Any business owner who’s tried to get visible to customers in local search has noticed the huge number and variety of citation sources out there (AKA places to list your business).
We all know that people who own businesses in America are of all different stripes – some who identify as a minority, some born in other countries, some multilingual, etc. That’s one of the very best things about this country.
What most local business owners and local SEOs don’t know is that there’s also a variety of local-biz directories geared toward many of the different ethnicities and identities of people who’ve built businesses here.
These sites are important for two reasons: Because “local” business owners (1) want to attract the “right types” of customers and (2) need to gather as many local citations as possible in order to get visible to those customers in the local search results (mostly Google+Local and Bing).
I’ve rounded up a list of ethnicity-specific / identity-specific sites, some of which you may want to list your business on.
I didn’t know about these sites, partly because this topic gets zero attention – even in local-SEO circles. But that doesn’t mean your customers don’t know about them and use them. Plus, chances are good Google views them as high-quality citations, which could help your local rankings.
This post is for you if your services cater to people of a particular origin, or if you’re trying to find more customers who have a similar background to yours – and who might be looking for someone like you in the same way.
A couple of notes:
1. I’ve only included directories that are (a) free, (b) available to people in any city in America, and that (c) don’t require you to place a reciprocal link on your site.
2. There’s no good way to categorize the sites, so I’ve simply listed them alphabetically. Most of the site names are self-explanatory, but I’ve added little side-notes to the ones that might not be.
Sites:
AlbanianYellowPages.com
AmericanIndianBusiness.net (Native American)
AsianBizOnline.com
BizPronto.com (Latino)
BlackBusinessList.com
BlackDollar.org
BlackOwnedBiz.com
BlackPagesOnline.com
Chinese411.com
CopperPages.com (Indian & Southeast Asian)
DesiWebUSA.com (Indian)
DoJewish.org
FilAmBizPages.com (Filipino)
FilAmPages.com (Filipino)
GreekAmericanBiz.com
HispanicSMB.com
IndianVillage.com (Native American)
IndoUSListing.com (Indonesian)
IranianHotline.com
iZania.com (Black & African American)
Jewocity.com
LatinaMarketplace.com
Latin-Businesses-USA.com
LebaneseinAmerica.com
MakBiz.net (Macedonian)
MinorityProfessionalNetwork.com
MuslimBusinessUSA.com
MuslimDir.com
NAOTW.biz (Native American)
RUList.com (Russian)
RussianImpact.com
SaigonNet.net (Vietnamese)
SupportBlackBusinesses.com
ThaiYellowPagesUSA.com
TurkishBiz.com
US4Arabs.com
Yasabe.com (Spanish speakers)
YaSas.com (Greek)
And a couple of good sites for US Armed Forces veterans:
VeteranOwnedBusiness.com
VeteransDirectory.com
(If you’re a vet or know one, check out my pro bono Visibility for Veterans program.)
By the way, you can find paid-membership sites if you do a search in Google along the lines of “[ethnicity] american chamber of commerce”. There are also a ton of LinkedIn groups, which you can find if you type things like “[ethnicity] American business network”
If the list doesn’t have a directory geared toward a particular type of person, it’s either because I simply couldn’t find such a directory (possible) or because I didn’t think to look (not likely – I spend 2-3 hours combing the web).
In any case, I’m sure there are some great sites out there that I missed. And I just know there must be a lot of non-US sites similar to the ones on the list (I’ve stumbled across a few so far). I’d really appreciate any suggestions.
How many of the above sites apply to your business (or a client’s business)? Any thoughts on how to make the list a little better? Leave a comment!
Great list, Phil.
I have some clients that these will come in handy for. It’s feels strange to admit, but I never really even thought of niche ethnicity sites before!
Thanks again!
Hey Mike,
Thanks for stopping by! I definitely hadn’t thought of them before this post, either; there are just SO many sites out there that it’s impossible even to think of all the different “niche” qualities, let alone know about all the sites that might fit a particular client.
Awesome list, Phil!
I am not sure if this one fits here, but it’s definitely worth exploring – the LGBT citation sources. There are MANY of these, and not just in the US, but also internationally.
Hey Nyagoslav,
Thanks for stopping by! Great suggestion. I actually thought of doing some in-depth research and including sites geared toward LGBTQ, but then it occurred to me that those sites probably deserve a whole separate post. As you say, there must be a ton of other sites that just don’t get much attention in the context of local SEO; I think the ethnicity-specific sites are only the beginning.
So, that’s a long way of saying I plan to do a counterpart post to this one, which would include LGBTQ-oriented citation sources and any others I can think of. I’d definitely appreciate any suggestions!
Thanks for sharing, great list & tactic!
Never knew about AlbanianYellowPages.com before but happen to have at least 1 client that could benefit from the localized niche exposure.
Hey Chris,
Thanks for the compliments! I look forward to hearing how those sites are to deal with (easy, a hassle, somewhere in between).
I had no idea there was an AlbanianYellowPages.com, either. But then again, I had plenty of surprises while working on this post: I’m Polish, German, and Irish, so I was curious to see if there are any sites geared toward those groups, but I didn’t find a single one!
There are a number of useful directories for veterans as well:
http://www.veteranownedbusiness.com
vmboa.com
veteransdirectory.com
Many military personnel and veterans do make a conscious effort to support one another, so I’ve found that these are useful directories not just for yet another citation, but also conversions both from the directory itself and by using their badges on sites.
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the suggestions!
I’ve added those sites to the list. I’m always looking for resources to help vets (You may have seen my Visibility for Vets program).
Can’t find VMBOA, though. There doesn’t seem to be a site at that address, and a quick look in Google didn’t turn up anything. Any chance you could point me in the right direction on that one?
Oops, it was .org and not .com… was going from my apparently shoddy memory:
https://www.vamboa.org/
You can get a link / NAP on a PDF there, but, of course, that isn’t especially useful. With that said, they offer a lot of advise and information for military personnel and veterans who are business owners.
A couple Google searches reveals a ton of veteran business directories some better than others.
Thanks, Ben.
Thanks Phil! Great idea and thanks for sharing the list.
No problem, Cody! Thanks for stopping by.