Which wedding business owner doesn’t love free advertising?

It gets you in front of potential new customers, and it’s free marketing (did I mention it’s free?).

Our end goal is to help you book more weddings and we will do that through increasing your visibility on these directories.

Wedding vendors know better than anyone that there is a very real love-hate relationship with directory sites.

They seem to bring a lot of leads for your venue (which is good). But it seems to always bring brides with big ambitions and small budgets. Can I get an amen?

So, why would you list your business on these sites then?

The answer is the SEO benefit called Backlinks.

What Are Backlinks and Why Are They Important?

Backlink– when one website points to another website. Backlinks have a huge impact on search result rankings.

Anytime you write a new blog, or include a new feature on your site, there’s a chance to get a backlink!

All it take is another website sharing your content, and you’v got a backlink!

Alternatively, you can share your piece on sites like Reddit, Facebook, Quora, Twitter, or others to get a quick backlink!

The more backlinks you have, the higher your website “domain authority score” is.

Find Out How We Can Help Grow Your Business

Let’s discuss your marketing needs, and we’ll help you put together a digital marketing strategy that will generate more leads and save you time.

Book a Demo

Find out how we can boost your traffic, leads and sales!

What is Domain Authority Score?

Your domain authority score is a metric used to determine the strength of credibility your site has.

Google factors in domain authority score to decide where to rank sites in the search results  (ex. a bride searching “wedding venue near me”).

When Google sees that other high authority scores are linking to your site, they determine your site as being a reputable source.

Once you start building up your domain score, you will start seeing higher rankings for your website in the search results.

Also, its important to constantly be auditing your backlink profile due to toxic links that can come in and decrease your authority score.

Google makes constant updates to make it a somewhat fair playing field in the search results when it comes to rankings.

Since writing this originally in 2021, we have seen decreases in most of these authority scores to help smaller websites that are trying to be more visible in search results. We have seen increases in the bigger name websites like Yelp, Reddit, and others.

Where To Start Your Free Advertising

Local directories are a great way to start advertising your wedding business for free.

(click here learn about the best marketing strategy for wedding businesses)

This is a list of directory websites that are related to the wedding industry. This is where brides will be looking for you, but also a great place to obtain a high domain authority backlink.

Top Wedding Vendor Directories Ranked

Authority Score- 60-100

1. The Knot (Domain Authority = 78)
2. Thumbtack (Domain Authority = 66)
3. WeddingWire (Domain Authority = 64)
4. Eventective (Domain Authority = 61)

Authority Score- 30-59

1. Zola (Domain Authority = 53)
2. Wedding Bee (Domain Authority = 39)
3. Wedding Vibe (Domain Authority = 32)

Authority Score- 0-29

1. Bridal Tweet (Domain Authority = 22)
2. One Wed (Domain Authority = 22)
3. Wedding Day (Domain Authority = 22)
4. Wedding Mapper (Domain Authority = 21)
5. Perfect Wedding Guide (Domain Authority = 20)
6. Pride Life (Domain Authority = 18)
7. Reception Halls (Domain Authority = 16)
8. The US Wedding Directory (Domain Authority = 4)

Additional New Wedding Directories to Consider

There have been some new directories that popped up since we first started this article that can also be valuable for your wedding business.

Google sees a majority of these as more credible than some of the older ones above based off authority score.

These platforms not only attract brides but also help increase your domain authority score through quality backlinks:

Authority Score- 30-59

• Here Comes The Guide (Domain Authority = 51)
• Party Slate  (Domain Authority = 48)
• One Fab Day (Domain Authority = 47)
• Bridal Guide (Domain Authority = 41)
• The Venue Report (Domain Authority = 40)
• EventUp (Domain Authority = 39)
• Wedding Spot (Domain Authority = 38)
• Style Me Pretty (Domain Authority = 35)
• Junebug Weddings (Domain Authority = 32)
• Wedding Chicks (Domain Authority = 31)
• Offbeat Bride (Domain Authority = 30)

Authority Score- 0-29

• Rustic Wedding Chic (Domain Authority = 25)
• Wedding Maps (Domain Authority = 22)
• Wedding Mapper (Domain Authority = 21)
• Destination Wedding Directory (Domain Authority = 20)
• Wedding Lovely (Domain Authority = 18)

Other Wedding Sites

To find additional directories you can search Google for the following terms:

• “Wedding Vendor Directory [CITY]”
• “[Wedding Business Type] Directory”
• “[CITY] chamber of commerce”

If you love this post you might also like our article: Wedding Venue Marketing Plan: 7 Fool-Proof Wedding Venue Marketing Strategies

General Directories for Local Marketing

To get listed on the main directory sites, Jamie Pitman at Bright Local wrote an awesome article for Hubspot where he wrote out the best directory sites based on domain authority:

These are the ones that you will want to get on as they have the highest authority scores.

All you have to do is create a profile and link it to your website.

Either you can do this for FREE or you can pay a service like SEMRush to create all these profiles for you on their listing management tab.

50 Online Local Business Directories & Listings for Local Marketing

Top General Directories

1. Facebook (Domain Authority = 100)
2. Apple Maps (Domain Authority = 100)
3. Google My Business (Domain Authority = 100)
4. LinkedIn Company Directory (Domain Authority = 100)
5. Yelp (Domain Authority = 100)
6. Yahoo! Local (Domain Authority = 100)
7. Bing (Domain Authority = 94)
8. MapQuest (Domain Authority = 86)
9. HubSpot (Domain Authority = 85)
10. Foursquare (Domain Authority = 82)
11. Better Business Bureau (Domain Authority = 79)
12. Angies List (Domain Authority = 71)
13. Yellow Pages (Domain Authority = 67)
14. Thumbtack (Domain Authority = 66)
15. Manta (Domain Authority = 54)
16. Super Pages (Domain Authority = 47)
17. Hub.biz (Domain Authority = 44)
18. Yellow Book (Domain Authority = 42)
19. Chamberofcommerce.com (Domain Authority = 39)
20. City Squares (Domain Authority = 38)
21. Hot Frog (Domain Authority = 37)
22. Brownbook.net (Domain Authority = 37)
23. Cylex USA (Domain Authority = 34)
24. BOTW (Domain Authority = 34)
25. Tupalo.com (Domain Authority = 34)
26. ezlocal.com (Domain Authority = 33)
27. Merchant Circle (Domain Authority = 33)
28. Call Up Contact (Domain Authority = 32)
29. opendi.us (Domain Authority = 31)
30. DiscoverOurTown.com (Domain Authority = 31)
31. n49.com (Domain Authority = 30)
32. 2findlocal.com (Domain Authority = 29)
33. Company.com (Domain Authority = 28)
34. ibegin.com (Domain Authority = 28)
35. ebusinesspages.com (Domain Authority = 26)
36. Fyple.com (Domain Authority = 26)
37. Smartguy.com (Domain Authority = 25)
38. USdirectory.com (Domain Authority = 25)
39. yelloyello.com (Domain Authority = 24)
40. Finduslocal.com (Domain Authority = 22)
41. where2go.com (Domain Authority = 21)
42. My Huckleberry (Domain Authority = 20)
43. Bizhwy.com (Domain Authority = 20)
44. Local.com (Domain Authority = 18)
45. Wand.com (Domain Authority = 17)
46. worldweb.com (Domain Authority = 17)
47. Get Fave (Domain Authority = 16)
48. Spoke (Domain Authority = 6)
49. Wherezit.com (Domain Authority = 6)
50. Wowcity.com (Domain Authority = 6)
51. Kudzu.com (Domain Authority = 5)
52. City Insider (Domain Authority = 5)
53. Nexport.com (Domain Authority = 4)

Wrapping Up

By getting listed on these directories, you can significantly boost your visibility and SEO performance. 

Remember, the key to successful directory listings is not just the quantity but the quality of the backlinks you obtain.

These will be subject to changes as Google is forever going to be updating and authority scores will change.

But, just by adding yourself to these sites, I think you will find an increase in your search traffic and Google rankings. To learn more about SEO you can also check out: The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO: 33 Tips and Strategies.