Almost three years ago, our team made the decision to pursue I Am Black Business. Our initial purpose was to create the best black business directory. That initial purpose has grown significantly to include much more, but at the heart, the directory is still hugely important and the foundation for the other products and services we plan to offer. Through analytics and personal experience, I can honestly say we are starting to see some of the fruits of our labor with IABB.
One thing we always said was that we wanted to provide value to black owned businesses as well as consumers. I won't go into much detail as I've already done that with my state of the black business directory series, but one issue is getting black businesses to sign up for the directory. Our directory is free but it still amazes us how we don't already have tens of thousands of businesses in our directory. Maybe they need some proof.
Google Analytics
Our website uses Google Analytics to track a wide array of usage statistics. From the beginning, we have optimized our website to rank well in Google, Bing, and other search engines. A couple of important statistics or insights are as follows:
Stat #1: Searches for Black Owned
We receive a lot of traffic for searches like black owned tree services and black owned restaurants. These type of searches are natural and organic. Continuing to ensure that these type of searches lead to clicks is one of our top priorities.
Stat #2: Direct Searches to Businesses
We also see a good of amount traffic that goes directly to a business on our website. For some businesses, IABB may be their only web presence. Having a simple business profile on IABB increases awareness for every business listed.
Mobile Analytics
A few months after our mobile app launched in August 2016, we implemented basic analytics for the mobile app. Our team is proud to announce that we have hit a milestone of over 2000 monthly unique searches via our mobile apps. For us, this statistic continues to validate our business. We will continue to evolve our mobile app to better serve Black owned businesses and allow consumers to easily locate them.
Personal Experience
Last but not least, I want to say that I have personally received a client for my web design company via IABB. My company, The Urban Geeks, is listed in the directory without any direct information that would give a casual consumer a way to connect that I run both companies. Last December, I received a call from a consumer who used our mobile app to search for black owned web designers.
Consumers are Searching for You
I hope this post lights a fire under black owned businesses to support us as well as other companies that are creating platforms to expose black owned businesses. Consumers are searching for you so be sure to maximize your exposure by creating your business listing.