Kenya Business Listing (KBL) is among the newest entries into the market and is averaging 20 company additions per day.
Speaking to HumanIPO, Caesar Waganagwa, chief executive officer (CEO) of the company behind the site, said the inspiration to start the project came from a desire to incorporate what traditional online directories would provide with an Article submission module.
This way, they are able to keep the website clear of any clutter.
“Any registered user at KBL has access to the Article Submission Module through which one can post articles related to their respective business with a single hyperlink to their core website, thus enhancing your website’s ranking,” Waganagwa said.
“To enhance the interaction between the users and the website, we have also added a knowledge resource blog, making KBL the first online directory of its kind in East and Central Africa.”
Just as with other online directories, KBL contains a list of businesses in the country, markets to an online audience and supports both large and small businesses, but that is where the similarities end.
KBL offers free registration to all, provided they publish their business details. The registration procedure takes one minute.
KBL also offers multiple listings to its clients, ensuring that visitors can see a business regardless of whether they were looking by category or alphabetically.
Different businesses have different needs and while it may seem fair to give every business equal visibility on the site, it is not always possible.
Some businesses can do well with traffic of 10 visitors per day, while others need a minimum of 100 per day.
Waganagwa added: “This is precisely why Kenya Business Listing offers three upgrades on the free listing. The idea is to provide increased visibility for the sites that need heavy traffic, at a small fee.
“Again unlike other directories, the 3 categories mean that users have more choices and can take what matches their financial capacity against their needs.”
The three packages in question are Featured Listings, Sponsored Listings and Banners.
There is also articlemarketing, which gives businesses the ability to create and post content that is relevant to them on KBL.
The articles can be press releases, product reviews or sales copies and include a link back to the company’s site.
Waganagwa claims KBL’s conversion rate is 85 per cent, meaning an extremely high proportion of visitors will move on to the site of one of the businesses listed.
He said: “In addition, trackers are attached to any business listed on the website meaning that business owners have access to important tools that can help them evaluate the success of their endeavors.
“They can track the number of people who viewed their business listing on KBL and also monitor how many people click and follow the links on their listings.”
