How to submit your business to UK directories

This is the whole method, not a teaser. Follow it and you will have a citation profile that holds up.

It takes most people 6 to 8 hours across 45 directories. I will be straight about that up front, because the tedium is the honest part of this job and pretending otherwise helps nobody.

Before you submit anything: write down your NAP

NAP is your business Name, Address and Phone number. Every directory will ask for it. The single thing that decides whether this work pays off is whether you enter it identically every time.

Open a document now and write the exact strings you will paste everywhere:

• Name. Your full trading name. Decide once whether it includes "Ltd" and never deviate.
• Address. Pick "Street" or "St" and stick to it. Same for "Road", "Suite", "Unit". Include the full postcode with the space.
• Phone. One number, one format. 01225 123456, not +44 1225 123456 on some and 01225123456 on others.
• Website. With or without www, and pick https.
• Email. Use one you will actually monitor, because you are about to receive 45 verification emails.
• Description. Write three: roughly 50 words, 150 words and 300 words. Directories ask for wildly different lengths and you do not want to be improvising at 9pm on the fortieth form.
• Categories. Two or three that describe what you do.
• Logo and a few photos. Square logo, at least 500x500.

Run the details through our free NAP checker before you start. It catches formatting problems in the data you are about to paste 45 times.

Set up a separate email address first

Use something like listings@yourbusiness.co.uk.

Two reasons. You will get a lot of verification mail and confirmation messages, and some directories sell your address on. Keeping it out of your main inbox means you can find any verification link instantly by searching one folder.

Keep a password manager open too. You are creating 45 accounts.

The order to work in

Do not work alphabetically. Work by authority, because if you run out of enthusiasm at directory 20 you want the 20 that counted.

1. Google Business Profile

Not technically a directory, and the most important listing you will ever create. Free. Verification is by video, phone or postcard depending on what Google decides for your category.

Do this one properly and completely: every field, real photos, correct opening hours, service areas if you do not have a walk-in address.

2. Bing Places

Free, and the reason to do it immediately after Google: Bing can import your verified Google Business Profile. You prove ownership once and get a second high-authority listing almost free.

Do not type it in manually if you already have Google done.

3. Apple Maps Connect

Free. Feeds every iPhone, Siri and Apple Maps search. UK businesses routinely forget it, which is exactly why it is worth your time.

Verification is postal or phone, and takes 2 to 4 weeks. Start it early so the postcard is in flight while you do the rest.

4. The high-authority free directories

Now work down this list. All free, all worth having:

The full list of 45+ with Domain Ratings and direct submit links is here, including the ones specific to your trade.

5. Your trade's specialist directories

These often matter more than a general directory with a higher Domain Rating, because they carry buying intent as well as a citation.

• Trades: Checkatrade, TrustATrader, MyBuilder, Rated People. Gas and electrical work also has WaterSafe, NICEIC and NAPIT, which require your actual certification.
• Legal: The Law Society.
• Health and dental: NHS.uk, Doctify, WhatClinic.
• Property: Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket. Agency membership required, and they are paid.
• Hospitality: TripAdvisor, OpenTable, SquareMeal.
• Beauty and wellness: Treatwell, Booksy.

Several of these verify against a real accreditation. If you hold the certification, they are among the most valuable listings available to you. If you do not, skip them rather than trying to talk your way in.

We have written up the directory ecosystem for plumbers, electricians and solicitors in detail.

Some of these charge. Before you pay anything, read are paid directory listings worth it, because for citation purposes the answer is usually no.

What each submission actually involves

The pattern is nearly always the same, which is what makes it so repetitive:

1. Create an account, usually with email confirmation before you can do anything.
2. Search whether your business already exists. It often does, scraped from another source. If so, claim it rather than creating a duplicate.
3. Fill in the form from your NAP document. Paste, do not retype.
4. Upload the logo and photos.
5. Pick categories from their list, which will not match your wording.
6. Submit, then complete verification.
7. Record what you did in a spreadsheet: directory, date, the URL of the live listing, and the login.

That last step is the one everyone skips and everyone regrets. In eight months when your phone number changes, that spreadsheet is the difference between a 20 minute job and a lost afternoon.

Duplicates: check before you create

Directories buy and scrape data. Your business is probably already on several of them with details you never entered, possibly wrong ones.

Always search first. If you find an existing entry, look for "claim this listing" rather than adding a new one. Two listings for one business is worse than one, because it splits the signal and confuses anyone trying to contact you.

Where you find a genuinely duplicate pair you cannot merge, most directories have a report or suppress option. Use it.

Verification, and why this drags on

This is where the elapsed time goes:

• Email: usually within minutes to 3 days. Easy.
• Phone: an automated call reads out a code. Have the phone to hand when you submit.
• Postal: a postcard with a PIN, 2 to 4 weeks. Bing Places, Apple Maps and Foursquare commonly use it. Nothing speeds this up, so start them early.
• Accreditation: trade bodies want your certificate number and will check it. 2 to 6 weeks.

Postcards get lost. If one does not arrive in three weeks, request another rather than assuming it failed.

The mistakes that waste the whole effort

Inconsistent NAP. Covered above, and worth repeating because it is the one that quietly undoes everything else.

Submitting to anything that will have you. Low-quality link farms do nothing for local rankings and can associate your site with bad neighbourhoods. If a directory has no real traffic, no editorial standard and exists only to sell links, skip it.

Abandoning halfway. Twenty consistent listings beat forty-five half-finished ones with unverified entries and typos.

Never checking again. Directories change hands, get sold, and rewrite records from third-party data. Listings drift. Check the important ones every six months.

How long this really takes

Honest numbers, from doing it:

• Preparing your NAP document and assets: 45 minutes, once.
• The high-authority free listings: 10 to 15 minutes each, mostly account creation.
• Long-tail directories: 6 to 9 minutes each once you are in a rhythm.
• Verification round trips: an hour or so, spread over weeks.
• Recording everything: 30 minutes.

Call it 6 to 8 hours for a full set, plus a few weeks of elapsed time waiting on postcards.

It is not difficult work. It is just a lot of it, and the quality depends entirely on being pedantic about details across every single form, hour after hour. Which is exactly the sort of thing people stop being careful about somewhere around directory 30.

If you would rather do it yourself, genuinely do use the list above. It is the same one we work from.