Business Directory Review and Comparison



Business Directory Review and Comparison

Author: Taco Fleur

Version: first draft

Date: Thursday, 21 February 2008

The purpose of this document is to record the results of the review and comparison between 4 Australian Business Directories, respectively: .au, .au, .au and mylocal..au

The main focus of the review is the comparison chart, and then touching upon several important items like: SEO, Accessibility and Google Indexing

This review will be made publicly available for download; either of the directories involved can then decide what to do with the results.

  |.au |.au |.au |mylocal..au | |

|price per month |unknown |unknown |19.95 |unknown |

|quality controlled |unknown |unknown |yes |unknown |

|product and service listings |no |no |yes |no |

|search local |yes |yes |yes |yes |

|search within a radius |no |no |yes |no |

|location maps |yes |yes |yes |yes |

|detailed statistics |unknown |no |yes |unknown |

|business reviews |no |yes |no |no |

|shows payment options |no |yes |yes |no |

|reports errors in listing |no |yes |yes |no |

|email a friend |yes |yes |yes |yes |

|full description |no |no |yes |no |

|categorized |yes |yes |yes |no |

|indexable link to website |no |yes |yes |no |

|search engine friendly |low |medium |high |no |

|accessibility |low |low |medium to high |no |

|email address protected |yes |yes |yes |yes |

|shortlist |no |no |yes |yes |

|shows other advertising |no |yes |no |yes |

|category suggestion tool |no |no |yes |no |

|browse by category |yes |yes |yes |yes |

|listing are rated |no |no |yes |yes |

|get directions |yes |no |yes |no |

|use of keywords in meta |no |no |yes |no |

|remembers postcode or location |yes |yes |yes |no |

|customized URL |no |no |yes |no |

|free email |no |no |yes |no |

|ABN required |unknown |unknown |yes |unknown |

|can specify sales channels |no |no |yes |no |

|can specify area covered |no |no |yes |no |

|allows syndication of content |no |no |yes |no |

|easy to contact |yes |yes |yes |no |

|has online chat |no |no |yes |no |

|shows distance away from user |yes |no |yes |yes |

|highlights keywords |no |no |yes |no |

|postcode finder |no |no |yes |no |

|easy to remember domain name |yes |yes |yes |no |

Yellow Pages

Website: .au

SEO

- no META keywords tag

- all business listings appear to have the same META description "Australia's most comprehensive business directory"

- no robots META directive

- business name is contained with the tag. There is also lots of whitespace in the title which might be damaging for SEO results

Accessibility

- missing onkeypress for onclick events

- one access key

Google

Has 1,270 pages indexed, does not have individual customer listings indexed.

Note

Owned by Telstra Corporation

[pic]

Truelocal

.au is an online local business directory with over 1.3 million listings. .au delivers local results by relevance - rather than paid listings and makes it easier than ever to connect consumers with local businesses.

If you’re looking for a local business, product or tradesperson - we’ll find them for you.

Search local. Get local on .au

Website: .au

SEO

- business keywords are used in the META tag

- business summary or description is not used in the description of the META tag, all business listings have the same description "Stop searching, find relevant results fast, with over 1.3 million local business listings in truelocal."

- META robots directive indicates “index, follow”, and the website of the client is indexable by search engines

- business name is contained with the tag

Accessibility

- missing onkeypress for onclick events

- no access keys at all

Google

Has over an incredible 2 million+ pages indexed in Google. Unfortunately, none of the indexed listings have any description/summary.

Note

Business listing layout can be improved upon, text is positioned too close together

Owned by News Limited

[pic]

clickfind

clickfind™ is an accurate, searchable business directory of Australian businesses, products and services. It combines a fair, efficient search engine with comprehensive business listings, giving you the best of both worlds.

The idea behind clickfind™ is simple: connect businesses with customers.

Website: .au

SEO

- business listing keywords are used in the keyword META tag

- business summary is contained within the description META tag

- META robots directive indicates “all”, and the website of the client is indexable by search engines

- business name is contained with the tag

Accessibility

- has onkeypress for most onclick events

- has couple of access keys

Google

Has 37,400 pages indexed in Google, 85% of that being the business listings itself

Owned by Private Australian Company

[pic]

My local

Website: mylocal..au

SEO

- keywords are used in the META tag, but do not contain keywords for the business listing itself

- business listings appear to have the same META description "Find online local Yellow Pages business listings, phone numbers, addresses, maps, driving directions , ratings and more in the .au directory."

- META robots directive indicates “noindex, nofollow”, and the website of the client is not indexable by search engines

- business name is contained with the tag. There is also lots of whitespace in the title which might be damaging for SEO results

Accessibility

- missing onkeypress for onclick events

- one access key

Google

Has 1 page indexed in Google, does not have individual customer listings indexed in Google.

Note

The HTML code looks like it has 50% whitespace contained within it, making the page download twice as big.

Owned by Microsoft

[pic]

Disclaimer

This review and comparison chart is compiled by Taco Fleur who is also the owner of .au – he remained objective during research. He has also presented this document for review to unbiased individuals, respectively being:

Name:

Website:

Name:

Website:

Name:

Website:

Name:

Website:

Name:

Website:

This review is based on several listings from the websites in question, not all business listings are reviewed. If you find any missing information or suggest a correction, please send an email to bd-review-2008@.au and we will post the updates to this on our blog

Written on 21 Feb 2008

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In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

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