Free Index is a unique business directory that’s available to individuals and companies in the United Kingdom. It offers a way to promote your business online without cost. As the name suggests, it’s a free way to get noticed on the Internet and promote your products or services.
To start advertising for free on Free Index, simply click Register in the top right corner of the web page or any of the chunky red ‘Sign Up Now’ buttons on the site. The first thing you’ll get is a choice, asking if you are a business, or are you here to browse? If you’re a business, a company, a sole trader, or anyone doing business, you should click for that option. This leads you to the standard business application form.
You’ll notice that the form wants address details, don’t be alarmed; they want to help other people to find you. If you don’t have a business address, use your home address, but don’t add a street number. They will also ask for a landline telephone number, you can use a free phone number if you have one. Don’t worry; these details can be hidden at a later stage.
The next step is to create a profile. This is made simple by Free Index because they help you at every stop along the way. The first box will be an introduction to your company. It will suggest words, but all of it is customisable, so feel free to ignore their best advice. Even after you’ve finished with it’s helpful company introduction box, you’ll get the opportunity to go back and edit it to exactly what you want. You may use up to a maximum of 600 characters, so don’t get too carried away.
Once you’ve finished the introduction section it requires you to fill in at least two further parts from the list of other possible profile sections. These include client information, staff qualification and experience, services and products and some other selections. Whilst filling these in, the help Free Index Wizard helps you complete them, but it warns you strongly against simply copying and pasting information from your company website straight onto Free Index. It also lets you know that a human editor will give your page a sweep before it goes live. This can take up to 3-5 days, so make sure it’s exactly how you want it to be, and then sit back and wait for approval. They do this to maintain the integrity of the website and to avoid spammers, fakes, frauds and, well okay, idiots.
Once you’ve finished writing about your company, you can add a photo. Choose something that helps promote you, your brand or company online. Remember, the value of pictures to sell your business.
While you’re waiting for your free listing in the Free Index directory to go live, why not check out some of the other great features that Free Index has to offer.
One of the most fascinating and helpful areas of the site that can really help you is the Business Advice Centre (you’ll find me, Nikki Pilkington, there as a resident SEO expert!). Written by a range of business experts, this special feature of the site provides real actionable business advice from some of the UK’s top business mentors. The advice is free; you don’t have to sign up for anything, nor is there any sort of catch. You can ask questions directly to a specific recognised business leader or pose a general question for several (or all) to answer. Topics are as diverse as Marketing, Law, Sales, Tax, SEO and Advertising. At present, the Business Advice Centre is in BETA testing, but it looks like it will become a very popular permanent addition to the site any time soon.
As is now the norm of websites that include elements of Social Networking and Social Media, there is a review section on this website. This means that your customers can review you and your product or service. At the same time, if you find your suppliers on Free Index, you can also review them. Furthermore, if there are partners or even clients of yours on Free Index, you can add a few words about what they’re like to work with. Building this sense of a business community is an important element if Free Index is going to succeed over the long term.
One of the best things about Free Index is the way that individual cities have their own City Pages. Having this capacity on Free Index allows people to find you directly when they make a search through the city pages. If you live in Nottingham, and you want a supplier in Nottingham, you don’t want to search through fifty suppliers in various other parts of the United Kingdom in order to find out if there is a Nottingham supplier. In this way, it works very much like a business community version of Local Search Engine Marketing.
Lastly, it isn’t enough to simply set up a Free Index area and leave it. It’s much more than just a business address listing. Free Index is also a place to promote your products and services by sharing your expertise. Answer some of the questions if you can in the Business Advice Centre. Perhaps you’ll become a Free Index expert in time! This also increases your online credibility and improves the likelihood of people referring their friends, family colleagues and clients to you.
Like all web based marketing tools, it’s important to carefully consider the text that you use on Free Index. Ensure that you have good, well-written copy and that the content of your Free Index pages is keyword rich. If you don’t feel confident about this, then you should seek help.
Free Index is a free tool that can really help to maximise your presence on the web. But it’s something that needs to be tended over time, like a garden. The more time and attention you spend on it now, the greater the blossom when Spring arrives.
If you would like help with your Free Index presence, drop me a line at nikki@nikkipilkington.com and I may be able to help.
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