qualities of linkedin, the website will have to be given 0/10 for functionality because in my case it didn't function as expected.
I suppose I could leave it a couple of months and have another go to see if the idiots can fix it.
So thats a wrap for this blog post. Tomorrow, another actual directory that I've actually succeeded is submitting to. I've not quite decided which yet, so it will be surprise for both of us.
So heres my story.
Registered a site on LinkedIn and tried to create a business page for the company. Unfortunately there is a firm with an identical name in another area of the country. No matter what variation I tried upon the name is would not let me create the damn thing.
Eg
Mortons Solicitors
Morton's Solicitors
Morton's Solicitors Ltd
Morton's Solicitors Limited
Mortons Solicitors Ltd
Mortons Solicitors Limited
Mortons
So anyway I rolled up the help support system and wrote them an email. I did get a response within a few hours where they suggested using an apostrophe. Didn't work again. Therefore I went back to help and requested assistance.
I appreciate they don't want the same firm created 20 times on the website but at least they could do was manually create it, given I provided them with all the details to be able to differentiate between the two firms, different addresses, web addresses and contact numbers.
So my support ticket sat their for days without a response. 3 days later I googled LinkedIn and support and discovered they have a worse rating than TalkTalk for customer service and so I immediately expunged the account. I could have done with creating a linked in profile but then again I can't spend hours waiting for them to make a decision about what to do.
That is my experience with LinkedIn I won't be using them on a personal level and you could guess that despite the design qualities of linkedin, the website will have to be given 0/10 for functionality because in my case it didn't function as expected.
I suppose I could leave it a couple of months and have another go to see if the idiots can fix it.
So thats a wrap for this blog post. Tomorrow, another actual directory that I've actually succeeded is submitting to. I've not quite decided which yet, so it will be surprise for both of us.
GooglePlus
Google+ or GooglePlus however its written is a business directory that no business can afford not to be utilising.
Example - Mortons Solicitors
Alot of businesses have branded facebook pages and those same companies will want to do the same with GooglePlus. It allows you to submit your website, address and contact details to be viewed by the potential millions of new GPlus Users.
In normal circumstances I'm usually averse to social networks but this isn't about me, this is about giving the company a web presence. Although in the context of the above example it does seem a little unlikely that solicitors would be wanting to befriend their criminal clients. It would be too easy for one for other firms to try to poach, and the police would likely be keeping tabs to see relationships and use it as a source of intelligence.
I haven't got around to actually doing much with in at them moment other than getting it up and some initial posts made, but my hope it to be adding daily or weekly updates on things criminal and cases in the news.
Functionality wise this is early days for GPlus. I'm sure it will usurp facebook down the line with the new facebookkiller app. What that will be I don't know.
Design wise its fairly good as with any google product you use. So I'm giving it a 6/10. Its much to do, but not about nothing!
Example - Mortons Solicitors
Alot of businesses have branded facebook pages and those same companies will want to do the same with GooglePlus. It allows you to submit your website, address and contact details to be viewed by the potential millions of new GPlus Users.
In normal circumstances I'm usually averse to social networks but this isn't about me, this is about giving the company a web presence. Although in the context of the above example it does seem a little unlikely that solicitors would be wanting to befriend their criminal clients. It would be too easy for one for other firms to try to poach, and the police would likely be keeping tabs to see relationships and use it as a source of intelligence.
I haven't got around to actually doing much with in at them moment other than getting it up and some initial posts made, but my hope it to be adding daily or weekly updates on things criminal and cases in the news.
Functionality wise this is early days for GPlus. I'm sure it will usurp facebook down the line with the new facebookkiller app. What that will be I don't know.
Design wise its fairly good as with any google product you use. So I'm giving it a 6/10. Its much to do, but not about nothing!
Stockport.co.uk
Our Stockport.co.uk page really shows how well people can make their business listing website look.
Firstly I am impressed at the use of the local pictures from google of the businesses which sets it apart from many of the other websites that I have blogged about recently.
There is the facility to leave reviews of which I am pleased to say one client has already seen fit to leave some words of "praize".
One thing I've noticed is that Google rarely puts the marker on the map correctly and you can see they are actually on the corner of John St and Middle Hillgate. Not every website gives me the option to re-place the marker. If there was something which I'd like these people to fix, then that would be it. This could be a fundamental issue with the company I've listed being 20-22, and now shortened to 22.
It is clean, if not a tad simple in design but at least its not trying to heard and having a million things at once screaming at the viewer.
Also in functionality there are tags and bookmark features. Sadly no GooglePlus or similar social bookmarking features, but we will have to wait and see.
Firstly I am impressed at the use of the local pictures from google of the businesses which sets it apart from many of the other websites that I have blogged about recently.
There is the facility to leave reviews of which I am pleased to say one client has already seen fit to leave some words of "praize".
One thing I've noticed is that Google rarely puts the marker on the map correctly and you can see they are actually on the corner of John St and Middle Hillgate. Not every website gives me the option to re-place the marker. If there was something which I'd like these people to fix, then that would be it. This could be a fundamental issue with the company I've listed being 20-22, and now shortened to 22.
It is clean, if not a tad simple in design but at least its not trying to heard and having a million things at once screaming at the viewer.
Also in functionality there are tags and bookmark features. Sadly no GooglePlus or similar social bookmarking features, but we will have to wait and see.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Bizwiki
My latest and greatest submission this week has been to Bizwiki.co.uk
In fact I actually submitted a couple of months back but appear to have neglected to full utilise all the boxes available to me. One thing I always do is give more and better content every time I update on the these business directories. The reason being it always means that you are providing fresh content for visitors and search engines and you hopefully will be keeping it as detailed as possible.
I have submitted my details but yet at the time of writing it has yet to be approved by their moderation team. I don't know if or when it will be approved. Depends whether their support team is as bad as LinkedIn (I'll be writing a post about them real soon).
Bizwiki offers more boxes than most of these business directory pages and even allowing 5 extra links of your choice (thats in addition to your website).
I've filled out the boxes with some legal speal about the services offered and the quality of service provided.
Strangely my https link for google plus was being marked as an invalid url. I pointed the bug out to them. But thankfully it was submitted without issue.
Design wise its not unappealing (double negative I know). Functionality is ok, but still lacks alot of the social markers and reviews that the other websites have.
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