I’ve got 20 minutes in which to find a club to book for a party. Someone recommends the Gardening Club in Covent Garden. I find the website address using Google and I’m on the site. I’m looking, I’m looking, I’m looking and I just cannot find a phone number! In frustration I announce this fact to the office at large and within 5 seconds someone yells out the phone number. I call, they have the VIP room available and it’s booked! Yeah! Party time.

So where’d my colleague find the phone number? “On Bizwiki”. Of course.

Google has recently made a shift to giving greater prominence to individual company websites instead of online directories. One would think that this is a good move and in the interest of the searcher, but is it?

That all depends on how many company websites are set up to actually give their readers information as opposed to graphics, difficult layouts and unintelligible marketing speak.

Have a look through a few company websites. Are their contact details immediately available? Does their homepage tell you in no uncertain terms who they are, what they do, if they can help you and how you can get in touch?

You’d think companies would make sure such important information is in the forefront, clearly visible and un-missable. Well, think again. If it’s not completely absent, it’s buried several levels down the site structure or on a page that you wouldn’t expect it to be on (which would be Home, About or Contact – businesses take note).

And then of course is the problem of trying to find the company website on search engines. Too few business sites are designed to be found by the search engines and the lack of informative content, the basis on which search engine results are ranked, really doesn’t help. Of course, some businesses don’t even have a website yet.

So yes, there is a need for online phone books and business directories. Until such a time as every business has a website and each one is developed so as to give its reader an at a glance overview of its products, services, location and contact details searchers will continue to find online directories such as Bizwiki to be the more useful option.