Update: Citysearch & Free Business Listings

Filed in Local Search by Matt McGee on July 30, 2009

UPDATE:

For the latest information, please see: Citysearch Brings Back Free Business Listings, Adds Twitter

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My post earlier this week about Citysearch no longer accepting free business listings has generated a lot of comments, and more importantly, also generated a response from Citysearch itself.

I’ve traded a couple emails and had a chat with Brandi Willard of Citysearch’s marketing team, and here’s what small business owners need to know:

  1. The forms/pages to add a new, free business listing and to correct a current listing are in development and will be back on the site with the next sitewide update, which should be within two months. (They were removed during the recent overhaul of Citysearch’s web site.)
  2. In the meantime, you can also submit your listing for free to InfoUSA, and your listing will make its way into Citysearch’s database (as well as other sites that use InfoUSA) — probably within 4-6 weeks.

There you have it. Good news all around, and I’ll post again when the “Add a Business” form is up and running.

Comments (12)

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  1. Thanks for the update and this also answers my question in regards to UBL. Clarity appreciated.

    Matt, you rock!

    🙂

  2. I guess I was wrong 🙂 My face is so red, jk. Thanks for the update.

  3. Stephen Luc says:

    Thanks for the heads up. At least, there’s always a free site to submit to. 🙂

  4. Adam M says:

    Matt-Great work and thanks alot!

    I have a quick question if you have time time to answer :). I noticed that Google Maps did some changes to their local algo about 2 months ago and then updated their systems. I made some changes to my LBC/Maps clients but have not seen them indexed yet. When does google traditionally update their Maps/Local Business Center listings….is it 3-5 weeks??? And shouldn’t they be due for an update? I ask because I have been trying to delete a duplicate Maps listing for a business. THANKS

  5. Mark says:

    Thanks for the Info USA link. How much business do people see from these type of free directories?

  6. Ahhh, good news… I submit all my local listings to Universalbusinesslistings.org and they submit to InfoUSA – so it looks like I am good

  7. Jon says:

    We have been trying to contact CitySearch for weeks to update a listing that is incorrect on their website. We finally reached someone today and he mentioned that their free business listing was several months away and might not even be ready until 2010.

  8. Steve says:

    If you’re thinking about adding your business to Info USA, be advised that you may start receiving phone calls and/or emails from their advertisers.

    This is the trade-off you make when you get your business listed with them.

  9. Billy Martin says:

    Does anyone know if there is a way to delete an old post? A negative post I made about a business has become a petty shouting match, which I would like to end by removing my post and forgetting about them forever. Can this be done? I can’t seem to find a way to do it via their website.

  10. Adam, Google Maps updates by the second. I know this because I’ve played around with my listing a lot. You should be able to delete your old google maps listing by selecting the “locations” button the google local business center. A big part I’ve noticed on getting to the top of google maps is city search. It looks like google maps uses city search for a lot of info. Thats how I ran into this page.

    Mark

  11. You can add business listings through http://www.expressupdateusa.com, which feeds infoUSA.com