Which directories are relevant for UK

[Frog-Marketing]

Hi there,

I was referred to this community by Moz staff, as I was just wondering if all of the suggested listings in the online presence checker are relevant if you are based in the Uk?  Many of them seem to be very much set up for companies based in the states and companies like Foursquare seem almost impossible to list on successfully, with no way to actually contact them.

What I have ascertained is that the incorrect information that is revealed by the online checker is not necessarily incorrect it is just the order that Google lists the information over here is different.

Lastly I just wondered if there are any drawbacks to using Brightlocal as a citation service, over and above other similar companies? They seem by far the most economical option...

Thanks in advance.

[effectdigital]

Not a problem. The UK is just in a weird situation with its listings where in the end, the input outweighs the outcome (IMO)

[Frog-Marketing]

Thanks so much for your help with this. I was beginning to wonder if this might be the case! Perhaps I shall do the core ones that seem easy (Scoot/ Bing/ Yelp/ Touch Local etc)  and not bother with the others.

[effectdigital]

Basically I don't think theres's an automated, cost-effective, long-term and scaleable way to do them inside of the UK. The cost-effective options typically have poor UK coverage (Bright Edge) or they have no legal agreement with the data aggregators (like Central Index) which means they seem great to use at first, but then when you want listings updates they begin to show how poor quality they are (IMO Moz Local does fall into this bracket - we were totally unable to change address over a period of months it was really bad)

Note: I like and support Moz's tools, I think they're really good. But specifically in the context of the separate Moz Local tool, specifically across the UK (where older directory listing companies have a stranglehold and make it different for Moz to get in) - I can't recommend Moz Local

There are some great tools out there for the UK like YEXT but it's more expensive than it is worth it. There's also the Yell version which uses the same tech, but the support is so bad, inept and slow that again it's not worth it

IMO in the UK none of the automated tools have reached the standard to be considered long-term viable for single or multiple clients. In the USA it's a different story, but in the UK it's very tricky indeed

All this knowledge is about a year old though. You could look again but my expectation is, nothing has changed radically (or maybe even at all)

Note: you won't be doing it manually, sorry (well, maybe if you're in the USA! But in the UK you won't). Most of the directories that count like local newspaper business directories, are supplied (in terms of their listing data) by listing aggregators like Central Index. Those guys have special relationships with some of the tool providers, but unfortunately it's the really expensive ones like YEXT. They won't talk to you, or listen to you (period). Moz Local can get stuff into C.I. but doesn't seem to ever be able to do any updates to existing listings which is a nightmare

[Frog-Marketing]

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply. I may be misunderstanding but your article seemed to be saying that there was no good automated way to do citations, which was useful to know. I'm happy to do it manually but what I really wanted to know is... out of the list of directories that Moz give you, if you are using the 'online presence checker' results, are there some from that list that you don't need to target if your market is uk based? Or conversely are there some that aren't on there that you should be targeting, as this tools seems quite USA centric...

TIA,

Sarah.

[effectdigital]

AFAIK there's nothing good for UK listings

Read my response to this question: https://moz.com/community/q/is-it-more-beneficial-to-use-yext-rather-than-doing-the-citations-manually

I went on this whole journey, and it turned out to be pretty pointless