A Business Directory is normally published free of charge for users. Businesses get a free listing which is usually a name, address and phone number. If they want more information displayed they have to pay a fee. Businesses and householders can now ask for a private number which means that their number is no longer listed. This has the advantage of reducing unsolicited calls but can harm the ability of a business to generate sales. The size of the advertisement determines the price. Business names are listed in alphabetical order. This means that if a business name begins with the letter "a" it invariably has an advantage over a business that starts with the letter "t". Now many countries are creating opt out rules which mean they businesses can still be listed in a telephone directory but can not be contacted by companies who wish to sell them products. This has totally changed the landscape for telemarketing companies and businesses which have been burdened by new regulation. The Yellow Pages generally refer to business listings whilst others refer to personal phone numbers and addresses. The main logo that is used is world famous and is a static image of two fingers walking on a yellow background. At the beginning of existing directories you can usually find information for the emergency services, transport information as well as international dialling codes. Now business directories are moving online. In the old days these were limited and barley used due to the low download speeds and the time it took to find a phone number. Now many people no longer use the paper version as they have access to high speed broadband. This makes searching for a phone number much easier utilising the internet and keyboard then relying on a printed version which is probably out of date. This is the real value of an internet directory. Information that is updated is available to all and sundry the minute it has been modified. Meanwhile most paper directories are six months out of date by the time they land on your door step. Many people also use internet directories to enhance the ratings of their websites online. It is important that there is a live weblink in your business listing and you focus only on the well known and reputable directories. Search engines love inbound links from quality sources but dislike link farms which just sell links. Generally speaking the more inbound links a website has the higher it appears for its search terms. Many websites have disappeared of the search engines radar primarily because they bough cheap and nasty links from the link farms. It is far better to have a few quality inbound links than hundreds from pages that are not rated by the search engines. What is going to happen with the advent of internet facilities for the mobile phone? Business Directories are now being created that are dedicated specifically for mobile phone user1! Technology is improving so rapidly now that even the business directories are struggling to keep pace!
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