A partner directory page

A listing is an implied endorsement

Customers read a partner page as a recommendation. If somebody you listed does poor work, the complaint comes to you first. Saying it was only a list rarely helps.

So decide what you are really saying. These are firms we have worked with is not the same as these are approved installers. The second one says you checked something.

Say which it is on the page, in plain words. Ambiguity here is what turns somebody else's mistake into your problem, and one sentence prevents it.

Decide before you publish who inside your business can add a listing. Directories grow by favor when nobody owns them, and a page that anybody can add to stops meaning anything within a year.

Say what a listing requires

If partners must hold a trade card, carry insurance or meet a standard, say so and say who checks it. That is what makes the list useful rather than decorative.

If there is no requirement beyond having worked together, say that too. Honest is better than impressive, and customers can then judge the listing for what it is.

Say how often you check. A standard checked once at the start and never again is a different promise from one checked every year. Customers assume the second unless you tell them.

Put the date each partner joined next to the entry. It is a small thing and it tells a reader whether the list is a current record or a collection that has been sitting there.

Keep it small and current

These pages go stale faster than almost any other. Firms close, move and change hands without telling anybody who listed them.

Review it on a schedule rather than when a complaint arrives. Our page on keeping content current covers the routine, and this page justifies a tighter cycle.

Remove rather than archive. A partner who no longer meets the standard should come off the page. Leaving them there with a note pleases nobody.

Ask partners to tell you when their details change. Most will not, and the ones who do save you the embarrassment of sending a customer to a number that stopped working.

What a directory page needs

The list below is what makes a directory usable and defensible. Most partner pages carry logos and nothing else, which tells a customer nothing and still implies endorsement.

• What a listing means, stated plainly
• What a partner has to meet to be listed
• Who verifies that, and how often
• What each partner actually does
• Where each one operates
• How to raise a problem with a listed partner
• When the directory was last reviewed

Links and what they carry

Link to partners in the ordinary way where the relationship is real. Where money changes hands for the listing or the link, that is a paid placement. Say so, and mark the link.

Our page on disclosure covers the rules. The short version is that a paid placement presented as a recommendation is a deceptive practice.

Check the links occasionally. A partner directory pointing at three expired domains tells a reader, and an answer engine, that nobody maintains the page.

Complaints about a listed partner

Give customers a way to tell you. You will hear about problems in the end, and hearing early lets you drop a listing before it costs more than it earned.

Decide in advance what gets somebody removed. Making that call during a complaint is how firms end up defending a partner they had already stopped trusting.

And say on the page that you are not responsible for the work of listed businesses, if that is your position. Be aware that a strong endorsement may undercut it. Nothing here is legal advice.

Whether you need one at all

Often not. A directory is worth having when customers genuinely need to find somebody near them, or when the listing is part of a franchise or dealer arrangement.

Where it exists mainly to look established, the upkeep and the implied backing cost more than the page is worth. A short list inside a service page usually does the same job.

If you do build one, our page on site structure covers treating it as a hub with real pages beneath rather than a single long list.