FAQs

Best of Gulfport lets business owners claim and customize their business listings for free. To get started, type your business name in the search bar. Click on your business and on the right hand side, click “Claim Now”.

You will now need to enter a few basic details, including verification details such as your business address or a photo of your business card. After that, simple click “Claim Your Business Now” and allow us 24-48 hours to verify your request. 

Best of Gulfport has built an easy to use submission form for creating and publishing your business listing. This form allows you to enter important information about your business.

We’ve tried to make this process as easy as possible by automating the population of data using Google APIs, so give Fill-O-Bot a try! We recommend that you complete as much information as possible.

There are four (4) pricing plans for business listings. If you are unsure where to get started you can always begin on a Free plan and upgrade at any time should you require the powerful additional features on your listing that will help in search results.

Most importantly, don’t forget to select all categories that apply to your business or product (including the primary categories) and ensure that you upload a correctly formatted logo, High Resolution and attractive feature image and gallery image(s). Remember, a picture speaks a thousand words.

Logo: 512x512px
Feature Image: 1024x660px
Gallery Images: 1024x660px

If you find your business on Best of Gulfport, but don’t see a Claim Now link on your business listing page, that indicates your business has already been claimed.

Many times someone from your company has already claimed the listing, sometimes business owners have forgotten they’ve already claimed the listing.

Either way, if you can’t access your listing just go to the contact page and let us know the issue.

If you don’t see your business on Best of Gulfport and would like to add your business listing to our site, simply click the Add Listing button on the top right of our site.

Once you’ve added your business listing, please allow us 24-48 hours for the information to be verified and added to our site.

On your listing details page you can do many things to get more visibility, including: Updating all your business information, Choosing the correct category and Adding eye-catching photos.

Here’s a couple of things I would recommend that will help in optimizing your listing.

#1 – Add About “Your Company Name”

Let’s say you own a business called Sara’s Hair Salon that’s located in Gulfport Fl. The first thing you should do in your description box is add: About Sara’s Hair Salon in Gulfport Fl and highlight that text and click on the H2 tag above the description box.

This accomplishes a couple of things. For one, it will make your listing look better but the second thing is it will help in the search engines as far as keywords go.

#2 – Keywords

Keywords are crucial when it comes to establishing an online presence and most business owners have no ideas about this. Keywords are what people type in Google or Bing when searching for anything.

For the example we used of Sara’s Hair Salon, the keyword people are searching for in this case would be “hair salon in Gulfport Fl”. I would say in my description: “Are you looking for a great hair salon in Gulfport Fl?”

A rule of thumb is for every 200 words you should add your keyword and it doesnt have to be that exact keyword. It could be “Beauty Shop in Gulfport Florida” or variations. I think you get the idea.

Make sure when you are done creating or editing your listing, click save or update.

If you would like your business listing on Best of Gulfport removed, please use our contact page and let us know the business name and email address. We will take care of it within 48 hours.

As the business owner, you can contact us to have a review removed. Our team will assess the review in question and email you within 48 hours with a decision.

When you click Add Your Listing, you will be shown a page of 4 options to choose from. Let’s go over each one and see what is the best option for you and your business.

#1 – Free/Basic Package

The Free Basic Package allows you to create a listing that will last 90 days. You will be able to display your contact details, description of your business, your images, your location, website and business hours.

Of course this doesn’t have near the features you would get with the other packages but it is a solid package for those just starting and trying to figure things out.

The downside is that the listing is only good on Best of Gulfport for 90 days but you do have a chance to upgrade before the 90 days are up.

#2 – Silver Package

The Silver Package gives you everything from the Free/Basic Package, plus the ability to display your map, your business tagline, you add your social links and price range for your service or product.

Where this package really excels is the ability to add a video of your business, answer any questions your customers may have with your own FAQ’s, add tags and keywords, create your own menu and access to your own lead form.

Being able to have your customers connect with you on social media or watch your video is great for building your trust factor. People want to do business with people they know, like and trust.

The ability to add your own menu is great for restaurants/bars to share their delicious options and the fact that you can have potential customers/ clients contact you on your own lead form inside of Best of Gulfport is fantastic.

#3 – Gold Package

The Gold Package gives you everything from both of the packages above. Plus, you can also add announcements for any upcoming events, but the strong point of this package is that you can offer coupons, deals or discounts for any of your products or services.

Another great feature of the Gold Package is that you can set up bookings thru your Best of Gulfport listing. The built-in appointment booking option is a simple and intuitive system. 

We have also integrated with TWO PREMIUM Booking Systems for business owners who are already using TimeKit and Resurva.

#4 – Platinum Package

The Platinum Package gives you everything from all 3 packages above. Plus, you have the ability to hide Google and competitor ads from your listing.

While those 2 additional features are well worth the price, the best feature is the ability to create events and have them featured through out Best of Gulfport

Which Package Should I Choose?

This is entirely up to you and your budget. But, what I can tell you is that Best of Gulfport offers more features at a lower cost than any other directory you will find.

Plus, if you choose a paid package you have the yearly option which means basically you are getting 12 months for the price of 10 months.

Even better is if you’re a veteran that owns a local business, we’ve got special pricing discount for those that have proudly served. Visit our Contact page to get more info about this discount.

I’m sure if you’re a business owner you’ve seen Yelp charging 300.00/month and you’ve seen Home Advisor sharing your leads with your competitors.

I want Best of Gulfport to be the best bang for your buck and build a relationship with you and your business as it grows. I’m sure you’ve noticed, we share a lot of valuable tips for local business owners on this site.

You can check out our Packages Page and choose what works best for you. It doesn’t matter what package you choose, if you have questions about growing your business we will always be there to help.

YES, Best of Gulfport is the place for small business owners to get in front of potential customers/clients who are already looking for your products and services.

We have a variety of advertising options for your local business that won’t break the bank. If you’ve listed and claimed your business, you can visit your dashboard to see some of the options.

Once you’re in your dashboard, on the left hand side you can click on Ad Campaigns. From there you can select your listing, then choose how long you want your advertising campaign to run. Now you can select where you want your listing to show up.

The first option is the Spotlight Ad – This ad will be shown at the top of the Home page of Best of Gulfport. Visit our home page to see a live example.

The second option is the Top of Search Ad – This ad will be shown on top of all relevant search results. You can see a live example here.

The third option is the Sidebar Ad – This ad is exactly what it sounds like. Your ad will show up on every listing detail sidebar and our Blog sidebar. You can see a live example here.

You can choose any or all of the ads and set the length for however many days you like. The pricing is extremely reasonable if you consider that if you only got 1 new customer/client a month, you should be way ahead on your return on investment.

Let’s take a look at some Select Ad options below.

The Ads we will talk about now are not found in your back office. The first ads option we will discuss are the Featured Home Page Banner Ads. These ads are the very first thing that visitors will see when they Visit BestofGulfport.com.

If you visit our Home Page, the first thing you see is the Banner Ad and if you look at the bottom right you will see Featured Sponsor. Currently it is Get Your Business Seen and if you click on that link it will take you to their business listing.

Instead of linking to your listing, you could link to your social media or website. Best of Gulfport gets thousands of visitors every month and if you would like to advertise in this spot, it is $150.00 for 30 days.

You can extend your campaign by sending a request at least 5 Days prior to your ad’s expiry date. Extending your ad however may not always be guaranteed as other requests may be pending before you resubmit your request.

The second ad option we go over are the Exclusive Ads which will be shown on just about every page and above the fold, which means that people will not have to scroll too far, if at all, to see your ad.

You can see a live example here or on just about any page you visit. These ads are 728×90 in size, the cost is $100.00/month and have limited availability. 

The third ad option we will talk about are the Premium Ads. These ads are 768×120 in size, cost $75.00/month and also have limited availability. The Premium Ads are shown below the title of each business listing. You can see a live example here.

If you would like to advertise your business with any of these options, you will need to contact us for availability.