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Loebig Ink is a small business consulting firm
fueled by coffee, creativity and music to provide
SEO, web design and social media solutions.

Loebig Ink Featured in a ContentCal Success Story

A ContentCal and Loebig Ink Success Story graphicOne of the most important aspects of doing business today is also one of the most challenging: keeping up a consistent social media presence. Direct, call-to-action social media marketing is incredibly important, but so is overall visibility and friendly engagement through content of interest to followers and potential new clients. We use ContentCal to serve our Social Media Management clients and we are honored that Loebig Ink was recently featured as a Success Story on the ContentCal website.

The article, “Creating the foundations for scale,” outlines our trajectory from when we first began offering Social Media Management – back when creating and sharing spreadsheets for the task was all we had – to eventually choosing ContentCal as our preferred content management platform. We are very happy now with how easy it is to create, schedule, and auto-post social media content for our clients. Finding the right platform with the features we needed, however, wasn’t a direct path. It took time, feedback, discussion, and trust. You can read the story at contentcal.com.

ContentCal launched in 2016 and streamlines content marketing to make the processes simpler. Their products offer the ability to plan, schedule, and publish across multiple platforms, to engage with clients and customers, and to perform analyses on the presentation of your messages so you keep on top of what works best for your business. Loebig Ink is one of their over 2,000 clients who publish to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other socials using ContentCal.

Learn more about social media marketing, view our complete list of social media optimization and management services, and contact us for more information.

Meet Our Project Manager — Ramona Singh

Loebig Ink Team Member: Ramona Singh

Ramona Singh - ANP Photography | www.anpphoto.comFour years ago, Ramona Singh was spending her working hours overseeing sales and transactions as the Box Office Manager at the Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club, a historic 500-seat concert hall. As she sometimes filled in as a Marketing Assistant for the venue, she had the occasion to cross paths with Brian Loebig. Fast forward to 2021 and the sage advice about keeping up with business contacts has paid off. Brian had an opportunity available for another Project Manager. Ramona was happy to join the team.

Taking on the role of Project Management with Loebig Ink leads to in-depth understanding of services in which the company specializes, including Social Media Management, Web Design, and SEO. Along the way, Project Managers get to work on an array of assignments. Ramona is adapting her skills in her new professional role with Loebig Ink and is still learning a great deal about management “… even though I have been managing my children’s activities for about four years now,” she jokes. Her favorite projects thus far have been learning livestream broadcasting and delving into Backlink Development, an advanced SEO technique to build the authority of a website. Aside from the tasks themselves, Ramona says she finds Brian to be “gracious and generous” and she enjoys the aspect of getting to learn a great deal every day.

Ramona Singh was born and raised in India by her father, a pastor, and her mother, a nurse. She and her father moved when she was 15 years old to the United States, where she finished high school. In 2006, they were finally joined by the rest of the family, Ramona’s mother, sister, and brother. She has since met Jonathan, the love of her life, and they have two beautiful children.

Ramona’s love for her family is clear. When she is not working on a project for Loebig Ink, she is enjoys spending time with her two toddlers while playing and doing arts and crafts. She also likes to cook, go on walks, and when she dreams of the future, traveling the world is high on the to-do list!

Learn more about our services and when you trust Loebig Ink with your next project, Ramona Singh may be the Project Manager in your corner.

 

Loebig Ink, LLC Wins UpCity.com’s Best of Marketing & Advertising Award!

UpCity Best of Marketing & Advertising Winner 2021UpCity is a resource that helps connect businesses to service providers they can trust. With more than 50,000 listed providers—from marketing agencies to accounting firms to HR consultants, and many more—1.5 million businesses (and counting) have visited UpCity to identify the best partner for their needs. Their mission is to facilitate successful relationships.

This year, 2021, UpCity evaluated tens of thousands of agencies in the “Marketing & Advertising space” and Loebig Ink was selected as one of the 200 firms nationwide that were recognized as an award winner. The UpCity Recommendability Rating utilizes a proprietary algorithm to measure the credibility and trustworthiness of each agency. It is an assessment of how recommendable a service provider is in comparison to other service providers. Derived from a variety of data points that are designed to help business owners find a partner that is the right fit for them—and one they can trust.

The announcement was made official with the notification…

“Congratulations! We are excited to announce that your company is being recognized as a winner in our inaugural Best of Awards! Based on your UpCity Recommendability Rating, you have been selected as a Best of Marketing & Advertising winner!”

Check out Loebig Ink’s profile on UpCity.com and leave us a review. Visit the official UpCity announcement about all the 2021 award winners!

It is exciting to be recognized by UpCity.com! Get in touch to learn what Loebig Ink can do to serve your online advertising needs.

Meet Our Project Manager — Aura Parrington

Loebig Ink Team Member: Aura Parrington

Aura ParringtonWhen Aura Parrington developed her first marketing campaign, it sparkled with enthusiasm and a catchy little jingle. The future seemed so clear, so attainable. As it so often happens, though, the whole project collapsed before it got much further than her living room. Of course, that may have been because she was eight years old at the time.

By age fifteen, Aura was making a living in retail and carving out new opportunities for herself. In 2012, she married her soulmate, Dan. Getting an education in psychology, social work, and medical transcription broadened her skills and knowledge, and then motherhood laid claim to most of Aura’s time and energy.

In the earlier days of Loebig Ink, Aura’s husband Dan spent over a year working with and for Brian Loebig. Dan’s experience with Brian was excellent and he continues to hold his former employer, colleague, and mentor in high esteem. As Aura saw and felt the supportive, constructive relationship between the two firsthand, early dialogue about the possibility of her joining Loebig Ink’s growing roster began.

Now Aura has finally joined Brian’s diverse team of professionals. As a Project Manager, she works with SEO and contributes some social media consultation. She is grateful for the opportunity to show her stuff as part of a truly excellent team and is eager to put more of her social media skills to use. Currently, she is learning web design as well to diversify her work with the company even more.

Between the pandemic and her commitment to home and family, being able to apply her talents as a social professional from home is just the right fit — despite the jealous efforts at sabotage by her five adoring and devious felines who feel they should have all her attention! Aura is looking forward to a great future with Loebig Ink. If you are interested in starting a new project with us, Aura may be your main point of contact.

Top 50 online directories to improve local SEO

Updated: 12/18/2024

So your first question might be, what is an online directory?

It’s exactly what the name implies, it’s analogous to a printed phone book (e.g. Yellow pages) for businesses, except it’s all digital on the Internet. A small business can enter information (e.g. business name, address, phone number, and email) into a directory to improve their SEO visibility for local search results by users. Below is a screenshot of a sample online directory (https://www.manta.com/add-your-company) and the type of business information you can provide. Depending on the directory, adding your small business information to a database is often free. However, some directories require a fee in order to add a business profile to their index. If it’s a one-time fee and the directory has a high domain authority (50 or greater) it’s often a worthwhile investment.
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Manta Business Directory Listing

 

Your next question might be, how does listing my business in local online directories improve my SEO rankings? 

Five reasons to publish your business in online SEO directories:

1) It’s one of the top ranking factors used in the Google Search Algorithm. Google partnered with two independent consumer research firms to run a small study  (~4,500 participants) to better understand consumers’ local search behavior on smartphones, desktops and tablets.  Below are some stats from the study:

  • 4 out of 5 consumers searched online to find local business information. 
  • The most popular information searched for was store address, business hours, product availability and directions. 
  • 50% of the participants who used their smart-phone and 34% who used a computer/tablet to search online visited a store within a day.
  • When comparing consumers using a smartphone to do a local vs. non-local search they found 18% who performed a local search lead to a purchase within a day vs. 7% who did a non-local search.
  • 4 out of 5 consumers stated they preferred ads customized to their city, zip code or immediate surroundings. 

The study’s results demonstrate that LOCAL business information is extremely important to consumers when searching and shopping online. Therefore, Google realized the importance of local information in online searches and has made it one of the strongest ranking factors in their search algorithm. Hence why publishing in LOCAL online directories is an ideal SEO strategy for businesses.

2) It boosts a business’ website’s visibility in local search results. Local SEO strategies involve optimizing keywords with your local city or cities (e.g. “top hair salon Rockville”, “event management Washington DC”, “Italian pizza Bethesda”, etc.). This is the same strategy that local online directories use and because they typically have a high “domain authority” they appear more often on the first page of web search results using (e.g. Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.). This, in turn, will lead to increased appearance and ranking of your business profile in local search results.

 3) It will increase your brand’s visibility. Using the logic in point #2, more appearances in search results has two major impacts on a business’ branding. One is an increase in brand recognition. Second, is an increase in user familiarity and trust in your brand. It’s crucially important to use a recognizable logo and add as much information about your business as possible to each directory you list the business in.

4) It allows your business to dominate search results. By listing your business in as many online directories as possible you greatly improve the likelihood that your business will appear on the first page of Google Search results and other search engines.

5) It’s a cost-effective SEO strategy because you get more bang for your buck. Online directories enable businesses to reach a wider range of target audiences and consumers can leave real reviews about your business. In addition, a majority of the directories listed below are free!

 The top 50 online directories to improve SEO we recommend below:

 (*Note: Always be sure to search for your business listing in each directory before creating a brand new one. Removing duplicate listings in these directories is equally as important and time-consuming to remove if there is a duplicate.)

Click the different table headings (e.g. URL or Link) to sort each column!

  • List reviewed and updated: 01/1/2025
URL or LinkCategory(Local, National, Niche, etc.)Domain Authority*Free or Paid
Yelp for BusinessLocal93Free
FoursquareLocal and National92Paid- Requires a one-time fee of $20 to publish listing
Psychology TodayNiche- Mental Health93Paid- $29.95 per month. Highly recommended for Psychologists, Therapists, etc.
Angie’s List for BusinessNiche-Trades77Free
Crunchbase.comLocal and National91Free
Better Business BureauLocal and National91$355+
Patch.comLocal91Free
Realtor.comNiche- Realtors90Free
Manta.comLocal81Free
Merchantcircle.comLocal and National76Free
Yellow PagesLocal and National86Free
Hotfrog.comLocal56Free
NextDoor for BusinessLocal83Free
The Wedding WireNiche- Wedding Vendors72Free
Super PagesLocal and National69Free
Thumbtack.comLocal76Free
Avvo.comNiche-Legal75Free
Lawyers.comNiche-Legal74Free
Caring.comNiche-Senior Living66Free
RateMDs.comNiche- Medical Professionals63Free
Google Business ProfileLocal94Free
Yellow BookLocal and National71Free
Partners LocalLocal and National15Free
Company.comLocal and National68Free
Brown BookLocal and National64Free
TwidlooLocal and National56Free
eLocalLocal62Free
Bing for BusinessLocal52Free
EZLocalLocal55Free
Show Me LocalLocal54Paid- requires a one time $7 fee to make the listing active.
Cybo.comLocal and National57Free
Cylex.comLocal50Free
City SquaresLocal and National47Free
Hub BizLocal and National51Free
Tupalo.comLocal and National59Free
E Business PagesLocal56Free
Yellow Page CityLocal and National39Free
Call Up ContactLocal, National and International55Free
US Enroll Business.comLocal and National55Free
ViesearchLocal and National47Free
NoomiNiche-Mental Health49Free
My HuckleberryLocal and National39Free
Find Us Here.comLocal and National47Free
Akama.comLocal and National37Free
CustomerTrust.ioNiche – Marketing10Free
Therapy DenNiche – Therapists51Free

 *Domain Authority is a ranking metric (based on a 100 point scale) established by the SEO experts at Moz.com. It determines the power of a domain and how well it will rank in Google search results using a multi-factorial algorithm.

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Thanks for reading about the top 50 online directories. Be sure to check out our other SEO Articles for increasing your web presence!

Loebig Ink Ranked #11 Best Web Design Agency in Silver Spring

Loebig Ink starts 2021 on a high note as it was ranked #11 among all web design agencies and professional web designers in Silver Spring, based on a web design market-share analysis conducted by SEOlium. [see ranking here…]

Top Web Design Agency in Silver Spring Chart

We are both humbled and excited to be on this list, especially since they used data, not voting or a popularity contest, to determine rankings. In their own words…

“This isn’t one of those web design contests where agency owners submit an application and then a jury decides who gets what.
We had a different idea. We asked ourselves: “Who knows what’s best for the people of Silver Spring”? That would be Google, of course.

And “Would you trust Google to show you the best web design firm in Silver Spring ranked #1, the second-best ranked #2, and so on?” Yes!

Luckily, SEOlium is a Google Rank Tracker so we googled “web design Silver Spring”, “web designer Silver Spring”, and “web design agency Silver Spring” from every ZIP-Code in the city and came up with this analysis.
After carefully reviewing 25 “candidates” relevant to the 303,044 people living in Silver Spring (in 7 zip-codes), we selected the most relevant 11 top web design companies/freelancers for our “Silver Spring Web Design” market-share analysis. Should you need a stunning new WordPress website, web development services, professional web hosting – be sure to pick one from the list below.”

We wanted to know more, which is why we reached out to them and asked for more details. Turns out – they did a national best web design agencies in USA contest as well. Apparently, we rank in Google in 11 distinct states. Here’s where we’re most prominent 🙂

Best Web Design Agency in Silver Spring Chart

We’re very proud to receive this designation that reflects our dedication to design and build websites for over 15 years.
Loebig Ink provides a wide range of support services for small business and non-profits in the areas of SEO, Internet Marketing, Web Design, Small Business Coaching, Social Media Management and Social Media Marketing.
Our goal is to provide our clients with the most relevant marketing and advertising solutions, and we are committed to offering a personalized, hands-on approach to each and every project.

Check out Loebig Ink’s Best in Search award from TopSEO’s.com as well!

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