SEO Blog
By: Oudam Em
As the number of websites grow everyday, it is becoming increasingly
difficult for a new site to
attain good rankings on search engines. Since major search engines
factor link popularity heavily
into their ranking algorithms, building relevant links to your site is
perhaps the single most important
component of search engine optimization.
For a new site with no or few inbound links, buying text links on more
established related sites could
provide a boost to your link popularity. But this strategy could prove
prohibitively expensive, especially
in a highly competitive market where you'd have to buy lots of links to
catch up with the competition.
Web directory listing represents a viable alternative to link buying.
Apart from driving traffic to your site
through direct referrals, web directories provide one-way inbound links
to your site, boosting your link
popularity and ultimately improving your search rankings.
There are thousands of web directories on the net, with dozens
sprouting up every day. Some are
general directories; others cater to specific niches. Some are free;
others charge inclusion fees. Some
are free only if you provide a reciprocal link in return. Many feature
both free and paid listings.
The main advantage of a paid listing is the luxury of having your site
listed quickly above everyone
else's. Free submissions may take several weeks or months for review.
If you work on a limited budget,
you may want to submit to a handful of paid directories and a
few hundred free ones.
Some directories charge inclusion fees that are too high for the
listing to be cost effective. When
considering a paid listing, look at not only the Google PageRank of the
homepage of directory, but
also that of the subpage where your link will actually reside. While it
may seem like a good deal to
have your site listed on a PR5 directory for 15, the offer becomes far
less attractive when you find
out that the internal page where your link is placed is only PR2.
If you've ever submitted to web directories before, I don't have to
convince you that the process is
extremely tedious and time-consuming, especially when you submit to a
large number of them. Unlike
search engines that send out robots to index web pages, web directories
rely on more detailed
submission forms to gather information about your site. Since each
submitted site must be reviewed
by a real person, most directories require that submissions are also
performed by a real person, as
opposed to an automatic script. Many directories use a visual code
verification process to prevent
automated submissions. Apart from complying with the directory's
guidelines, manual submission is
the only way to ensure that your site is submitted to the proper
category.
Because of the time involved in manually submitting your site and the
sheer number of directories
on the web, it's important that you know which directories to submit
to. Obviously, you'd want to
submit to only the high-PR directories and avoid the low-PR ones,
right? Not really. Just because a
directory has a low PR does not mean that it's not worth submitting to.
The directory may be brand
new and has not been around long enough to be ranked by Google. In
contrast to the more
established directories that continually experience a back-log of
submissions, newer directories tend
to review and list sites more quickly. As the directory becomes more
popular, so will your link. So,
don't judge a directory solely by its PageRank; rather, base your
decision on the overall quality of
the directory.
Another important thing to look at is whether or not the directory you
submit to is search engine
friendly. Search engines like static web pages whose contents stay the
same regardless of who
visits the page, or when they visit, not dynamic pages that are created
on-the-fly. Browse to a
couple of categories and look at URL in the navigation bar. If the URL
looks like,
http://www.godirectory.org/links.php?ax=list⊂=42&cat_id=245
, it's probably not search engine
friendly. An example of a static, search engine friendly URL is
http://www.godirectory.org/dir/713/index.html (notice the ".html"
suffix).
Another question to ask is: How easy it is to submit to the directory?
How many hoops do you have
to jump through to get to the submission form? When you finally get to
the form, how many fields
does the form have? A directory should ask for pertinent information
like your name, email, URL,
link title, link description, and keywords, but it should not look like
a job application. With the exception
of a handful of major directories like DMOZ and Yahoo, you should not
have to spend more than 3 to
4 minutes to submit your site.
Another consideration is whether or not the directory has a category
specific enough for your site. For
optimal SEO benefits from your listing, your link should grouped under
a specific category containing sites
whose contents are related to yours. Such a grouping makes your listing
more relevant in the eyes of
the search engines, as well as providing an easier way for visitors to
the directory to find your site.
Simply having your site listed on a directory is not enough. Your
choice of the link title can determine how
much impact your listing will have on your search engine rankings.
Ideally, your link title (or "anchor text")
should contain the keywords that you want others to search for to get
to your site. Since most web
directories require a unique link title, however, it may not be
possible to select a common phrase like
"Free Web Directory" as your link title. This title is likely already
taken by another web directory. Simply
prefixing the phrase with your domain name, e.g. "GoDirectory.org Free
Web Directory", would make the
title unique.
Oftentimes, a directory would have several related categories that are
suitable for your site. How do
you decide which one to submit to? Ideally, you'd want to submit to the
category that has the highest
PageRank. However, this may not turn out to be the wisest choice as
your link may be buried among a
zillion other listings. Going with a lower-PR category with fewer
competing links may prove to be more
beneficial. When choosing from multiple related categories, choose one
with a good balance of relevancy,
Pagerank, number of competing listings.
In sum, submitting to web directories is a highly effective link
building strategy that should be an integral
part of any search engine optimization campaign. Manually submitting to
a large number of directories is
both laborious and time-consuming. Just keep the above points in mind
to make the most of your time.
Author Resource:-> Oudam Em is the webmaster
of www.UnlimitedTraffic.net , a site that offers a
wide range of cost-effective website promotion services. Visit his SEO
Blog for more articles related to
search engine optimization and internet marketing.
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