For me - I would stay on them regardless. In fact there are a couple I have continued with and can see no revenue from them at all. If others are on them, then stick with them. You have no choice, I mean you don't want to NOT be seen every place they are seen. It is what it is in this day and age, and as discussed earlier this year in the old posts - now is not the time to cut back on marketing.
You also answered your own question about going platinum and everyone else going platinum. Seems you have to keep up with the joneses on this one or be left in the dust (even if you are the joneses).
Joe Bloggs said:
In fact there are a couple I have continued with and can see no revenue from them at all. If others are on them, then stick with them. You have no choice, I mean you don't want to NOT be seen every place they are seen.
I think there is one possible flaw in this line of logic....if they truly aren't delivering guest traffic then it is more than likely that is because people are not ending up on that directory for your particular region. So your statement then becomes, "I mean you don't want to NOT be seen every place they are ALSO NOT seen." No sense keeping up with the joneses in the not being seen race. That's a race that has no winner..only losers.
Note: before dumping the directory you should make sure that your tracker is up to the task of actually tracking a referral from that directory and make sure that there is not some SEO benefit to that directory that may cause you to lose your search engine position if you no longer have a link from them. (for most directories especially the big ones, this value is small and can take nearly a year to have the effect on your site if the link went away.)
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Mahalo for the answer to my question about SEO- it was the one reason I was concerned about our strategy.
Something I would add that is VERY important in addressing our fears about downsizing our directory stable is:
WHAT ELSE ARE YOU DOING AND IS IT WORKING?
We just had a guest blog about us and it had a google alert. This one event may be far more important in getting a reservation than a generic directory would.
We are blogging now and we have moved up in google searches we consider most important.
We are constantly looking for media opportunities.
We participated in a big visitors radio and print campaign (for the cost of a 2 night prize donation)
These things- along with building a bunch of partnerships- are driving business to our door. THE directories - unless they appear in the first 4 or 5 in a google search, are nearly worthless.
I will note that one directory contacted us and seems to see the value of marketing us to others as very important- true- but I have yet to see much substance in that. I think if these directories can prove some real value in getting us real free print- not the bogus stuff where your name is on some list that goes out to loosely targeted media groups- than they might win me over. This is the first time we were contacted directly about how they could market us beyond the listing. This might be worth watching.