Clutch, GoodFirms, and Others: Real-Life Hacks to Get More Leads from Directories for Software Service Companies

Many directories receive thousands of unique users a month, and the traffic conversion rates on these sites vary from 1% to 5%.

In skilled hands, directories can become a channel for the regular influx of high-quality leads for any Software service company.

In our article, we will tell you how to

• find and select directories with high traffic
• get into them
• stand out among competitors

Expect non-trivial real-life hacks only.

1. What Is Important to Know About Directories

Where do directories get traffic from? Mostly from search engines.

According to SimilarWeb, Clutch receives 67% of its traffic from search engines.

Source: similarweb.com

Another popular directory, GoodFirms, gets about 68% of traffic from search engines.

Source: similarweb.com

Do you know why? Because Google loves directories!

For some keywords, all the top places in the search results are occupied by directories.

The conclusion suggests itself:
Directories are intermediaries between companies and search engines.

You can also find directories via search engines, but we’ll discuss that a bit later.

Most directories bring few leads, but even one lead per month means twelve leads per year.

Usually, the percentage of traffic conversions from directories varies from 1% to 5%.

If your conversion rate is lower, you may be doing something wrong.

2. How to Find Better-Performing Directories

If you do not want to spend time searching for directories, here are some web resources that can definitely bring leads:

• goodfirms.co
• clutch.co
• itfirms.co
• businessofapps.com
• extract.co
• thinkmobiles.com
• upcity.com
• appfutura.com

If you want to learn how to search for relevant directories yourself, here is what you should do.

1. Use key queries (with such prefixes as “top” or “best”) related to your main services

For example, if your team is engaged in mobile software development, you might use a query like best mobile app development companies.

Alternatively, you can enter best mobile app development companies intitle:reviews or intitle:[COMPETITOR] intitle:reviews.

For example, here is what you can see with the help of the query intitle:openxcell intitle:reviews.

2. (Optionally) Check if there are significant amounts of traffic

The more traffic, the better.

You can also check the amount of traffic for several queries.

3. Search for local directories

To find local directories, you can enter [keyword] into the search engine.

For example, this page is among the top ten most popular pages for queries like “mobile app developers denver.”

4. Don’t neglect trying new and less famous directories

At first glance, this seems like the kind of site that nobody would be interested in.

But if you give it a try, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Here are some promising newbies:

• skilled.co
• wadline.com
• greatagencies.com
• topappfirms.com

5. Ask directories to add your company to their lists

Search for the “Get listed” section on the header or footer of a directory.

You can send an email to the directory’s representatives.

This is important: Ideally, you should make a unique description of your business for each directory.

Also, you should check your spam folder because directory emails can sometimes end up there.

3. How Difficult It Can Be and How Long It Can Take to Get Listed on a Directory

We measured the time it took one Software service company to get into all the main directories.

Here are the results:

• Time spent: 28 working hours
• Number of directories: 22
• Number of approvals per the first week: 10
• 20% of directories publish a profile immediately after the request; 30% ask for additional information and make the profile public for 2-3 days. Note: Clutch is an exception — 3 months for the approval.

Want our template to delegate the work with directories and save time? Send “Hello, give me the template for directories” to irina@kraftblick.com.

Also, you should know that there are paid directories. For example, UpCity may cost you $150-800 a month.

Some directories require a LinkedIn login. Clutch is one of them.

Also, there are some directories that require only direct contact (via email):

4. How to Stand Out Among Competitors In Directories

The general principles are:

• Be higher on the list and/or
• Get more reviews of high quality and/or
• Something else

Source: artsbrevard.org

To get higher in the list of companies, you have to stay focused.

Try to focus only on one category.

For example, here’s the category “Top Cloud Consulting Services.”

Source: clutch.co

• It contains only one paid sponsor
• It gets about 400 relevant visitors per month from the US via queries like “Cloud Consulting Services”
• You should only get a few reviews and be on the first page

Here is a helpful tip for you. Study the sitemap of Clutch.

So it will be easier for you to find the most relevant category.

You can also add a mark with certificates to confirm your expertise.

You should also check the methodology page. In this way, you can better understand what opportunities you have to stand out among competitors on Clutch.Source: clutch.co

Some may wonder whether they should spend resources on Clutch sponsorship…

Sponsorship offers several advantages, but before you spend money on it you need to do a few things:

• Find out the price
• Consider the chances of getting to the top
• Analyze location
• Calculate potential traffic

For those who have just gotten onto Clutch, the website offers paid sponsorship:

• Starter ($250/mo): 3-5 position in the niche category (the website actually doesn’t contain that feature!)
• Bronze ($650/mo): 3 position
• Silver ($1000/mo): Top 3, but you need reviews.

The last time we checked Clutch’s traffic, it looked like this:

Also, note that cheap sponsorship packages do not allow users to get to the Top 20-30 in popular categories.

Therefore, if your budget is small, it is better to buy an initial sponsorship package and choose a niche category.

Here’s how much sponsorship costs related to another directory, GoodFirms.

Wrapup

Many directories receive tons of unique monthly users, and the percentage of traffic conversions from these websites may reach 5%.

Directories get the most traffic from search engines, so these sites can be great intermediaries between Software service companies and search engines.

To get into the directories, you can use our list (you can find it in the text above) or take a few simple steps to find the directories yourself.

You may need some time for your request to be approved.

After you receive confirmation, follow our tips to stand out among the competitors.

• Focus only on one category
• Study the sitemap of Clutch to find the most relevant category
• Add a mark with certificates to confirm your expertise
• Buy an initial sponsorship package and choose a niche category

Stay productive!

Source: https://kraftblick.com/blog/clutch-goodfirms-and-others-real-life-hacks-to-get-more-leads-from-directories-for-software-service-companies/