Shippers looking for a forwarder rarely start with a supplier list. They search — "freight forwarder Vietnam", "customs broker Rotterdam", "forwarders Ecuador" — and they pick from whoever appears with enough information to be worth an email. If your company only exists on your own website and a LinkedIn page, you are invisible at exactly the moment somebody is trying to spend money.
The short answer
Get listed where shippers already search, and make each listing carry enough detail to be chosen: services, transport modes, the trade lanes you actually run, your HQ city and country, working contact details, and a description written for a customer rather than for a brochure. Then keep it current. Most directory listings fail not because they are missing but because they are thin — a name, a country, and nothing a shipper can act on.
What a listing has to do
A shipper scanning a directory is answering three questions in about ten seconds: Do they cover my lane? Do they handle my kind of cargo? Can I reach them? A listing that answers all three gets an enquiry. A listing that answers one gets skipped, however good the company behind it.
That is why completeness beats polish. The fields that decide it:
| Field | Why a shipper cares |
|---|---|
| HQ city and country | The first filter almost everyone applies. A missing country makes you unfindable, not just unranked. |
| Services | Freight forwarding, customs brokerage, warehousing, project cargo — the shipper is usually looking for one specific capability. |
| Transport modes | Sea FCL, sea LCL, air, road, rail. Someone shipping two pallets needs to know you do LCL before they write. |
| Trade lanes | The strongest differentiator you have. "Asia to Europe" is weak; "Ningbo–Rotterdam weekly consolidation" wins the enquiry. |
| Specialisms | Reefer, dangerous goods, pharma, oversized. Narrow capabilities attract better-matched enquiries, not fewer. |
| Working contact details | A dead phone number is worse than no phone number — it reads as an abandoned company. |
| A real description | Two or three sentences on who you serve and what you are good at. Not your mission statement. |
Write the description for a customer, not a brochure
Almost every weak listing description has the same shape: founded in 1998, committed to excellence, customer-focused solutions. None of that helps somebody decide whether to send you an RFQ.
A description that earns enquiries names the concrete things: the lanes you run most, the modes you book directly, the cargo types you are set up for, the customs authorities you file with, and the size of shipment you want. Being specific about what you don't do is not a weakness — it filters out the enquiries you would have lost anyway and makes the rest more likely to convert.
Two versions of the same company
Weak: "A leading logistics provider offering world-class freight forwarding solutions with a commitment to customer satisfaction."
Strong: "Ocean and air forwarder based in Ho Chi Minh City, running weekly LCL consolidations to Los Angeles and Long Beach and FCL on the main US west-coast lanes. In-house customs brokerage for Vietnamese export clearance. We handle garments, footwear and furniture; we do not handle dangerous goods."
The second one tells a shipper in five seconds whether to write to you.
Where to be listed
- Freight and logistics directories. The marketplaces and directories shippers actually search. Coverage matters more than volume — one listing that ranks for your country beats five that do not.
- Your national association. FIATA member associations, BIFA in the UK, and national freight forwarder associations usually publish member directories, and those pages carry genuine authority.
- Google Business Profile. Free, and it is what surfaces for "freight forwarder near me" and in map results. Most forwarders never claim it.
- Your own site. A page per trade lane and per service, so search engines have something specific to match against — the same logic that makes a directory listing work.
Keep it current, or it works against you
An out-of-date listing does active damage: a shipper who calls a dead number does not try the email. Set a calendar reminder to review your listings every quarter, and update immediately when a phone number, an address, a service line or a trade lane changes. If you win a new weekly service, that belongs in the listing the same week.
Verification is the multiplier
Once a listing carries the right information, the next lever is trust. A shipper choosing between two similar companies takes the one they can verify — which is why licence numbers, association membership and a verified badge convert better than any amount of adjectives. The credentials worth publishing are the ones a customer can check independently: your FMC or FMCSA licence number, IATA accreditation, AEO status, association membership.
That is the same list a careful shipper works through from the other side — see how to find a verified freight forwarder, which is worth reading precisely because it is what your prospects are doing to you.
Getting started
If your company is already listed on CargoLinked as an unclaimed profile, claiming it takes a few minutes and lets you correct the details, add your lanes and services, and publish working contact information. If you are not listed, you can create a profile and publish it as soon as it carries the basics: company name, HQ country and city, a real description, and at least one service.
Find your company in the directory to claim an existing listing, or create a listing if you are not there yet.