Are Online Directories Still Worth It in India?

Short answer: yes, but not for the reason most business owners think.

If you're expecting JustDial or Sulekha to ring your phone the way they did in 2014, you'll be disappointed. If you're using them to build a consistent, verifiable footprint that Google (and your customers) can cross-check, they're still doing real work. Those are two different jobs, and conflating them is why so many shop owners feel like they're "wasting money on listings" when the truth is more specific than that.

The direct lead business has genuinely shrunk

JustDial built its name on being the phone number you called when you needed a plumber, a caterer, or a printer, and it still gets used that way. In its most recent quarterly results, JustDial reported total traffic of 197.7 million unique visitors, roughly flat year on year, while net revenue from operations rose 6.4% to Rs 303.07 crore, even as profit fell due to weaker investment income rather than the core listings business itself, according to reporting on the company's Q2 FY26 results. Read that carefully: traffic is holding, not growing. A company that once defined "finding a business in India" is now managing a plateau, not a boom.

That plateau exists because the behaviour it served has largely moved to Google. When someone in Koramangala needs a salon, they search "salon near me" on Google Maps far more often than they open a directory app. JustDial and Sulekha know this, which is part of why both have spent years pushing into adjacent territory: JustDial into services marketplaces, Sulekha into vendor discovery for weddings, home services and NRI-facing categories, where it positions itself as one of the largest platforms for local services in what it describes as a large and growing services market. The directories that survive are the ones that stopped trying to be the front door and accepted a different role.

What they're still genuinely good for

Split the value into two buckets, because they don't overlap as much as owners assume.

Direct leads. This is the traffic that comes and calls or messages you straight from the platform, no Google involved. It's real, but it's concentrated in specific categories: home services (electricians, pest control, appliance repair), events and catering, and anything where a customer wants three quotes fast and doesn't much care which brand they pick. If you're in one of those categories, a paid JustDial or Sulekha listing can still generate calls worth answering. If you run a boutique, a specialty clinic, or anything where brand and reviews matter more than speed, the direct lead volume tends to be thin and low-intent.

Citation and consistency value. This is the quieter, less exciting job, and it's the one that applies to almost every business regardless of category. Search engines and mapping services build confidence in a business's identity partly by seeing the same name, address and phone number repeated consistently across the web. JustDial, Sulekha and other directories are some of the oldest, most heavily crawled citation sources for Indian businesses. An accurate, consistent listing on them doesn't directly send you customers, but it supports the profile that does, your Google Business Profile, by giving search engines independent confirmation that your business is exactly who and where it says it is.

This is also where most owners lose value without realising it. A salon that moved from Andheri West to Andheri East two years ago but never updated its JustDial listing isn't just missing out on JustDial traffic. It's actively working against its Google visibility, because the mismatch between "Andheri West" on one platform and "Andheri East" on another is the kind of inconsistency that erodes trust signals. The famous Vadodara-versus-Baroda spelling problem is the same issue in a different costume: pick one, and use it identically everywhere.

IndiaMART is a different animal entirely

IndiaMART doesn't belong in the same conversation as JustDial and Sulekha, because it serves a different buyer. It's a B2B sourcing platform, not a consumer discovery app, and its value is almost entirely about direct leads rather than citation support, since B2B buyers aren't typically searching Google Maps for a bulk supplier of packaging material.

For manufacturers, wholesalers and B2B service providers, IndiaMART can be worth the spend, but the economics are unforgiving. Annual plans reportedly range from around Rs 45,000 for one year up to roughly Rs 80,000 for three years, according to pricing breakdowns published by IndiaMART partners, and the return depends almost entirely on how fast you respond to enquiries and how well you've filled out specs, certifications and photos. Businesses that treat their IndiaMART profile like a proper product catalogue and respond within the hour report meaningfully better conversion than businesses that list once and forget it. The flip side, reported consistently by sellers, is that a large share of inbound enquiries are low quality or price-shopping, so the subscription only pays for itself if your team can filter fast and follow up faster. If you're a retail or services business selling to consumers, IndiaMART simply isn't built for you, and no amount of optimisation changes that.

Industry-specific platforms deserve their own line item

Beyond the big three, most trades have a niche directory that matters more than its size suggests: platforms for wedding vendors, real estate, healthcare providers, or restaurant discovery. These tend to have smaller audiences but higher intent, since someone browsing a dedicated wedding photography directory is further along in deciding than someone typing a broad search. If one exists for your category and it's actively used (check whether recent reviews and updated listings are actually appearing, not just whether the site is still online), it's often worth the listing even when the general directories aren't.

Where the answer is genuinely "less than it used to be"

Be honest with yourself about this: if your business depends on walk-in or search-driven local discovery, whether that's a café, a salon, a clinic, or a repair shop, your Google Business Profile is now doing the work that JustDial did a decade ago. Directories haven't disappeared, but their role has moved from "primary discovery channel" to "supporting infrastructure." Paying premium rates for a top JustDial placement on the assumption that it will function like a de facto storefront is chasing a version of the platform that mostly doesn't exist anymore for that kind of business.

A simple way to decide

Ask what category you're in. If you're a home services provider, event vendor, or anything where speed-to-quote wins the customer, a paid directory listing can still be worth testing, and you should measure it the way you'd measure any paid channel: track calls, not impressions. If you're a B2B supplier or manufacturer, IndiaMART deserves a real evaluation, with the caveat that it only works if someone on your team can respond fast. And regardless of category, keep your free listings on JustDial and Sulekha accurate and current, because that costs nothing and quietly reinforces the Google presence that's doing most of the actual work of bringing customers through your door.