Hey there! I've been using Moz Local since it's inception.
I will try to respond to all of your questions and I will give you some tips on things to consider in the local business directory submission process.
Will Moz local take away the job of local directory submission from me?
Moz local will take away the job of claiming your local business ONLY FOR 7 WEBSITES / LOCAL DIRECTORIES. Moz Local will submit your business to 7 sources; 4 data aggregators and 3 major local directories. The data aggregators are Localeze, Infogroup, Factual and Acxiom. The local directories are Foursquare, BOTW Local, and Superpages (Some may consider DexMedia a data aggregator). You will not need to claim these local business listings manually. Moz Local will take care of it. If you ever need to update business information in any of these sites/directories I highly recommend you do it in Moz Local first.
So does that mean these 4 (data aggregators) will submit to local directories for me?
The answer is yes. There is a BUT though. The 4 data aggregators will push your business data to many local directories BUT you still need to manually claim your business listing in all of those websites and local directories. You may be asking, _"How long does it take to see my business listing data in other websites and local directories?" - _This gets kind of tricky because it truly depends on the individual site, not the data aggregator. It's determined by how sophisticated their system really is. The local directory websites that have overall better user experiences tend to update their data often. For example, I know from experience that your business listing data will show up in Citysearch within a week or two because their database is closely tied to Infogroup (One of the main data aggregators) and it's udpated often. You still have to manually claim your Citysearch listing though. Bing also updates their data pretty fast. Localeze supplies a ton of websites with data but I know it can take some time for those sites to receive updated information about businesses.
Also I understand it can take a month for your listing to show. In this case, would it not be better to just do it manually?
I would highly recommend using Moz Local for the 7 websites that they submit to. It's easier to manage your data that way. With my experience, your business will show up instantly in a few websites but others will take time. Refer to the list below:
- Infogroup - Instant
- Localeze - Instant (maybe a couple hours)
- Factual - 24-48 hours
- Acxiom - This one can take a few weeks.
- Foursquare - Instant, but you just need to create a Foursquare account to sync it with Moz Local. (Takes 1 minute)
- BOTW Local - Pretty fast but it varies. I've seen it happen within a few hours and I've seen 1-2 weeks.
- SuperPages - This directory is by far the worst. SuperPages is not Moz Local's friend. Believe it or not, I've submitted some local businesses to Moz Local weeks ago and they are still not showing up in SuperPages. This one may be best to go and manually claim yourself if you want faster results.
Those results are completely based on my experience with the product.
The only local directories that you should claim immediately are the major ones such as Yelp, Yahoo, Facebook, Google, HotFrog, etc... You will need to claim those manually because it can take weeks for your business data to show in some major local directories. For smaller sites, I would wait minimum 6 weeks until you go and claim em'.
On top of that If I don't have the time I can outsource the work to India for very cheap and probably cost less than £84?
I don't recommend you outsource the work to India. The quality is just terrible but it's really up to you. With my experience, workers in India make many errors and they do not complete the listings 100%. Completing the listing 100% is one of the most important things in the process. Keeping the information consistent is also key. I've worked with over 25+ individuals and agencies in India, so take my word for it. It's best to claim your local directories yourself or in-house.
Hopefully, that gives you some direction on the local business directory submission process. If I confused you in any way please let me know and I'll be happy to address the topic in detail. Take care, and good luck!
Daniel L.
Instantly Local
