Tag Archives: Business Listings

Editing Your Organization Location Details

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To start improving your web presence

It’s important to review the core business information found in your Organization Location Details.  This information includes your phone number and address, hours of operation and the payment methods you accept.

Editing the details of your Organization Location is very easy to do.  Text boxes, satellite buttons and drop down menus make changes fast and simple.  Go through all the options and make sure that each section is filled out completely. Remember that everything you add to your Organization Location Details is searchable information, and can help set you apart from your competition.

Here are some useful hints about specific sections of your Organization Location Details:

1. Branding.  Here you choose how your business name displays online. You can upload a logo, choose your “established since” date and select a color scheme for your CityDirect.info pages.

2. Communication.  Include all of the ways that people can contact you here. A key contact is required,  and by including the different languages spoken will make your business searchable by those languages. Here is an example: “Portuguese Veterinarian in Toronto Ontario.”

3. Physical Location.  A correct address in the city which you are established is required, but can be kept private. Including a neighborhood, closest major intersection or transit stop will help potential clients pin point the location of your business. Your GPS coordinates control the map displayed on your pages and are automatically generated when you first sign up.

4. Market Area. You can define the areas that you do business. From your clients point of view, think about how far they would want to travel for their product or service. Try to keep your market area within this distance.

5. Online. Include the email address that you would like clients to use.  Add your domain name and our system will create helpful links through your CityDirect.info pages.  The section below denotes what domain name is being assigned to your Start Page and the registration information for it.

6. Hours of Operation. When is your business open to serve the public?  When are you willing to accept phone calls?  Your hours of operation is basic but critical information. Using drop down lists you can select opening and closing times for each day.  Select the satellite box if you accept phone calls outside of regular business hours and feel free to add in a description of your operational hours if it is easier to describe.

7. Payment. Including the methods of payment that you accept is often over looked information, but is  key that your customers know.  Use the check boxes to include the currencies accepted and discounts you offer.  If you are a non profit organization check that  box to indicate this information.

8. Features. There are a lot of standard features used to inform your potential clients.  Restaurants and hotels have additional features that they can include by selecting check boxes related to their organizations.

9. Specialties, Brands, Products and Services Keywords. Sorted in order of importance, your keywords clearly tell the public and search engines, what your business is all about. Be sure to be inclusive but not repetitive.  eg. Plumbing, Plumbers, Plumber, Commercial Plumber are not considered the same.

10. Additional Information. There is also the option to add extra information for your customers. For instance, manufactures find it helpful to define their capabilities in terms of number of employees or annual sales. This gives their potential clients an idea of what their capacity is.

← Go back to “Improving Web Presence” Proceed to “Edit Start Page Content” →

Return to “Instruction Guide”

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Claiming or creating a listing on CityDirect.info

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Claiming or creating a listing on the CityDirect.info network allows you to control information on your Directory listing or publish new information.

Note that only Business Owners, or an authorized Marketing Manager employed by the company will be allow to control a businesses listing. Under no circumstances will 3rd party organizations be allowed to control a listing of another business.

 

To Claim a listing:

Click on the Claim button.

Click on the Claim button.

Method one: From your ‘More Info’

Your more info page is simply a page that contains your vital business information such as your phone number, address (if available), and business name as well as applicable categories.

You will find the “More Info” page by clicking on your Directory Listing on your CitySite.

There are sevral different “claim” or “edit” buttons throughout the site.  Clicking on any of them will allow you to start the claim process.

 

 

 

 

 

To Claim or Create a listing

From City Site or Directory Sub Categories.

Click to sign in.

Click to sign in.

On almost every page on the CityDirect.info network there are “sign-up” and “sign-in” in the top right hand corner of the page. Simply click on the “Sign-Up” link to start the claiming process.

By using either of these two methods you will be taken to the account creation page. You can be confident while inputting your information that CityDirect.info will not disclose your it to any third party, you can read our privacy policy here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have created your account select “join” and your account will automatically be created. Be sure to remember your password as you will use it along with your email to access your account in the future.

At this step you may be asked to sign in using the account that you just created. If you are, this is a normal step. Simply enter in your email and password and click “login.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether you are claiming an existing listing or adding one to our network, the first thing you need to do is find your organization on our CitySite.

 

 

 

 

 

First, search for your business by using your telephone number. If you are trying to claim a listing with an incorrect telephone number, use the number the current displays on the listing you are attempting to claim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If no match has been generated, we then ask you to search for you business by it’s name and city.

 

 

If a match has been found you will be able to select the satellite box beside it and claim it. If not you can choose to create a listing or search for it again.

Once you select claim, or create your listing, you will be taken to our Wizard that allows your to add and edit details of your business.

 

 

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Editing your Profile Page Content Groupings

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Unlike the Start Page, the Enhanced Profile Page has ten groupings, where the basic version only has three.  In other words, the enhanced version gives you ten opportunities to describe different aspects of your business, ten opportunities to tell the search engines what you do, and ten opportunities to get found by potential customers.

Once you have logged in using the pencil icon on the Profile Page Content Grouping, you will be taken directly to the Profile Page editing area in Centrepointe.  The first section you will see is the Graphic Options which are exclusive to the Enhanced Profile Page.

Scroll down past the graphic options until you arrive at the profile information and First Content Grouping.

Are you wondering what should you be writing in each content grouping?  The first Content Grouping should be another overview of your business that reinforces the important parts of your business.  You should tell people the broad stroke of your business, how long you have been in business, why someone should pick you, what sets you apart from other similar business, what are you good at, the core values of your company and your mission statement.

The second, through the tenth Content Grouping should focus exclusively on one important product, service, or aspect of your business.  It should not include any reference to any other product, service or aspect.  They should also be in order of importance. For example, the second Content Grouping should be exclusively about your most important keyword, and the tenth Content Grouping should be about your ninth most important keyword.

The Content Groupings on the Profile Page are very similar to the Start Page. Refer to the Start Page Content Grouping blog to learn how to write a proper 1. Heading, 2. Sub Heading and 3. Paragraph.

A big difference with the Profile Page Content Grouping is that it comes with the ability to create an 4. external link.  Search engines, like Google, will read a particular paragraph and then follow the associated link.  If they find material that is relevant after the link, it will help with your search result for the keyword in your Content Grouping.  For instance, if your paragraph is all about ‘Emergency Veterinary Services’ and you link to a page on your web site that is exclusively about ‘Emergency Veterinary Service’ search engines will consider this a valuable link and you should receive better search results for it.  (Learn more about creating effective External Paragraph Links)

5. Paragraph Graphics are a very powerful way to encourage people to understand what a Content Grouping is about.  Think of how newspapers grab your attention about a particular article by associating a descriptive picture with it.

6. The SEO Assistant is a tool that provides helpful hints on how to best use a particular option.  There is one for each content grouping.  For each one, you should include 3 keywords that are closely related to the content grouping.  By including these words in your SEO Assistant, you are clearly telling the search engines what particular keywords the associated paragraph is focused on.  Keyword included in the SEO Assistant will also appear in a keyword list at the bottom of the page, further optimizing those words.

7. Should you wish, you can have the update that you have made to the first Content Grouping, published to the different social media pages for your particular CitySite.  This satellite box remains checked by default, and we encourage you to publish all updates when you alter your first Content Grouping.

Once you are finished writing your content, scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on the “Preview Edits” button. This will take you to a preview of how your content will be displayed on the web.

Once you are satisfied with how the content appears, click on “Save and Return to Account Overview.”

 

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More Sharing!

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* Improved *

Share buttons for LinkedIn and Twitter are now added to More Info and Start Pages, Basic or Enhanced

Until now, there were only two options for sharing in this module:

This module  can be found on the Start Page of both Basic and Enhanced profiles:

We have now added LinkedIn and Twitter buttons to the share module:

These extra sharing options allow for your page to be shared in more ways and increase the number of people who will potentially see your pages.

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More Content Than Ever Before

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* Improved *

Headlines are now available on Basic Listings!

Previously, headlines were only available on Enhanced Listings and were followed by a small summary about the organization.

Enhanced Listings Headlines

Enhanced Listings Headlines

Now, Basic Listings have headlines as well!

Placing headlines on the Basic Listings controlled by Business Members is another way in which we can differentiate Business Members from Prospects. The headlines also provide another way for you to get updated, fresh content on your Listings.

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Pages Are Shorter

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* New *

Listings are divided and broken down into more than one page.

Before: all of the listings were on one page. Enhanced at the top, followed by Basic and Prospects listed in alphabetical order.

Now: the listings will be divided into the following four divisions:

The change: Depending on the number of listings, the Directory Subcategories will be broken down into more than one page.

If the Directory subcategory (per CitySite)…

1.Contains only Prospects

The pages will be divided into listings of 25 per page. Page one: 1 to 25, page two: 26-50 and so on.

2. Contains Basic Listings for Business Members and Prospects

All of the Business Member listings will be placed on page 1- no matter how many. Then the Prospect Listings will start on page 2 and follow the 25 listings per page format. In the case that the Basic Listings fall under 10 listings, fill the page with Prospect Listings and start page 2 at number 11.

3. Contains Enhanced Listings and Basic Listings for Prospects

All Enhanced and Basic Listings will be places on page 1, and page 2 will only hold Prospects. In the case that the Enhanced and Basic Listings fall under 10 listings, the page will be filled with Prospect Listings and start page 2 at number 11.

4. Contains both Enhanced and Basic Listings for both Business Members and for Prospects

All the Business Member’s Listings are placed on page 1. Prospects will be placed on the 2nd page, again following the 25 Listings per page division. In the case that the Enhanced and Basic Listings for Business Members fall under 10 listings, fill the page with Prospect Listings and start page 2 at number 11. 

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New Icons, Buttons and Links On Listings

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* New *

We have finally added access to Video, Social, Specialties, Brands, Products, and Services to the Listings on the Directory Pages for Business Members.

Enhanced Listings will have new icons, in an updated style. The Basic Listings for Business Members now have more links, and for the first time, icons as well!

Example of Enhanced Listing:
 

Enhanced Listings
Enhanced Listings
Enhanced Listing

Enhanced Listing

Example of Basic Listing:

Basic Listings

Basic Listings

Basic Listing

Basic Listing

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Show You’re Involved

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* New *

“Verified Listing Published by Owner” label placed on Listings managed by actual businesses or organizations.

New: Label- “Verified Listing Published by Owner”

By placing a  “Verified Listing Published by Owner” label on your Listing, we are showing that you are involved. Visitors see that you support this Listing, and in turn, makes it a more trustworthy, reliable and credible source of information.

Verified Listing by Owner- Enhanced

Verified Listing by Owner- Enhanced

Verified Listing by Owner- Basic

Verified Listing by Owner- Basic

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