How to Get More Leads for Software Service Companies
Many directories receive thousands of unique users a month, and the traffic conversion rates on these sites vary from 1% to 5%.
In skilled hands, directories can become a channel for the regular influx of high-quality leads for any Software service company.
In this, I will tell you how to
- find and select directories with high traffic
- get into them
- stand out among competitors
Expect non-trivial real-life hacks only.
1. What Is Important to Know About Directories
Where do directories get traffic from? Mostly from search engines. According to SimilarWeb, Clutch receives 67% of its traffic from search engines. Another popular directory, GoodFirms, gets about 68% of traffic from search engines.
Do you know why? Because Google loves directories! For some keywords, all the top places in the search results are occupied by directories.
Most directories bring few leads, but even one lead per month means twelve leads per year.
2. How to Find Better-Performing Directories
If you do not want to spend time searching for directories, here are some web resources that can definitely bring leads:
- goodfirms.co
- clutch.co
- itfirms.co
- topappfirms.co
- topdevelopers.biz
- businessofapps.com
- extract.co
- thinkmobiles.com
- upcity.com
- topdevelopers.co
If you want to learn how to search for relevant directories yourself, here is what you should do.
1. Use key queries (with such prefixes as “top” or “best”) related to your main services
For example, if your team is engaged in mobile software development, you might use a query like best mobile app development companies. Alternatively, you can enter best mobile app development companies intitle:reviews or intitle:[COMPETITOR] intitle:reviews.
For example, here is what you can see with the help of the query intitle:openxcell intitle:reviews.
2. (Optionally) Check if there are significant amounts of traffic
The more traffic, the better.
You can also check the amount of traffic for several queries like AI Development companies, .net Development, etc
3. Search for local directories
To find local directories, you can enter [keyword][city] into the search engine.
4. Don’t neglect trying new and less famous directories
At first glance, this seems like the kind of site that nobody would be interested in.
But if you give it a try, you may be pleasantly surprised.
Here are some promising newbies:
5. Ask directories to add your company to their lists
Search for the “Get listed” section on the header or footer of a directory. You can send an email to the directory’s representatives.
Take to Get Listed on a Directory
We measured the time it took one Software service company to get into all the main directories.
Here are the results:
- Time spent: 28 working hours
- Number of directories: 22
- Number of approvals per the first week: 10
- 20% of directories publish a profile immediately after the request; 30% ask for additional information and make the profile public for 2-3 days. Note: Clutch is an exception — Need reviews first
Want our template to delegate the work with directories and save time? Send “Hello, give me the template for directories” to [email protected]
Also, you should know that there are paid directories. For example, UpCity may cost you $150-800 a month.
Some directories require a LinkedIn login. Clutch is one of them.
Also, there are some directories that require only direct contact (via email):
4. How to Stand Out Among Competitors In Directories
The general principles are:
- Be higher on the list and/or
- Get more reviews of high quality and/or
- Something else
To get higher in the list of companies, you have to stay focused.
Try to focus only on one category.
For example, here’s the category “Top Cloud Consulting Services.”
- It contains only one paid sponsor
- It gets about 400 relevant visitors per month from the US via queries like “Cloud Consulting Services”
- You should only get a few reviews and be on the first page
Some may wonder whether they should spend resources on Clutch sponsorship…
Sponsorship offers several advantages, but before you spend money on it you need to do a few things:
- Find out the price
- Consider the chances of getting to the top
- Analyze location
- Calculate potential traffic
For those who have just gotten onto Clutch, the website offers paid sponsorship:
- Starter ($250/mo): 3-5 position in the niche category (the website actually doesn’t contain that feature!)
- Bronze ($650/mo): 3 position
- Silver ($1000/mo): Top 3, but you need reviews.
The last time we checked Clutch’s traffic, it looked like this:
- https://clutch.co/web-developers – 10,017 unique visitors
- https://clutch.co/directory/mobile-application-developers – 11,088 unique visitors
- https://clutch.co/developers – 3,342 unique visitors
Also, note that cheap sponsorship packages do not allow users to get to the Top 20-30 in popular categories.
Therefore, if your budget is small, it is better to buy an initial sponsorship package and choose a niche category.
Here’s how much sponsorship costs related to another directory, GoodFirms.
Wrapup
Many directories receive tons of unique monthly users, and the percentage of traffic conversions from these websites may reach 5%.
Directories get the most traffic from search engines, so these sites can be great intermediaries between Software service companies and search engines.
To get into the directories, you can use our list (you can find it in the text above) or take a few simple steps to find the directories yourself.
You may need some time for your request to be approved.
After you receive confirmation, follow our tips to stand out among the competitors.
- Focus only on one category
- Study the sitemap of Clutch to find the most relevant category
- Add a mark with certificates to confirm your expertise
- Buy an initial sponsorship package and choose a niche category
Stay productive!
Project Manager & Business Analyst
3 年I'm curious Umesh P.??