If you run a business in Surrey, you can get listed in a local directory without paying for it. The catch is that “free” means very different things depending on where you list, and some free listings are really just the first step of a sales funnel.
This is a guide to the free options worth your time, what each one actually gives you, and how to apply to Fraser Made if you want a listing here.
What a free local business listing should include
A listing is only worth having if people find it and it tells them something. At minimum, look for:
- Your real business details. Name, area served, phone, website, and hours, all accurate and easy to update.
- A page that can rank. A listing buried behind a search box that search engines never crawl does nothing for you.
- Something more than an address. Anyone can list a phone number. What moves people is knowing who you are and why you do the work the way you do.
- No cost to stay visible. If your position depends on a monthly payment, you are renting attention, not earning it.
Where to list your business in Surrey, BC
There is no single best directory. These work together, so it is worth covering more than one.
Google Business Profile. Start here, before anything else. It is free, it feeds Google Maps, and for most local businesses it is the largest single source of discovery. Nothing else on this list matters as much.
Fraser Made. Free, curated, and invitation-only. Every listing is a written spotlight about the person behind the business, not just a set of contact fields. No paid placement, so nobody outranks you by spending more.
Yelp and similar review sites. A free basic listing is available. Useful for some categories, less so for others, and the free tier is fairly aggressively upsold.
Chamber of commerce and board of trade directories. Real local credibility, but these are normally tied to paid membership, so they are not a free option in practice.
Industry and trade association directories. Often overlooked and often free if you are already a member. Worth checking what your association already offers you.
Free listings versus pay-to-play directories
Plenty of directories are free to join and then charge to be seen. You get on the list, then discover that the top of the page is sold to whoever bid highest, and your free listing sits below it.
That model has a real cost even when no money changes hands. It means the ranking tells a customer nothing about quality, only about ad budget. The best plumber in Surrey and the plumber with the biggest marketing spend look identical, and usually only one of them is at the top.
Fraser Made does not sell placement. That is the whole reason it exists.
How Fraser Made works
Listings are free, but invitation-only. That means you are not seeing whoever paid the most to show up. You are seeing business owners who earned their spot because they are proud of what they do and willing to stand behind it.
And these are not just addresses on a page. Every listing tells the story of the person behind the business, in their own words, so you get to know who they are, what they do, and why they do it. We have found that when people get to know an owner as a person, that is when they become long-time, loyal customers.
Here is what being featured includes:
- We are in your corner. It is not fair how big companies can buy their way to the top while local businesses have to earn every customer. When you join Fraser Made, we are fighting on your side.
- A real endorsement. Getting featured starts with a friendly conversation where we get to know you. From that, we write a spotlight that tells people who you are and why working with you is different. It is the kind of endorsement most local businesses never get.
- We promote you for free. We share your spotlight across our site, our email list, and our social channels so more of the right people find you. That promotion comes out of our budget, not yours.
Who is behind Fraser Made
It is only fair you know who is running this.
My name is Kiko Gelabert. For years I was a programmer for big corporations. And in all that time, I honestly never felt like I was helping anyone. I would ship the work and never see who it touched, if it touched anyone at all.
So a couple of years ago I walked away and started my own thing: a small digital marketing agency for local businesses. I like to call it street marketing, because that is the whole point. I left the corporate world to get down to street level, closer to the small shops and the people actually running them. I wanted to see the impact of my work with my own eyes, and I wanted it to mean something to the community I live in.
Fraser Made grew out of that. It is my way of giving back some of what I know to the people who deserve to be found.
What is in it for us
Fraser Made is run by my marketing agency. But we spotlight far more businesses than we could ever take on as clients, and that is on purpose. Most of the time, the free spotlight is the whole thing, start to finish, and we are glad to do it.
Once in a while, as we get to know a business, we notice a way we could help beyond the listing. If that comes up, we will mention it. If it does not, no problem at all. Either way, you keep your spotlight. There is no catch, and no obligation.
How to submit your business to the Surrey directory
Applying takes a few minutes. Head to Get Listed and tell us about your business. If it is a fit, we will reach out to book a short conversation, write your spotlight from it, and show it to you before it goes live.
We list businesses across Surrey and the surrounding communities, including South Surrey, White Rock, and Langley. Restaurants and cafés, shops, trades, health and fitness, and professional services are all here.
If you would rather look around first, browse the businesses already listed and see what a spotlight looks like before you apply.