How do you build a local search directory and where you get data

[yeswesell]

I am planning to build a local directory but I am not sure how to start. Any experience on this?

[Chicago]

this goes back a few years, and could easily be updated relative to developments (especially the data part) in local search, but it provides some really good nuggets still very useful today:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[lorenzinho2]

yeswesell, most local directory data is provided by InfoUSA or Acxiom. There are also a couple of "layer 2" providers that license out scrubbed data. Geosign is one of those.

Brace yourself - this sort of data is pretty pricey.

[Webwork]

this sort of data is pretty pricey

Define pricey: Per record per month? Per 1000 records? Per specific database?

General pricing guidelines?

[yeswesell]

I am planning to use service from edirectory but never know it's good or not. I just get the database I need, about 14 million US data, 1.2 million Canadian data , 2.3 million UK businessand other european country. They will give me update every 6 months. And the data is freat I think.

[yeswesell]

according to the source they have:
- 14 Million US Bussiness Mailing List with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
- 220 Million US consumer Mailing List with address, phone, email address...
- 66.000 US Nurses with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
-167.000 US Dentists with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
- 833.000 US Physicians with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
- 430.782 US Manufacturers with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
- 989.004 US Real Estate Agencies with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
- 335.851 US Laywers & Law Firms with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
- 1.3 Million Canadian Business with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
- 2.3 Million UK Business Database with address, phone, fax, website, email address...
- 57,628 Australian executive names
- 180.000 Austrian companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 150.000 Belgian companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 60.000 Danish companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 300.000 French Companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 400 000 German companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 150.000 Italian companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 230.000 Dutch companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 149.685 Companies with 268.072 products. (address, phone, fax, name...)
- 130.000 Spanish companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 40.000 Swedish companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...
- 700.000 Swiss companies with address, phone, fax, email , website...

Because they have too much source for the data, I am not sure which database I should buy, could you please advised. Thanks

[yeswesell]

how do you think about their data?

[bakedjake]

Well, there's no way they have 14 million URLs first off.

Second, I just ran some numbers, and updating every six months gives you about 40% stale data. On a monthly update, you can expect about 10-15% of your data to be stale. Remember, 1/3 of US businesses fail within the first 6 months of incorporation.

There are data providers now going after twice daily updates from directory assistance, connects and disconnects, etc etc etc. That's how much demand there is for up-to-date data.

General pricing guidelines?

For the full base dataset, expect $300K per year (that includes quarterly updates). Some of them will give you the attributes specific to the business (whether a bank has an ATM, fast food has a drive thru, etc). Some of them will charge extra for that.

That probably doesn't include a good amount of URLs, and doesn't including linking data; franchises, brand databases, etc. That's all extra.

[yeswesell]

Thank so much bakedjake, so what's the data provider you all use? Could you please list them.

[bakedjake]

Could you please list them.

I can't - it'd be self promotion, which is frowned upon here. ;-)

[yeswesell]

I promise don't do the same business lol

[Chicago]

Check out GeoSign.