- CityLocal
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CityLocal 
Type Franchise Industry Local events and business listings Founded 2006 Headquarters Leicester, UK Key people Nazir Daud, Founder and Zakir Daud Website CityLocal CityLocal is a British website directory of businesses, local listings and events.
Contents
Site History
CityLocal began in April 2006 as a community website with a simple business directory. According to franchise founder Nazir Daud on EzineArticles.com by the end of 2007 the site had expanded into an web-based franchise with over 40 franchisees offering SEO to individual clients
CityLocal clients include small and medium enterprises and sole traders with between 1 to 50 employees, although charities, places of worship, schools and collages are also included.
Services
Social Networking
Members can join to submit reviews, advertise local properties and jobs and receive free voucher subscriptions. Many listings also have links to other social newtowrking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg and Google. Having an account allows users to post free business listing, properties and add reviews.Jobs
The site also offers a list of jobs posted by members. Jobs are updated daily and remain on the site for 60 days. Visitors can browse by area, industry and key words. Members and non-members can view job offers.Properties
Both local properties and cars are advertised on CityLocal, with homes both for sale and for rent. Property listings may also come from neighbouring areas as well as the local site. Local news and offers are also streamed through an RSS stream from BBC news and local websites.Vouchers
A sample voucher.
CityLocal offers a wide range of vouchers from their Premium and Top Spot listings which, along with their business directory, is one of the primary selling points of the franchise. Money-saving vouchers and coupons come directly to customers through free e-mail subscription. Though CityLocal focuses on local and individual businesses, most vouchers can be used in any branch of that business in the country. Areas which have a certain amount of premium business listings often offer voucher booklets featuring up to six different vouchers.
Business Listings
The heart of the site is the Business Directory which focuses on local areas and individual shops. CityLocal offers three different types of business listing:
Free Listings Premium Listings Top Spots Name of company, Address, Phone Number Name of company, Address, Phone Number Name of company, Address, Phone Number No listing, no SEO 200-500 word listing with SEO 200-500 word listing with SEO Business owners can add a listing for free Business owners can edit the details of their listings Business owners can edit the details of their listings No photographs, videos, slideshows or banners Photographs, videos, slideshows and banners Photographs, videos, slideshows and banners Appears low on business directory Appears above Free Listings but below Top Spot Appears above Free Listings and Premium Listings Pricing is as the discretion of the franchisee. Along with promoting individual businesses high on search engines, Premium and Top Spot listings offer business owners to edit their listings.
Reception
CityLocal's stall at a franchise exhibition in 2010, featured in Business and Industry Today Issue 215Reviews and analytics of CityLocal have been highly mixed, partly for its lack of publicity and partly for failing to stand out compared to other business listing websites. Businessopportunitywatch.com reviewed the franchise in 2007, giving it a mediocre score of 5 out of 10 for not appearing on high on search engine results as offered and being overpriced.[1]
A later review noted that for the business to work the franchisees had to work hard and repeatedly visit local shops owners in order to make significant amounts of money, questioning CityLocal's appeal to those who want to work from home.[2] CityLocal.co.uk also received mixed summary scores on NibblerAlpha, ranking high on accessibility and technology, average on experience but poor on marketing, giving it an overall score of 7.1.[3] CityLocal Ireland received a lower score on both technology and experience, giving it an overall score of 5.5.[4]
Despite these unremarkable reviews, Business and Industry Today awarded CityLocal Company of the Year Award in 2010 following the increased amount of traffic to their site, which now receives 130 million hits a year.[5]
See also
- Yelp, Inc.
- Gumtree
- Yell.com
- Groupon
- Internet Marketing
- Online Advertising
- Search engine optimization
- Search engine marketing
References
- ^ "Review of CityLocal on Businessopportunitywatch.com". http://www.businessopportunitywatch.com/BOW-Review-of-City-Local-Franchise.htm. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- ^ "Franchise-busin reviews CityLocal". http://franchise-busin.blogspot.com/2010/11/all-about-citylocal-franchise-review.html. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- ^ "Nibbler.silktide.com ranks CityLocal.co.uk". http://nibbler.silktide.com/reports/www.citylocal.co.uk. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- ^ "Nibbler.silktide.com ranks CityLocal.ie". http://nibbler.silktide.com/reports/www.citylocal.ie. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- ^ "CityLocal given Company of the Year Award (Business and Industry Today Issue 215)". http://www.citylocal.co.uk/businessfranchise/business-and-industry-today/company-of-the-year-award.pdf. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
External links
Categories:- Community websites
- Companies based in Leicester
- Consumer guides
- Internet marketing
- Online companies
- Social networking services
- Review websites
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
