The continuous battle for improved we presence stretches on, and we’re here to provide you with the strategies and tactics that allow you to take control. Many of the tactics we’re highlighting are well known methods, but that doesn’t stop them from being under-used. After all what value can there be in something that is given away for free? Maybe these are things you “know you should do” but never get around to doing. Maybe it’s the fear of something sounding simple, but when you scratch the surface the difficulties and “catches” creep out of the wood work. We’ve created our 10 minute takeaway series to combat these issues and help YOU improve your web presence by 1000%...

In Part 1 of This Series...

In Part 1 of this series we showed you how to boost your web presence with a Google My Business Profile and Google Maps Listing, all created in less than 30 minutes (including writing your profile). If you missed it, we suggest you check it out.

Improving Your Web Presence Part 1: Google My Business – Getting Started

We also wrapped a description around the words Web Presence and why it’s a good idea to be improving yours. There are both technical and more touchy-feely reasons why boosting your Web Presence is a smart use of your time, check them out in Part 1.

We went to the lengths of defining and showing you why your Web Presence is important to provide the motivation and shift in mindset needed to have a presence that stands out online.

...Stop thinking “who’s looking for me in that place online?” and start thinking “Where CAN the big search engines find my business information”...

Part 2: Claiming Your FREE Yell.com Listing

In this article we’re dropping some hints, tips and resources on creating your Yell.com listing for FREE, you can kick its butt in about 15 minutes if you’re slick.

Yell.com is a large database of businesses and along with many other well know directories, it’s more suited to tradesman and other businesses that serve consumers. Categorisation is fairly poor based on the needs of a UK Manufacturer and the search engine is driven by paid advert positioning and consumer reviews.

Despite all of this, Yell.com can serve as a source of backlinks for your website as well as boosting your visibility to Google and the other big search engines. For a UK Manufacturers it’s probably not worth the cash for a paid listing given the typical user, but the free web presence is worth 15 minutes of your time. So let’s get to it!

Before you start...

Very important: Do not just copy and paste the description and profile information from your Google My Business Profile. There are a few technical reasons which are up for debate, namely something called duplicate content. I won’t go into the depths of explaining duplicate content here, it’s boring and technical. Whether duplicate content is a problem or not, re-write your business profile information slightly on each of your profiles and there can be no problems!

The 9 Steps to Setting Up Your Yell.com Business Listing

Step 1 – Find your business

Just like with Google My Business, your company may already have a listing in Yell.com. This has been automatically generated by Yell.com based on information that’s been scraped from across the web.

To find out if your Manufacturing Company has an existing listing on Yell.com, simply search for your company name in their search engine. Click here to go to the Yell.com search page.

If you find your auto-generated business listing, you’ll be able to claim and update the listing. On the left hand side of the page you’ll see a button with a flag and the words “Is this your business?” Click on this and away we go to login or create an account.

If you don’t initially find a listing for your business, try variations of your business name to be sure there’s no confusion. If you still can’t find a listing, simply create a new listing, starting here

Step 3 – Register / Log in

You’ll be prompted to login, however if you haven’t got an account (it’s likely you haven’t), you just need to register.

To register, simply click “Create an Account” on the right hand side and you’ll be provided with the registration page. Enter your details and begin.

If you’re claiming an existing listing, you’ll be asked to confirm you’re either the business owner or an authorised party who can edit the business listing on their behalf. The process of confirming is as simple as clicking “Claim This Advert”, not exactly Fort Knox!

Step 4 – Edit & Update Your Profile Pages

You’re in! You can edit your Yell.com listing from this profile management area. First things first, check the information they currently hold on you is correct, if not, update it.

Step 5 – Describe your business

Remember my warning about copying and pasting? This is exactly what I’m talking about. It’s very tempting to just head on over the Google+ and copy what you’ve already written, but resist the temptation. Take inspiration, modify, enhance, and just make it different.

As I mentioned earlier in the article, Yell.com hasn’t got great categorisation for UK Manufacturers, so it’s worth putting a bit of thought into your business description.

• Highlight your Core Capabilities and your Supplementary Capabilities.
• Identify which industries you typically work within
• Give an overview of materials you typically work with
• Note any limitations on size or weight of components you can process
• Provide an idea of typical volumes of production you can handle
• Outline which software packages you use and which file formats you prefer

Hint: Notice how all of these are individually outlined in a Manufacturing Network Business Profile. Find out how you can become a member today - for less than the cost of a mobile phone contract! Find out more...

Step 6 – Add a Headline

Summarising your business in a single headline is always a challenge. If you take some unique descriptive aspects of you business you can usually end up with something that has impact. You should aim to give someone who glances at the headline an idea of what you do and where you do it. Don’t over-think this; remember we’re focusing on web presence.

Step 7 – List your Services & Products

This is where Yell.com’s history and identity as a database for consumers to find tradesman and local shops makes it difficult for UK Manufacturers.

There are a few categories which jump out as relevant, however they are also extremely broad. Once again, do not get hung up on this. The purpose of this yell listing is to boost your web presence in the major search engines, it’s not about getting found in Yell.com.

Step 8 – Add Photos

Photos are a great way to boost your visibility to the search engines through your Yell.com Business listing. When you upload an image make sure you give it a relevant description and also include your business name.

Step 9 – Contact Details and Links

The most important aspect of this whole process; make sure the contact details you provide here correlate with those provided on your website and other directory entries across the web.
Enter your web address in full and accurately, this will ensure you get the backlink juice you deserve for your efforts. Yell.com also lets you add a Facebook and Twitter profile URL, if you have them, enter them in.

And that’s it...

You’re done. That’s all there is to it. There are a few other features that Yell.com allows you to play with, but realistically none of them really apply to a Subcontract Engineering company. I’ve talked you through the 9 short and most important steps to creating and filling in the parts of your profile which are relevant to boosting your web presence and your visibility online.

Coming up in our “10 Minute Takeaway” Series

• How to claim and set up your Linkedin Company Page in less than 30 minutes
• How to create a Facebook Page and Place for your business in less than 15 minutes
• How to claim and set up your Bing Business Page in less than 15 minutes
• How to claim and set up you free Yell listing in less than 15 minutes
• How to list your business in loads of places online for free
• And a bunch of other 10 minute takeaways!

I hope you got a lot of value out of this guide, and I hope this will inspire a bout of Yell.com Business Listings to be claimed by the community of Subcontract Manufacturing Companies in the UK! There are so many business profiles that remain unclaimed, it makes standing out actually quite easy. Take 15 minutes today and boost your web presence instantly with this 10 minute takeaway from us at Manufacturing Network.

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