Early in 2015 we launched our own Gun Related Business directory. Our directory is a place where anyone can search for a range, shop, gunsmith, or firearm instructor near you. Thousands of gun related businesses have added themselves to our directory and that helps Americans that are looking for those services. That said, I decided that in the best interest of these business owners I would give them some direction today on where else they can list their business to help drive more customers.
Below this image are a few disclaimers and further points of clarification but I’ll quickly add here that the LOWER the Alexa ranking the MORE traffic that site gets.
Defining the Terms Above:
- Free Listing Option: Does this directory allow a gun business to be included at some level or degree without paying anything?
- Most Expensive Option: If the directory offers paid/upgraded listings what does the most expensive level/membership cost?
- Alexa USA Traffic Ranking: Knowing how much web traffic each of these sites gets is a little difficult. Unless the owners were willing to share their actual site analytics (and you might imagine most wouldn’t) we really don’t exactly know. However Alexa is a 3rd party trusted ranking organization/website that uses the same criteria to rank all websites in the web. While it may not be a perfect estimation it is the most fair tool with which we can compare sites. The USA Traffic Ranking is a ranking of how popular that website is in the United States. Google has an Alexa ranking of 1. Facebook’s Alexa rating is 2. So the lower the number the more popular that website is in the USA. It is by this criteria that we have sorted/ranked this list. Please note these numbers change daily so these are as of Sept 21st, 2015.
- Link to Website Included?: Turns out that every directory we found does allow the business owner to include a link back to their website in their listing.
- Is Link Encoded?: Online marketers know that a link back to their website is valuable when people click on it but it is also valuable because search engines like Google will see that other sites are linking back to your site. However, it is common practice for directories to encode the link they provide you so that users can click through to your site but search engines like Google will not give you “credit” for that link. Thus a link that is encoded is not as good as a link that is not.
- Business Categories: A few of these directories are focused on a specific firearm related category and we thought that was worth mentioning.
A few questions I suspect I’ll get:
Q: Wait Aren’t These Your Competitors?
A: Yes, but I can’t think of any reason why we shouldn’t all be transparent about what is out there to help members of the firearm community. I’m not reviewing each of them because my own view is naturally very bias. Only presenting what I think are transparent facts.
Q: Jacob I know of a directory that you left out above. Can I submit it?
A: Yes, I did my best job at researching but if I left something out use our contact page to send me the details.
Q: So where should I get my listing?
A: Everywhere you can. Free is good so why not take advantage of it?
Q: How do I decide if it is worth paying more for the upgraded level listing?
A: Depending on how much a customer is worth to you… you need to decide how many new customers you would have to get to justify that annual expense. In most cases I suspect it would be worth it… but only you know what a customer is worth. The Alexa ranking… while not indicative of how many of your potential customers are looking for your business on that site; is directional at least in knowing how much traffic that site gets compared to the others listed here.
Q: Why a question mark for GunShopFinder under price?
A: I sent an email to GunShopFinder after not finding the price on their website but after 2 weeks they haven’t responded so I don’t know how much it costs… but a “free trial” suggests there is a cost after the trial period.
Q: What does Yes/No mean for USA Firearm Training for Encrypted Link?
A: USA Firearm Training shows both because the primary link in the listing is encoded but the website link in the “details” tab is not.