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How do you identify the best business directories in Ghana to help boost your company’s online presence? Which directories still have value? This post will help you to understand how business directories work, and how you can select the best.
It’s worth noting that this list contains some old and very established names, and a few amazing new kids on the block. We have sites on this list that are as old as the internet in Ghana.
What is a business directory?
Typically, a business directory is a platform of local businesses and companies indexed in alphabetical or by industry. This means that the listings can be sorted into various parameters based on location, address, size, business age, industry, and many tags.
In other words, you can browse through a list of hundreds of businesses within the same niche on a good business directory. The social media platforms that offer some kind of directory listings like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and even Google, do not offer this functionally. In our opinion, this is the main reason why local business directory websites like ghanayello.com and yellgh.com are still so relevant in local business aggregation and digital marketing.
Ranking Criteria
We have endeavored to order the sites based on the following parameters:
- Popularity: How much traffic the site receives
- Ease of use: Availability of a user dashboard or listing management system
- Mobile-friendliness: This looks at some core web vitals on the site and the sites display on various devices
- Features: It should be noted that some of these sites are not dedicated business directories, so the number of essential features available to business owners may be limited. For instance, some of the sites do not offer a clickable business websites link
- Pricing: Some of these sites, like Google My Business, are free listing directories, others are fully paid, while others offer free and paid listings.
- Mobile App: This looks at the availability of an accompanying mobile application. Facebook, Instagram, and YellGh, for instance, have mobile apps for both users and business owners.
- Domain Authority: The website’s domain authority estimates how high the site is likely to rank on search engines.
- Backlink type: For search engine optimization purposes, we are also interested in whether you can get a do-follow backlink to your website to help boost your own website’s ranking.
- Site Traffic: Another prime consideration is how much traffic your website can get from the directory.
Best Business Directories in Ghana
1 Google Business Profile
What was just a maps location has now become an amazing business directory. what makes Google My Business (now Google Business Profile) such a useful resource is that with a Google My Business account, you get more than a business listing. Your free business profile lets you easily connect with customers across Google Search and Google Maps.
GMB is typically a local business directory, and that means, you may not be able to gain increased visibility outside of your main service region unless you are already an established name online.
Another downside is that GMB’s algorithm is not as advanced as Google Search, so it is very difficult to dominate the search rankings besides getting quality reviews and ratings.
Lastly, verifying your GMB account can be quite challenging if you do not have a functional postal address linked to your profile. This becomes an issue, especially in developing countries like Ghana where our addressing system is yet to be properly developed.
With all that said, you should make every effort to set up and verify your business on Google My Business since its benefits are so many.
2 Yellow Pages Ghana
The big deal with Yellow Pages Ghana’s business directory is that it is not just a company contact or telephone directory. But a complete web and digital marketing service for your business. In other words, you don’t just search for businesses on yellgh.com, you add your business to yellgh.com, and your business is optimized and promoted to help you get strong online visibility which translates into more traffic, sales, and conversion for your business.
Let’s face it, the only reason why anyone would want to list on a business directory is to increase their online visibility and generate more sales and conversion. Yellow Pages Ghana has been offering these exact same services to our users since our inception in 2020.
Also available at yellowpagesghana.com, Yellow Pages Ghana Directory would be the fast-growing business directory quickly dominating search rankings with its optimization, We know this because yellgh.com is our very own platform.
Yellow Pages Ghana Business Ghana Directory comes with a free iOS app available on the Apple App Store, and an Android app on the Google Play Store. Yellow Pages offers it’s business owners their own user dashboard from which they can see detailed statistics on the performance of their listings.
Another special feature of Yellow Pages Business directory is its integrated review and rating system. It helps users to select the most reputable companies. It also helps the best businesses to rank higher on the platform.
Business owners can also promote their listings, edit their business pages, view and reply to direct messages from customers, all from the business owner dashboard. And all these features are also available in both android and iOS mobile apps.
3 GhanaYello
Interesting on our list is a website run all the way from Lithuania by Global Business Directory (GBD), a Sole Proprietorship (GBD) which runs a number of directories for several other countries including South Africa, and Nigeria.
With over 30,000 business listings, many companies can be found already listed on GhanaYello. The platform also publishes local news and lotto results.
GhanaYello is a paid platform offering packages from 100GHS one-time payment, 700GHS per year, and 1600GHS one-time payment.
4 Surf Yellow Pages
Surf Yellow Pages Ghana, from Surf Publications, would probably be Ghana’s first business directory. The site was first indexed by Google about 10 years ago, and the domain is about 12 years old. For several years, the company published a print version of the directory, until even as recently as 2018.
[You can contact YellGh on 0550919202 if you need a printed copy of the Yellow Pages book]
The web directory may not be so mobile-friendly, but if you are looking for a good ranking and online visibility, then Surf Yellow Pages will be a good choice.
Surf Yellow Pages offers free listings and paid platforms with packages ranking from 100GHS to 2400GHS, depending on your advertising needs.
5 Instagram Business
Instagram has quickly become an immense business listing resource for many Ghanaian businesses. As of September 2018, nearly 1.4 million Ghanaians were on Instagram, making up nearly 4.4% of our entire population. This figure has risen to 2 097 000 Instagram users by March 2021, which accounts for 6.6% of the population, according to NapoleonCat
For many small businesses, their Instagram business page connects them with hundreds of customers and potential customers. Even though it is fundamentally, still a social media platform, Instagram still serves as some kind of business marketplace for many Ghanaian businesses.
From a digital marketing perspective, your Instagram business page could very well rank very high on Google for your brand keywords, this and the fact that all bust a small; proportion of Ghanaian local businesses are on Instagram, is the reason why we added Instagram to this list. So if your business doesn’t have a strong and active Instagram business page, then you’re leaving a lot of business on the table.
Many companies use sponsored ads run from their Instagram pages to draw traffic to their websites.
6 Facebook Business
Facebook’s local business directory gives Facebook’s 2.7 billion users the chance to connect with businesses in their area. As a social networking platform, it’s important to list your business on Facebook so your followers can generate more buzz about your brand. There were 8 299 000 Facebook users in Ghana in March 2021, which accounted for 26.3% of all Ghanaians.
Businesses with active Facebook pages have those pages ranking very high in Google searches. This helps the company to claim even more visibility online.
7 Yellow Pages of Africa
According to Epi Afrique, the company behind Yellow Pages of Africa, The directory has over 150,000 listings of companies from all over the continent of Africa.
Yellow Pages of Africa publishes a print version of its business directory bi-annually predominantly in French for French-speaking African countries. the platform offers free listings and paid advertising.
8 Business Ghana
BusinessGhana.com is a prime news website in Ghana, but beyond that, the site has now become an incredible portal of business resource articles, job offerings, real estate, classified listings, and many more.
Your profile page on BusinessGhana would cover your basic company details like location, working hours, contact information with a website link. Users have the opportunity to request a quote from Businesses, book a meeting, book a reservation, or post a comment on the listings.
9 GhanaWeb
The website started by Africa Web Holdings in 1999 has since become synonymous with sports, entertainment, business, and Ghana politics news. GhanaWeb is the single most visited website in Ghana, coming right after Google and YouTube.
It now also offers, jobs, vehicles, property, electronics classifieds listing, and business directory. The GhanaWeb classified listings are powered by tonaton.com
10 Modern Ghana
ModernGhana is an online portal that has been in operation since 2005. The site covers news, politics, business, sports, entertainment, and opinions. It is owned by Modern Ghana Media Communication Ltd., a privately owned Ghanaian company.
The news portal has brought news stories and information to Ghanaians and other international audiences who currently make up its following online. The website provides the reading audience with a radio and social networking platform in Ghana and beyond.
ModernGhana has a huge Ghanaian listenership in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, and other countries.
Now to the reason why they make this list, ModernGhana also has a directory listing for businesses that offers simple company information. It does not offer all the features that come with platforms like Yellgh.com and Ghanayello.com but the listings are all for free, so you can head over to ModernGhana and sign up for a listing.
A simple way to test the strength of a directory
A simple test you can conduct to know how effective a platform is is to select a couple of listings from that platform and perform a simple google search for the main title of the listing. Then see where the listing ranks. You would need about 3 listings for this experiment, because newly posted listings may take a while to rank well.
Then also, you must be aware that premium listings would likely rank higher than free listings.
