I wanted to take a moment to talk about one of my favorite research tools, Compete which happens to be an “online competitive intelligence service that combines site and search analytics in one site”.   That’s a heck of a way to word what they do.

Think of Compete as a one-stop source for comparing up to 5 websites side by side to find out how much traffic each website is getting.  There are countless ways you can use this data to help improve your own website’s traffic.  I am not going to bore you with details and list all the ways here.  (Maybe I will end up doing a series on this topic.)

In the meantime, I wanted to talk to you about one of the best ways to increase exposure for your website which is to list in web directories. These types of websites are basically the Internet version of your local yellow pages (which by the way is also a web directory).

Depending on the type of your website, these web directories will place your website in the general category that best describe your website.

To give you an example, the largest web directory, DMOZ (the largest open web directory), shows that AT&T is classified as Business > Telecommunications > Carriers.  If your website happens to be a blog about cheeseburgers, Double Cheese Blogger is listed in BlogCatalog under Blog Directory > Food & Drinks > Restaurants.  I think you get the idea.

Now, back to the topic of Compete…

For the purpose of this article, I will be referring my recent research bridal directories for my client, My Bridal Makeup Artist. Regardless of what your website is about, the concept here remains the same.

Here as you can see in this graph, I have four competing bridal directories, each unique in their own way but chosen for their ability to show up in the major search engines for “bridal makeup artist”.

• WeddingMakeup.com – A directory of bridal makeup artists.
• Decidio – A directory of wedding and party vendors.
• The Knot – A wedding website which includes a directory of local vendors.
• WeddingWire – A directory of service providers for those who are planning their wedding.

The reason I picked these four sites was because two of them allows free listings while the other two require an annual “membership”.  I know advertising is a large part of your marketing budget but I rather help you succeed by putting your dollar where it counts.  Allow me to explain.

The Knot offers to list wedding vendors for $50 a MONTH.  The WeddingMakeup.com offers to list bridal makeup artists for $50 a YEAR.  There’s a big difference between $50 and $600 a year in regards to advertising.  If the rates were to stay the same for the next 5 years, that’s $250 versus $3000 for a simple listing.

It is really not that difficult to advertise your business on the Internet, and more often than not, quite “free” to do so.  Now, let’s ponder the number of Unique Visitors for a moment here.

Why Do Unique Visitors Count?

My client has a goal, to become the best in York, PA.  An admirable goal.  While she is eager to GROW her business as quickly as possible, I had to offer caution on these paid listings for several reasons.

One of these reasons is unique visitors.  As you can see, The Knot gets quite a bit of attention, over a million visitors a month whereas WeddingMakeup.com gets less than 5,000 visitors a month.

However, both Decidio and WeddingWire are fairly consistent at roughly 250,000 visitors a month.

250,000 visitors sounds more realistic to me than 1 million visitors.  I say this because most likely your thoughts will be the same as mine when I ask you this question.  How many people get married each month?

For the sake of argument, if we were to assume one unique visitor represents both the bride and groom, according to the traffic on The Knot, that’s 24 million people getting married in the United States each year.  The numbers would be around 6 million based on Decidio/WeddingWire.

Since I am unable to independently verify this information, I do not know how accurate these numbers are.  However, these numbers a reasonable place to start.

Hmmm…  Now we are getting somewhere.

Now, if I were to think like someone who is getting married and is looking for a bridal makeup artist, I wouldn’t want to waste my time reading through all these articles when all I want is the best makeup artist within 60 miles of my wedding.  The only way I am going to find this person is by looking in the local directories.

The Message

When targeting potential clients, especially in a local region, it pays to know how much to spend on advertising so you can maximize your advertising budget.

It would be nice if Compete would allow us to compare traffic based on specific pages, for example, where the category “Beauty and Makeup” or location “South Central PA” would be listed.  This would certainly help us narrow down the data to determine whether it is worth paying for a listing or not.  At the moment, this is not possible with Compete.

The End Result

It never hurts to list your website in web directories, especially free ones.  From an economical point of view, free listings such as Decidio and WeddingWire would better serve my clients than a $50 listing on WeddingMakeup.com.

York, PA is a very small city (40,000+ residents) in comparision to a large city like New York City (over 8 million residents) where $600 a year may actually be a bargain.  The $600 listing fee may be better used elsewhere such as local bridal shows where vendors have to pay for floor space and will create direct contacts with local brides.

I hope you found this post useful in examing how you can use Compete to make a more informed business decision regarding your Internet marketing strategy.  If you are interested in my services for your website, you can contact me for more information.