Whether you’ve just moved into a new city, or you want to research a potential niche market for your company, you need to know how to find out which business operates in a certain area. Knowing so will simply make your life easy, as you’ll be able to contact a local business after you relocate. Or, you’ll be able to properly research the local competition, if you plan on expanding your business. So, how does one list businesses by location within a city? Well, that is what we are here to find out.
An easy way to list businesses by location within a city
At first glance, it might seem that finding a list of businesses situated within a city might be an easy task. You simply hop online and type in the name of your city, and that you are looking for businesses, right? Well, not quite. Unforunteally, most websites have trouble with keeping up will all the businesses that are operational in their area. After all, business change, close or relocate, which is why keeping a decent list can often be difficult. So, to give you an idea of how to actually find a list, we are going to take two approaches.
Looking in small cities
If you are looking for a list of businesses within a small city, the best course of action is to contact their official website. There you can them to send you their current list of operational business in their city. Governments in small cities have an easier time keeping track of business as they are fewer in number and scale.
The only difficulty is that the lists can be a bit outdated, especially if the person in charge of maintaining them is doing a poor job. So, while you may have a list to work with, consider going through it on your own for the sake of reliability. After all, if it is a small city, you should have a fairly easy time checking up on individual businesses.
Looking in large cities
If, on the other hand, you are going to a large city, you might have some trouble with finding a reliable list. While you can try contacting the local government, they might be less able to give you a decent list. Large cities are much more dynamic when it comes to businesses. Relocations, information changes, close-downs, reopenings… Things like this are commonplace in large cities. Therefore, you can hardly rely on a government agency to easily give you a list.
Using Google and other websites
Instead, we suggest that you go one of the larger websites, and see what info you can find. Google Maps are a great place to start, especially if you want to focus on a single industry within an area. It allows you to dynamically change your location, which makes listing businesses that much easier. Furthermore, you can get all the necessary information from Google, along with helpful reviews. The only downside is that Google can be quite slow to update information, especially when it comes to emails or phone numbers. So, while Google is a great place to start, don’t consider it the only tool. Places like:
- Yellow pages
- Better business bureau
- Chamber of commerce
- Official website of the local area
All of them are a good way to double-check your info and see whether you’ve missed a couple of business.
What to keep in mind when representing your business online
The things we said so far should at least give you an idea of how to list businesses by location within a city and why it can be difficult to properly present your business online. So, to help you out, we are going to take a quick look at the top things to consider in order to properly present your business. By doing so you will ensure that any person that tries to make a list of local businesses will find yours.
Setting up a decent website
Properly setting up a business website is a long process, which is why we won’t go into much detail now. The one thing that we will note is that you need to ensure that the info about your website is easily visible.
Ideally, you will have a “contact us” or “about us” page where all the vital info will be listed. Furthermore, you should consider adding a footer on your website that contains the most vital contact info. After that, just ensure that you give Google an updated sitemap. This will not only ensure that you have a better SEO. But it will also help Google recommend your business when people look for it in your local area.
Dealing with other websites
To help people find your business, you need to do a decent job spreading it through different websites. This includes:
- promoting your business on websites that offer professional or local citations.
- setting up a GMB account.
- regularly checking and updating your NAP info.
You should also consider addressing sites like Better Business Bureau and Chamber of commerce, as they can be a useful source for lists of business. Apart from professional citations, you should also pay close attention to all citations and ensure that any info about your business is true and well presented. You can even hire professionals to help you out on that front. Our advice is to also pay attention to your reviews, as they can be as important as your location.
