Website directory

Website directory

Didn't find your answer?

I'm quite often asked to look at web sites or see if so and so has a web site. I know you can always ring a particular organisation and ask but I wondered if there is any internet resource that you can use to see if any particular organisation or type of organisations in a specific area have a site. We have a client who found us through the internet by chance and if for example it was me looking for an accountant in my area, how would I find a list of accoutnants web sites in my area.?

There are loads of directories but lots of them only list basic details and not web addresses? whilst others only list details of those who pay to be on that particular list? I'm sort of looking for a Yellow Pages of websites
David Thorne

Replies (3)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By AnonymousUser
27th Jul 2001 01:27

A good marketing question ...
David,

This is the question that most people in business should ask - ie, I've got a website. Now how do people find me?

I have built three websites over the last couple of years, and what I have learnt is that there are a few ways of getting business through the internet.

Firstly, make sure that the html code that underpins your site contains all the necessary code that a search engine will use to index your site. This includes the name of the page (ie the text that appears at the top of the browser), the meta keywords, and the meta description. To optimise your chances of being found at the top of a search you should also make sure that as many of the keywords as possible are in the first few lines of text on the page. More keyword density = higher likelihood of being found when someone searches for you.

When preparing my sites I also try to guess the words people would use to find me, type them into the main search engines, and review the results. Look at the html code of those sites to see what they are doing, and what seems to be pushing them to the top of the list (click on View/Source at the top of the browser to see the underlying html code).

More above ....

Thanks (0)
avatar
By AnonymousUser
27th Jul 2001 01:32

More ....
Secondly, submit, submit, and submit again to the main search engines - Google, Excite, AOL, etc. You just have to keep on doing it, and it can take several weeks before the search engine spiders index you. But persevere. Why not get a (reliable) junior to do this for you?

Note also that you have to pay for some listings - Looksmart for example, which I believe introduces your site to some of the major search engines, and Yahoo if you want a listing under a Business category. But if you are going to have an internet strategy you probably have to get out your credit card, as Yahoo and Excite are high on the list of search engines people use.

And thirdly, get involved in relevant internet newsgroups. I help people with UK and Australia tax and so participate in the Aussie migration newsgroup. A surprising number of clients have and are coming from my involvement there.

I'm not sure whether all this helps David, or indeed whether it answers your question. But hopefully it's food for thought.

Alan Collett
http://www.collettandco.com
http://www.gomatilda.com

Thanks (0)
aw_logo_2019
By Accounting WEB
27th Jul 2001 08:46

Thanks for that. I have been using search engines but as has been pointed out they don't pick up all sites. I was doing some research and there were four or five firms I knew had sites that I didn't find on any search engine and I used quite a few.

I think I'm reasonably good at searching. In the end I resorted to guessing web addresses and found most of them.

However there was an annoying feeling that some of the firms I tried to find would have sites but I didn't find them. I know about yell.com but didn't get too far here. I know in our office we have a BT (I think) fax directory where we can look up fax numbers for companies nationwide. I just wondered if there was something similar for websites.

Thanks (0)