29 free online places to list your business

Launching an online business can be initially overwhelming. Here at OPTe, we are making your website building experience as smooth as possible. With OPTe you have access to the best industry themes and plugins such as the DIVI builder by Elegant Themes, giving you the flexibility and features to suit your business needs.

Considering on page SEO is your next step post site development.  This ensures that the search engine bots can index your website properly. But your reach needs to extend further, to hang out in places you can find your target audience, and lure them back to your site, products and services.

This will be an ongoing task.. To save you a few hours of reading, we have already compiled a list of places to share your website. Some work will involve  submitting a simple URL, while others like social media platforms will require a more thinking and planning with a strategic approach.

Review websites and business directories

Let’s get going with online business directories and review websites, a first step you should take. This will apply to you, even if you are just reading this now and your website has been online for a while. These sites will not only be a place to submit your website URL, but it will also allow your business to be searchable and show your business to a wider audience.

1. Google My Business: whether you own a local shop or you are doing your business online, make sure your profile is on Google My Business and filled in correctly. Make sure to verify your account accuracy as it can be tricky in certain countries, try contacting google support if you encounter a problem

2. Bing Places for Businesses: although it has a smaller market share than Google My Business, Bing covers a decent amount of searches, so don’t skip registering your business for this service.

3. Yellow Pages: according to their website 60 million people visit Yellow pages each month, if your target audience is either in an Anglo saxon country such as USA, UK, India and Canada you should be there.

4. Foursquare: this is a directory that you certainly need to be is you are a Shop, Restaurant and Bar.

5. Yelp: many businesses think Yelp is only a restaurant business directory, but it is not! All the following business categories can be listed: Shops, Beauty salons, Spas, Garages, local services, education, Real estate, Arts and entertainment, Health… But keep in mind that your clients will leave some reviews so make sure you answer them as fast as possible. Yelp is only available in certain cities around the world so make sure you check the list out before you start signing up.

6. TripAdvisor: if your business is in the tourism sector, this is the place you can’t miss! If you are a hotel, hostel, apartment, bar or a restaurant owner, TripAdvisor is a must-have for you. Get ready to answer reviews!

Social Media

Whether you like it or not this is the part where you should select wisely. Most businesses are already on Facebook, but is your page setup correctly so that a user can find all the related information to your business? Despite its popularity, many business owners don’t utilize all the fill in sections, so don’t be one of them! Make sure you you respect your brand identity, have active profiles and pages on the following platforms:

7. Facebook I don’t think I need to explain this one, I’m sure you had your facebook page up even before your website!

8. Twitter twitter will take you a minimum of 1 hour/day for you to be efficient on this platform.

9. Google+ often forgotten but you shouldn’t miss out on it, they are many active groups using this platform.

10. Instagram the place to be transparent about your business and products, take photos and short videos and share.

11. Youtube if you have video content this is the place to be.

12. LinkedIn build your personal and company profile. Stay in touch with your professional connexions and audience. Pro Tip: Make sure all your employees have their profiles updated.

13. Pinterest people use Pinterest to discover and save ideas. Ideas can take lots of forms, so make sure to share your business pro tips on this platform.

14. Snapchat you might of tried it already and find hard to use, don’t think  it’s only used by teenagers because half of the new users are over the age of 25!  Read this guide if you are still figuring out how to use snapchat.

15. Dailymotion another video sharing platform, number 2 of the industry but shouldn’t be neglected.

16. Vimeo focusing on high quality video sharing, this platform is the prefered one of the professionals.

These first 8 Social media platforms we know to be the most popular. Key to any engagement is ensuring you remain active and create value on each platform as much as possible. You should always follow social media trends and identify the newcomers entering the social media market where your target audience could be. Spending time on new social media platforms in the early stages can be time consuming but could pay out later on as you will be well established, evidencing your credibility in your chosen field.

Share your Blogs (Content aggregation)

If you have a blog on your website you should use content aggregation websites to promote your blogs. If you don’t have a blog section yet get started as soon as possible. Not only will your blog get people to engage more on your website, but you can also use those blog posts to promote your website across multiple content aggregation platforms. Remember, your content should always provide value to your readers so that more people will want to share/read it. Whatever the subject of your articles, here’s a list of places where you can promote them.

17. Flipboard top one news feed app on mobiles and Tablet, it is a platform you should be.

18. Linkedin pulse best for any news that could be shared by a professional audience.

19. Medium good platform to share your blogs and build up a following.

20. Hubpages create and share your articles.

21. Scoop.it great platform to discover and publish content on the go.

There are a few more, but these five are the major ones we use, there may be bigger ones in your country for non english speakers, go ahead and find them.

Press Releases

When something happens in your company that is newsworthy, then a press release is critical. Writing a good press release is a skill in itself and taking care to study and develop the right format will be useful in all your future interactions. If you plan to distribute your press release for journalists to pick it up, then you should keep in mind that it is better to write as if you were a journalist yourself. When your press release is ready, you need to submit it to as many places as possible. That’s where this list comes in handy. Here are the platforms that let you post for free:

22. PRLog: submit your press release for free up to 500 words.

23. Open PR: their free plan is up to 3 press releases per day.

24. 24-7 PressRelease the free plan allows you to submit up to 1 press release a day and will stay on their website for 6months.

25. Free Press Release not a lot of options in the free version but still good to try it out.

Visual Content Promotion

I have already mentioned above a few visual content promotional platforms, but here is one that is specialized:

26. Flikr Great for Photographers.

Two great place to submit your infographics:

27. Infographics Archive

28. Submit Infographics

Last tip: Email signature

Often overlooked, this method is very effective when it comes to attracting website on your traffic.

29. Email Signature: Once you have established one-to-one communication with someone via email, chances are they’ll check your website, especially when you use a specialized app to develop your signature.

You don’t have to be on all of these platforms but choosing the right ones that are effective to reach your audience will help you launch your online business effectively. Don’t stop at simply launching your website, as your website was just the first mile  marathon and now you need to finish the race!

If you are using a platform that you love and is working out for your business please feel free to comment below.