Online business directories and marketplaces are here to stay. But which ones are good for your business? That is what this post is about. I was once scrolling on Instagram. And I found the following comment on the page of one of the popular buying and selling (eCommerce) apps in Ghana.
The customer was complaining about paying GHC 500 to advertise on their platform and not getting even a single sale. That’s sad. But the miserable part is that the complaint had been posted for five weeks and they didn’t even bother to respond to it.
What you need is a business that cares about your business. I mean, one that really does. In action, not in words. And that is one reason why I started Ghana Yellow Pages. My aim was simple: 1) care about people’s businesses the way you care about yours. 2) build a service better than that of competitors. Don’t make the kind of mistakes the competitors make.
Ghana Yellow Pages is not the only online business directory or buying & selling platform in Ghana. There are several others. But in Ghana, the top online business directories are yellowpages.com.gh, ghanayello.com, businessghana.com, and yours truly ghanayellowpages.com.
As a reminder, the comment shown above was not made under the post of any of these platforms listed here. It was not posted in the comments section of one of the popular online marketplaces in Ghana. Yet, it shows how some of these businesses approach your business.
In my post titled Business Directories: Their Benefits For Your Business, I advised on the profits of listing your business on a business directory website. Nevertheless, know that not all online business directories are created equal. Therefore, some will help your business more than others will. Now, let’s assess the top ones, one by one.
Yellowpages.com.gh
Pros: Whether it is Google or Bing search results, yellowpages.com.gh is always at the number 1 position. This means it can give your business higher exposure when you list it there.
Cons: First, the website is not optimized for mobile. This means it is difficult to view this website on a mobile device. About ninety percent (90%) of internet searches are done on mobile phones. Hence, a website that does not offer a good user experience on mobile will be hard to use. Bad user experiences on a website can turn people away from a website.
Second, at the time of writing, the yellowpages.com.gh website is not secured. When a website is not secured, it is prone to attacks and it is not safe to upload personal information on it. Secured websites have “HTTPS://” preceding the website address (domain name). In the address bar, the yellowpages.com.gh website has a padlock on the left side. When you hover your mouse over it, it will display “Connection is not secure”.
Ghanayello.com
Pros: GhanaYello has high traffic than yellowpages.com.gh. This information is confirmed. Moreover, it is optimized for mobile devices. It is a secured website.
Cons:
First, Ghana Yello does not have any free package. Before you can register, you have to pay some amount of money. Hence, there is no way to test the waters without incurring a cost to see whether the platform will be good for you.
Second, the website offers Ghana Lotto results. This service may be unrelated to digitally marketing businesses listed on their site. Their Twitter account has not been active since August 2019 and its posts are mainly about lotto results. If people visit their website mainly because of the lotto numbers and not because of the businesses listed there, then the businesses may not benefit from the high traffic volumes of the site.
Businessghana.com
Pros: The businessghana.com website has lots of traffic, although it is not as much as compared to Ghanayello.com and Yellowpages.com.gh.
Cons: An assessment of their website revealed the keywords driving traffic to this website are news articles. Since their organic SEO is built on news in Ghana, maybe the companies listed on their site are not getting much attention as the news articles are.
Ghanayellowpages.com
Pros: Ghana Yellow Pages was officially started in July 2022. It is a new website. But right from the start, this new kid on the block is rubbing shoulders with established players in the industry. It features prominently among the top 5 search results on Google and Bing.
The website is mobile-friendly. You can view it on mobile and have a great user experience. Also, it is focused mainly on (digital) marketing of businesses. The website does not have any other services. It is solely focused on promoting businesses; nothing more, nothing less. This means if anybody visits the website, it is because of the businesses listed on the site and not because of any other reason. And most importantly, the website is secured. Hence, it is safe to use.
Cons: It is new; hence, people are yet to feel its power.