Tag Archives: CityDirect.info

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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Graphics options for your CityDirect.info web pages

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Your CityDirect.info web pages offer you many different ways to improve the look and feel of your pages. Differentiating your pages and customizing your graphics, easily sets you apart from the competition. There are different places you can add graphics, and there are a few things you need to know:

First, all graphic, color and branding options are exclusive to the enhanced versions of all of our products. Basic pages do not have the option.

Second thing to pay attention to is the size of each graphic and the location from which you are uploading them. Each image can be uploaded from a specific location in Centrepointe, and each image has specific publication requirements.

Publication Requirements are always located right above the location where you upload an image.  In order to successfully upload, an image must be sized correctly, or Centrepointe will not allow you to upload the image.

If you do not have the ability to upload the images your self, here are some great resources that will allow you to adjust the images:

Pixlr’s online photo editor

Photo Shop Express

Avairy’s Image Editor (Watermarks all finished files for free version)

Obvious Ideas downloadable image re-sizer

Resize.it Online image re-sizer (will take a few steps)

Editing graphics can be very time consuming and frustrating,  and often not something that everyone enjoys spending time on. If this is the case, let us take care of it. We offer graphic design services and will adjust and upload your pictures for you. Just call and ask.

Here are a few examples of the graphics we have done: Dr. Chris Schell, Tropical North, Bayview Tree Sales.


 

1. Logo: Your Logo is the most important graphic on your page. This is how people are going to recognize your organization. Once uploaded, it will appear prominently on each of your enhanced pages.

Color Scheme:  Your color scheme is an important part of the overall look and feel of your web pages.  Currently, we have over 60 different color scheme options you can choose from.  You simply need to change your color scheme in one location and it will be applied to all of your pages.  If you are having trouble finding the right CityDirect.info color scheme, talk to your Marketing Specialist to see how you can get a customized color scheme.

2. Background:  A well chosen background can tie the look and feel of your pages together and enforce the overall look and feel of all of your pages.  Background images show on the left and right sides of your information.

3. Header Graphics:  Header Graphics exist on the Start Page, Profile Page, Specialties, Brands, Products and Services Pages.  They are located at the top of the page and are normally the very first thing that someone will see when they arrive at a page. Click to learn more about editing your Header Graphics.

 

4. Paragraph Graphics: Paragraph Graphics are available for each content grouping.  Their purpose is to attract, interest, and inform readers of the content of the paragraph.  These images are visual representations of what you will find in the article and should emphasize your main message.

5. Inline graphics: These graphics exist between different sections on your Start Page and Profile Page. They are great ways to visually attract visitors to a particular aspect of your business, whether it be a specialty of yours, a brand you carry, or a product you offer.

 

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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Improving Your Web Performance

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Improving your web performance through CityDirect.info can be done in a few steps. You are already headed in the right direction by becoming a CityDirect.info Business Member.

Here is what’s next:

Step one: Get your core content in place.

In the online world, content is considered King! King's crown
The most important factor to getting found in search results are the written words on your page.  When you signed up for a CityDirect.info account and activated your basic products, our system automatically created some content based on the categories you listed your business in.  We did this because search engines find our pages quickly, and having a some content in place is better than having nothing there.

This content is designed as a placeholder, and needs to be changed for you to reach maximum search results. There are a few key places we suggest editing first, but you’ll want to make sure that eventually, your pages are filled with lots of rich content about every aspect of your business.

  1. Review your organization details and make sure they are accurate.
  2. Edit your Start Page Content – This is one of the first things potential customers and search engines will find about your business.
  3. Edit your Keywords to ensure that the search engines know what searches you want to be found in.
  4. Edit your Profile Page content and give the search engines more content to search through.

Step two: Work on the look and feel

With your content in place the search engines should start picking up on the content in your pages, putting your information higher in search results. In no time at all, potential customers will start coming to your page because you offer what they are looking for. When they get there, you want them to make a connection and feel confident that your business is the right one for them. Customizing the look and feel of your pages will really help customers start to develop positive feelings towards your business.

Colour wheel

 

Note: All look and feel, branding, and graphic options are exclusive to the Enhanced Versions of our products.  With Basic Pages, you can upload graphics etc. but they will not be displayed.

There are many ways that you can update the look and feel of your pages.  Start by reviewing the Graphic Option Overview.

 

Afterward, here are a few places that you can begin making edits to your graphics:

  1. The Header Graphic on your Start Page
  2. The Color Scheme
  3. The Background

Step three: Update regularly.

After you have created the content on your Start Page, updated the look and feel of your pages, you should make sure that you are making time to update your pages on a regular basis.

This may raise the question, “What should I be updating?”

Update post-it note

The answer: Everything.

While the core functions of your business may be the same from day to day, there should be different elements that change on a regular basis.  You may have a special on for a week or you may have new products or services to offer. We want to know about everything.

Search engines  like fresh, current content. Updating your content is key to keeping your content fresh and easily found by major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Try editing your Call to Action, make some minor changes to your Start Page, or update your Profile Page. Our system recognizes that you are making updates and sends a signal to Google to promote your placement on search engines.

For your convenience, we have created a step by step checklist for you to use to ensure that your web presence gets completed. Simply click on the link below to download the checklist in .pdf format.

Website Checklist

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Editing your Keywords

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Editing your Specialties, Brands, Products or Services Keywords is easy.  Once you have Signed into Centerpointe you will need to navigate to the ‘edit’ button of your Organization/Location Details.

The keyword section is located near the bottom of the Organization Location editing page.  You should see a clear section titled “Specialties, Brands, Products and Services” and four white text boxes:

Adding and editing keywords is as simple as pointing, clicking and typing.  However, there are a few things to consider for best results:

  1. Order of Importance – You want the most important keyword in each section first.
  2. Be Specific - Don’t mix up your keyword in the wrong sections, ie. make sure that your services contain only the services you provide and no brands, products or specialties.
  3. Don’t Spam – Using the same keyword or phrase in exactly the same way twice will provide no benefit, so there is no need for duplication.
  4. Be Inclusive- Although there is some truth to the thought “the more keywords you add, the less specific and targeted you are”,  it is important that all of the important keywords are included. You must make sure that every search term that is important for your business to be found, is included in your list of keywords.

Remember, keywords and phrases need to be separated by commas and are not case sensitive!

After you have entered all of the keywords you want to be found for, 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 display on the web.

Once you are satisfied with how the content appears, click on “Save and return to account overview.”

Don’t forget to revisit your keywords every now and then and make sure they are fresh, relevant and up to date.

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Google Places- The Place To Be

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If you sit down and think about it, Google is everywhere- smartphones, laptops, tablets, offices, cars and most importantly- in the hands of your consumers.

Keeping that in mind, and adding in the fact that one out of five searches on Google are related to location, Google Places is a great tool to have for your business.

Google Places helps your business get found by location. Since one out of five searches are related to location, it makes it important that Google knows where your  business is!

Why should I get Google Places?

97% of customers search for local businesses online
Show them exactly where you are with a Google Places Page

Google Places provides very useful information about who is visiting the Place page and where they are searching from
Knowing this information can help you decide on marketing strategies, and learn more about the people who are looking for you.

It gives the searcher a quick snapshot of a business including the address, reviews, products and services, hours of operation, photos and other things that someone might want to know about a business
Making it easy for your customers to find the information they want will make them like you more. In turn increasing the possibility they will come to your store, or call you for more information.

Google Places is a great way to build an online presence, even if your company hasn’t got a website!

 

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Editing your Contact & Address details

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The easiest way to edit your contact & address information on your CityDirect.info web page is to you pencils to log in.  Simply find your CityDirect.info Start Page.

Just above your contact details to the right is a small pencil.  Click on it, enter your username and password, and you will be taken directly to the location to change your communicative and a physical location information.

You will be directed to your contact details first.

 

 

Simply scroll down to edit your address details.

 

 

 

After editing your details, 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 display on the web.

Once you are satisfied with how the content appear click on “Save and return to account overview.”

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Editing your Call to Action (Enhanced Pages)

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You now have people coming to your page. They are reading your information, are interested in what you are offering…

…But they are not being prompted to take action.

A strong call to action is important to give customers that little push to take the next step.

Editing the call to action on your Start Page in Centrepointe is easy to do with these few steps:

1. Log into your account from the Business Member log-in page:

2. From the Account Overview page scroll down to the “Start Page” section and select the option to Edit/Remove

3. From this page scroll down to the Call to Action. This is where you will be able to make edits to the content that is displayed on your page.

Remember: the heading has a limit of 125 characters and the subheading has a limit of 140 characters (both including spaces).

4. Once you have made the changes to your Call to Action, don’t forget to save! Scroll to the bottom of the page, preview your changes and then Save!

 

 

 

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Recently Updated Profile Pages

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New:

Organizations who have recently updated their Profile Pages are now listed together on one page.

Example:

http://members.barriedirect.info/updated-profile-pages/

Breakdown:

The recently updated pages are organized in two ways. First, they are separated by Enhanced and Basic Profile Pages. Recently updated Enhanced Profile Pages come first, followed by the recently updated Basic Profile Pages.

The recently updated Profile Pages are then broken down by the date and time of the last update.  The most recent updates are found at the top of the category.

However, Enhanced Profile Pages always come first, no matter how recently updated the Basic Profile Pages are.

For example,  Anthony Adam Mortgage Sense Inc., with an Enhanced Profile Page, was updated  2 days ago:

Even though the Barrie Condo team updated their page 4 hours ago:

Anthony Adam Mortgage Sense Inc. would come before Barrie Condo Team because it is in the Enhanced Profile Page category.

Features:

Merit badges: Merit badges are placed on the left hand side of your logo and reflect how recent the update was with a gold, silver or bronze badge.

Time of last update: The time of the last update is shown so that everyone knows how recently your page was updated!

Headline and subhead: The first Headline and first Subheading from the Profile Page are pulled into this list to provide more information about the organization. This also creates consistency between pages.

These headings were taken from here on the Profile Page:

Logo and name: The organization name and logo are shown in the Recently Updated Profile Page list for easy recognition.

There is a maximum of 20 organizations in the list for recently updated Profile Pages: 10 Enhanced Profile Pages, and 10 Basic Profile Pages. Organizations can get their names on this list simply by updating their Profile Page. The more your Profile Page is updated, the more your name can be featured on this list!

Example of Recently Updated Enhanced Profile Page list :

Example of Recently Updated Basic Profile Page list :

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