inLouth is a local website about Louth and East Lindsey, and businesses are one part of it. It does list businesses, but a list of names and phone numbers is not what it is for. The aim is to explain the town and what is in it, with businesses mentioned where they belong.
What a Directory Is
A business directory is a list. Each business gets an entry with the same fields in the same order: name, address, phone number, perhaps a line of description. Paper directories worked like this for generations, and many websites still do.
Directories have two weaknesses. The entries say very little, so there is little to help someone choose. And because anyone can usually add themselves, or pay to move up the list, a place in one says almost nothing about the business.
Search engines noticed. From the early 2000s they gave less weight to pages that only listed other businesses, and over the years they have kept moving towards pages that offer something a reader cannot get from a list. A name and a phone number repeated on dozens of sites tells a reader or a search engine very little about what is special.
What inLouth Is
inLouth is closer to a local guide, a diary and a reference book than to a phone book.
There are guides to eating out, places to stay, days out and celebrations, written to help someone decide, and nobody can pay to be in one. There is a What's On calendar, menus, a section on support and wellbeing, practical local information and a history of Louth.
Businesses sit inside all of that. A café is mentioned in a guide to eating out with children, linked from the event it hosts, and shown on its menu page. A solicitor is part of the answer to a practical question, not an entry in a column.
How Businesses Appear
In the interests of being plain: inLouth does have business categories, and many businesses appear there as listing cards, drawn from public information such as their own website and public registers. Anyone can ask for a card to be corrected or removed.
A business can then have a page of its own, written by us from what it tells us and what is already public, with questions and answers, a message form and links, at the levels set out on the Be Found page.
What the business pays for is the page and its features. It does not pay to be recommended. Guides choose businesses on merit, and a paid feature is always labelled.
Why It Matters to a Business
If you are considering a place on a directory, ask what a reader gets from it apart from your phone number. If the answer is nothing, a reader will get nothing and so will a search engine.
A business that is described properly, linked to the things around it and mentioned by someone other than itself is easier to find, easier to understand and easier to trust. That is the reason inLouth is built as a connected site, as explained in how connected content works.
It still cannot promise rankings or enquiries, and this page says what it cannot do.
Get your business found on inLouth
We write and manage a proper page for your business, so people searching in and around Louth can find you. No website needed, nothing to learn.
From 28 Pixels, who run inLouth
Does your website answer what customers are searching for? 28 Pixels writes pages and articles that get local businesses found. Talk about content
Questions About inLouth and Directories
Is inLouth a business directory?
No, inLouth is a local website about Louth and East Lindsey. It lists businesses, but alongside guides, events, menus, support information and local history, so a business is described in context rather than as a line in a list.
Why does inLouth have business categories, then?
Categories help people find the right kind of business quickly, and they link to guides and related pages. They are one way into the site, not the whole of it.
Can I pay to be recommended in a guide?
No, guides are editorial and nobody can pay to be in one. A business is named only for what its own website, menu or page says it offers.
Why is my business already on inLouth?
Many local businesses were added as listing cards from public information, such as their own website. You can ask for a card to be corrected or removed at any time using the Request an update link on it.
What do I get that a directory does not give me?
You get a written page about your business, connected to the guides, events, menus and categories around it, with questions and answers and a way to be contacted. Nothing guarantees a ranking or a number of enquiries.