I was recently contacted by a sales person for a local business directory here in Gorey, GoreyBiz, who wanted me to pay €300 exVAT to be listed. The first point he made to me was, that the cost of the annual listing in the online business directory was comparable  to the cost of one ad in the local newspapers. While this is very true, it only represents value for money if your business can be found on the Internet. So the first thing I did was get on to Google and type in “computers gorey” to see how effective the directory was. Now I had expected GoreyBiz to show on at least the first page, but to my surprise GoreyBiz still had not appeared after 10 pages, at which point I gave up. I then typed in “accounts gorey” and GoreyBiz only showed up on page 4.

So I would not regard paying €300 ex VAT for a directory entry that cannot be found on the first 4 pages of Google, at best, as good value for money.

While I was doing these searches on Google I noticed that in all cases another online business directory, GoreyLinks, always came up in either 1st or 2nd place. When I checked the price, I discovered that a listing on GoreyLinks cost €40 ex VAT annually.

Now €40 exVAT for a listing on GoreyLinks, that always shows up in 1st or 2nd place on Google, IS great value for money.

The most important point is that, if you are going to spend money getting listed on an Online Business Directory, then check out their claims before you part with any money. If you are unsure, then contact your local Independent Computer Services provider.