Title: Should You Pay Domain Directory For An Annual Listing?
Featuring Peter Wilson
Peter: Back in 2021, we had a lot of clients asking us a question about what looked like an invoice that they received in the mail, kinda like this. And at that time, the question was about a company called US Domain Authority, and our clients were asking, should I pay US Domain Authority for an annual website domain listing? Fast forward to last week, we started getting a bunch of calls from our clients again. There’s a different company, but it’s a very similar situation. So this time, the company is called Domain Directory LLC, and they’re also charging for an annual domain name listing on domaindirectoryllc.com.
Slightly different question than before, but the same answer as before. No. Don’t waste your money on this. So this looks like a legitimate bill, and a lot of our clients are wondering if this is related to their actual domain name registration, which is important to pay for because if you don’t pay for your annual domain name registration, your website will not function. But that is not what this is.
This is simply listing your website on their directory. Little to no value for that. And the way they get away with this is they send out these letters that look very official. They give you about 10 different ways to pay. You can mail a check to them.
You can put in a credit card here. They have a phone number you can call. You can go online and pay for this as well. They have a little QR code there. So we tell all our clients, Don’t do this.
It’s not worth it. Not really providing any value. So a couple red flags to look for when you’re looking at mail, especially when it relates to marketing services and your domain name, is is it a company you’ve ever heard of before? Like I said, if you’re registering your domain name, it’s probably with GoDaddy or some company like this, not, you know, some random company. The other thing to think about is if there’s an actual service that you’ve heard of by name.
So if you’ve never heard of it, be highly suspicious. What’s interesting about these companies, the first time we got these letters, they were from a company called Domain Listings LLC, and they were located in Las Vegas. And they were charging $2.88. This company that we got this the latest letter from is Domain Directory LLC, and they’re located in Bend, Oregon. And they’re asking for $2.89.
So the tactics remain the same, only the company name and location have changed. Now if you are looking for a legitimate directory to list your business on, we have a few that you should consider. For example, Google Business Profile, that’s a free listing that you can claim. And it’s very important for your business showing up in local search results and on the map listing. So Google Business Profile is something you should do, and it’s free to claim it yourself if you wanna do that.
Or if you wanna pay us a little bit of money, we can help you do that. Bing Places for Business is another legitimate business listing. Yelp, not a huge fan of Yelp, but you do get a biz basic listing for free from them. The Better Business Bureau, you can get a basic listing for free from them as well. There are a lot of industry specific directories.
For example, if you’re a lawyer, there’s AVVO, AVVO. If you are in the home service contracting business, I know there’s Houzz and ANGI and other sites like that to consider. If you are a member of your local chamber of commerce, that’s a great place to get a local listing for your business, and it actually will help your business show up in the local search results. You can also get a Facebook business page. That’s free.
We can help you set it up or you can do it yourself. Also, Apple Maps now has a way for businesses to list themselves. The only caveat for Apple Maps is that you must have a location associated with your business. So if you are a service area business, it’s more difficult to list your business. But if you have a business where people come to your business, then by all means, you can do Apple Maps.
So those are eight or so legitimate directory options if you have a business. So in conclusion, businesses get a lot of mail all the time. You probably get a lot of bills. You probably have to pay a lot of bills. But stay alert for these invoice looking solicitations.
Always verify before paying any unexpected bills. Also, if you get these and you’re not sure if it’s legit or not, consult with your web developer, your marketing company, your IT company. They should be able to tell you very quickly whether or not it’s legitimate. If you would like help with your listings, we can certainly help you do that. Just, book an appointment with us and we can help you get that set up.
Thanks for listening. Have a great day. Thanks for listening to this episode of Biz and Life Done Well with Peter Wilson. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most of the other popular podcast platforms. Please tell your friends about us and leave us a review so even more people will find out about us.
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