SEO News Bytes February 2005

By Shelley Murphy

Internet Directories and their Importance

There are two very pertinent reason why we submit to directories, first, to get more targeted traffic to your site and secondly, to build link popularity in hopes of a better page rank. Acquiring links from other websites may obtain the same results, providing they are qualified links meaning the website you want to exchange links with pertains to your business.

One should not exchange links with a "sock" manufacturer, when your online business is "tool and die" they are called "free for all links".

However, there are some significant differences between the two link sources, Directories have only one purpose in life and that is to provide links to other sites. Directories are an established source of authority in regard to various subject matters. Being listed in directories serves as a level of measure as to the site's worth.

It is much easier and faster to be listed in directories than to start a reciprocal link building campaign. Since getting listed in directories is of great consequence to a website owner, it is an essential subject matter that warrants full coverage.

Submitting to Quality Directories

Submitting your website to quality Directories is perhaps one of the best ways to acquire valuable inbound links. Directories, DMOZ and Yahoo hold significant weight. Google draws its directory results from DMOZ and Yahoo draws its directory results from its own Yahoo Directory.

Keep in mind that Directories have human editors they gather all the listings in that directory, getting listed in key directories means that it is seen by many people, therefore you are more apt to get your website's links recognized by the crawler based search engines.

There a multitude of web directories presently out there on the web. They range from general directories that include categories for almost everything, to specific directories that contain categories to match specific areas of interest for example Search Engine Optimization. Get your web site listed in as many directories as possible as this will help not only help in getting better search engine rankings, but assist in heading up your competition and as we all know, pending on the nature of your business, only so many websites can be in the top 10.

Getting your links listed can vary from directory to directory. Some may charge a fee which guarantees you that your link will in fact be added, those who do not charge fees, it can take some time and of course there are no certain guarantees in this case.

The best and most effective way of increasing your search engine rankings is working to improve your web site's link popularity. This can be achieved by getting as many inbound, one-way links as you can from quality sites such as directories. Other ways to get these links are having great content on your site and requesting a link to your site from other web sites.

Increasing link popularity is a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process but is definitely worth the time and effort when you see a dramatic increase in traffic. Before submitting to any directory take some in preparing your submission in making sure, probably somewhere between 20 and 25 words insuring you have placed 2-3 of your keywords in describing your website, also another helpful hint is to place your keywords in your title tag.

If you are a SEO Company offering search engine optimization for other companies, you may want to write something along these lines, "Achieve higher search engine rankings and attract more targeted visitors. We can help you build a link campaign for higher search engine rankings". Rather than using inappropriate marketing ploys, which search engines frown upon, something like "World's greatest online SEO Company offering the lowest prices for Search Engine Optimization, we can make you number one in just weeks".

What to look for

Here are some of the most important criteria's to take into consideration when submitting to directories:

• Are your listings going to be posted on Static pages
• Are you going to gain any Page Rank benefit
• Are you able to add descriptive title to your link
• Are you able to specify your own keywords
• Are you able to submit multiple links under one listing
• Is the directory listed in DMOZ or Yahoo
• Are there more than 50 links on a category page
• Can you enhance your listing by purchasing category sponsorship
• If you are looking for additional traffic, does the target directory's Alexa rank justify the submission costs

A Helpful List of Internet Directories to Get You Started

We have complied a detailed chart outlining the Internet directories with their Google Page rank, Google Backlinks and finally by their Alexa rank to help you gauge the mount of visitor traffic you can expect from these directories. We are planning to maintain the list of directories and provide timely updates of the Google Page rank, Google Backlinks and their Alexa rank.

Our own website is listed in many of these directories,the cost can ran range from free to a few hundred dollars. Trendmetrix also maintains its own internet directory called Root Directory.org.

We suggest you start from the top of this directory list and decide how much you can afford to spend. If you have a small budget you may want to skip over the Yahoo directory submission as it is nearly $300 per year. You are probably better off spending money on 10 smaller directory submissions.