Currently, every category page (plumbers, hairdressers, lawyers etc) uses the meta title and meta description that is set for the directory home page. That makes every category page identical to Google. If you have 100 categories on your directory, that's 100 blank pages on Google.

If each of these pages generated its own metadata, even if that was just the category and town, that would help people see the category page, and it would drive more traffic to the directory rather than just individual listings. This would not compete with paid listings; it would send more people to the page where paid listings already appear first.

When local people find and use the directory, listed businesses start seeing enquiries come from it. That is what makes a business claim its listing, upgrade, and take a call about anything else we offer.