A business that cannot be found does not exist for the customer

A customer looking for a tradesperson, a repair shop or a surgery does not only look at Google. Some people go by Mapy.cz, because they have had it on their phone for years for trips and navigation alike. Some search through Seznam and get results from Firmy.cz. And a growing number simply ask an AI assistant in a full sentence. Each of those places builds a picture of your business from what is publicly recorded about it — and if you are not there, it recommends the business next door.

This article is about the listings themselves: which three genuinely pay off in Czechia, how to fill them in one afternoon, and how to spot “directories” that bring nothing but sales calls. Reviews, which build on the listings, already have their own piece here — Google reviews: how to earn them honestly and why they decide who gets the enquiry — today is about the step before that: making sure there is somewhere for the customer to find you and leave that review in the first place.

Listings are read by machines, not just people

At first glance, a directory listing is an ordinary business card. Except it is not only customers who read it. Search engines compare business details across websites — when they find the same name, address and phone number in several independent places, their confidence grows that the business really exists and really is where it claims to be.

AI assistants use the same data. When someone asks ChatGPT or Copilot for a reliable electrician in their town, the answer is assembled from publicly available sources: maps, directories, reviews, mentions on other people’s websites. Directories are especially rich pickings for machines because they are structured — a clearly separated trade, address, opening hours, contact. A business that is missing from them gives AI little material to recommend it from. If you want to see where you stand, you will find the procedure in what ChatGPT says about your business and how to find out.

The good news: you do not need to be in a hundred directories. Bulk registrations into dozens of foreign directories, which agencies once sold as “link building”, do nothing for a local business today — customers do not go there and search engines give them no weight. What you need is to be complete and truthful in the three that Czechs actually use.

The three listings worth having in Czechia

Google Business Profile

The card that appears in search and in Google Maps when someone looks for you or for your type of service nearby. You set it up free at business.google.com, and for local demand it is the most important listing of all — it often decides the matter before the customer even reaches your website. Setting it up includes verifying that you really own the business; Google offers several routes to do this, and without it the profile will not show publicly.

How to run the profile over the long term — posts, photos, replying to reviews — is covered in detail in local SEO for a small business. For today it is enough to create the profile, verify it and fill it in completely: that is item one on the afternoon’s list.

Firmy.cz

Seznam’s directory and still a significant source of customers, especially among the older generation and outside the big cities. A basic listing is free and is managed through a Seznam account. What is more, a Firmy.cz record feeds into search results on Seznam — so filling it in once also covers people who do not use Google.

Enter the same details as on Google: exact name, address, phone, trade, opening hours, a few real photos and a link to your website. Be as specific as possible about the trade — “electrical installations” will find you a customer far more reliably than a generic “construction”.

What else the free Firmy.cz profile limits: the cover photo and the first three from the gallery, a description of up to 300 characters, one phone number and one e-mail address. The link to your website is free. So a paid plan unlocks not just a better position in the listing, but categories, photos and contacts as well.

Mapy.cz (now on the Mapy.com domain)

A Czech speciality that a large part of the country has on their phone. People do not only plan trips in it — they also search for “a tyre shop on the way” or check exactly where a business they want to call is based. The record is tied to Firmy.cz, so you usually do not create it again; all the more reason to check the result. Is the pin on the right building? Is the phone number visible? Are old opening hours showing? A misplaced point means a customer wandering up and down the street — and next time they will pick a business the navigation gets them to.

How to fill it all in in one afternoon

The whole job has one key step that almost everyone skips: write yourself a single source of truth first. An ordinary document containing the exact business name, the address in one format, the phone number in one format, the e-mail, the website, the opening hours and a short description. Then you only ever copy into the listings — you never type from memory.

Why it matters: machines compare details down to the last character, and “Křižíkova 15” versus “Křižíkova 158/15” is already a mismatch to them, one that lowers trust instead of raising it. The local SEO article mentioned above goes into this consistency in detail — here, just the rule: one format, the same everywhere.

After that it is a matter of craft:

  • Categories and trade — pick the most specific option, not the broadest. Add secondary categories only if you genuinely provide that service — and be aware that on Firmy.cz you cannot do this for free: a free profile gets the two most relevant categories and Seznam picks them itself. More categories only come with a paid plan. On Google Business Profile you get one primary and up to nine additional ones for free.
  • Description — in the customer’s language: what you do, for whom and where. “Washing machine and dishwasher repairs within 48 hours, Brno and surroundings” says more than “comprehensive white goods solutions”.
  • Photos — a real workshop, real work, real people. Stock photography does not build trust; your workshop does.
  • Opening hours — including public holidays. Being closed while the profile claims you are open is one of the most common causes of angry reviews.
  • Website link — and on the website, the same contact details as text, not just in an image of a map.

Finally, note down which account each listing was created under — e-mail, password, who has access. Two years from now, when you change your phone number or address, that note will save you weeks of arguing with support.

Now for the other half of the headline — where a listing is a waste. The rule is simple: you sign up for useful directories yourself; the pointless ones sign up to you.

Almost every business owner knows the script: a pleasant voice calls, talks about “updating your entry”, “completing your registration” or a “register of businesses”, and just needs you to confirm the details — and a few weeks later an invoice arrives, possibly a contract running several years ahead. Other times a payment slip turns up that looks like an official obligation but is in fact an offer of a listing in a private register nobody has ever heard of.

The defence is simple and takes a minute: type into a search engine the queries your customers use to find you. If the directory being offered does not appear in the first results, your customers are not going there either — and a listing in it has no way of bringing you an enquiry. Do not sign or confirm anything over the phone; a reputable service can cope with you reading the offer in writing at your leisure.

For the record: paid preferred placement in the large directories that customers actually use is a different category — in competitive trades it can make sense. But only as a second step, once all three basic listings are filled in completely for free and you know how much they bring you. Paying to highlight an empty profile is a waste.

Trade and local directories: the two-question test

Between the three big listings and the fraudulent registers lies a grey area: trade portals, guilds and associations, town websites with a “services in town” section. Some are worth it, most are not. Decide by two questions:

  1. Does that directory appear in search results for your queries? If it does, customers can see it — and your listing in it stands a chance.
  2. Can you picture your customer searching there? Customers read membership of a professional guild as a signal of trust even when nobody searches through it — that is a legitimate reason. A “district business directory” with no traffic and no credibility meets neither test.

If you are not sure, leave it. Three well-run listings beat thirty done carelessly.

How to tell whether the listings are bringing anything

Google Business Profile and Firmy.cz both have their own statistics: how many times the record was shown, how many people clicked on the phone number, the website or directions. That is the first check — once everything is filled in, the numbers should start climbing from zero to something over the following weeks.

The second check matters more and no tool can replace it: ask the people who get in touch where they found you. “I found you on the map” or “you came up on Seznam” is information you will not learn anywhere else — and after a few months the answers will show you which listing is working.

And if the listings are right and the numbers in the profiles are rising but enquiries are still thin, the weak spot is usually elsewhere — on the website the customer lands on from the listing, or in content that fails to convince. At that point there is no sense in polishing directories blindly: an initial analysis goes through the listings, the business profile, the website and actual enquiries all at once and says exactly where the chain is losing people and where to start.

Listings are the ticket in, not the win

One afternoon’s work, then just maintenance: whenever your phone number, address or opening hours change, update all three listings from your source of truth. With that you have met the entry condition — customers, search engines and AI assistants will find you and the details will match.

Which of the businesses they find the customer picks, and which ones the machines recommend, is decided by what comes next: reviews that keep accumulating, and a website that answers customers’ questions before they ask them — that is the subject of how to write content that AI will cite. If you would like to tackle the listings and the content that follows with someone who does it consistently, take a look at what content creation and management covers — and you will find indicative prices in the pricing.