Web Directories
- Introduction to directories and directory submissions
- The importance and benefits of directory submissions
- Common myths about directory submissions
- How to make directory submissions yourself
- What happens after a site has been submitted?
- Recommended directory submissions
- Types of directories
Links Directory Submission Services
Things you need to know before you start submitting to directories
No matter whether you have just started to work with web sites or are an experienced webmaster, website promotion is and always will be an important aspect to increase your online visibility and is crucial if you want to get quality inbound links & direct, targeted traffic.
As discussed in our link building tutorial the one-way, non reciprocal and two-way, reciprocal link building strategies are both excellent ways of increasing your page rank and to get extra traffic. But that's not all you can do to get more links and rank high in the search engine's results page.
When it comes to getting the attention of the search engines directory submission is at least as effective a way as the aforementioned two link building strategies and should be an important part of your work. This is a cost effective and fast way to get extra traffic to your site and to get quality one-way inbound links, which increase your PageRank. As a website owner, you should definitely start submitting your site’s links to directories either through a service that submits to directories or as a do it yourself project.
What is a web directory - how does it work?
Web directories are websites that list and classify other web sites by categories and sub categories. In order to get your site listed in one of those directories you will have to submit your site along with a few details, such as titles, descriptions and keywords. Usually, sites that are submitted will have to undergo an editorial review and need to be approved by a human editor to make sure they adhere to the directory's guidelines. If your site is found to be relevant a link is allowed and will be either placed in the directory under the category deemed to be most appropriate by the editor or you can chose a directory.
Since links in web directories are sorted by category, it makes the search engine's job easier to classify the theme of your site based on the key terms/phrases that you use in the titles when submitting. If done right this will give your site a much better chance of ranking high for searches targeting those terms. The higher your site ranks, the more visibility it gains, which consequently leads to an increased number of incoming visitors to your site. It's all good stuff!
Benefits of Directory Submission
Directory submission is one of the most useful long term SEO strategies, which is not just important, but necessary for any webmaster who wants to generate relevant internet traffic and improve your ranking. Directory submission of your website has several benefits:
- Directory submission will contribute to the growth of incoming traffic. Customers looking for a particular product or service often use directories for reference, which leads to an increase in traffic to your site. You start receiving direct, targeted traffic from those directories.
- You will get high quality, one-way links to your website from pagerank directories. These backlinks directly contribute to your overall search engine rankings.
- Those backlinks directly contribute to your link popularity, hence improve your Page Rank! The higher your Page Rank, the better your chances to rank higher in all search engine results for specific keywords.
- You gain more visibility, which in turn results in an increased number of visitors. This means more traffic and better chances of people linking to you.
- Directory links are permanent. You only have to pay once for directory submission. Usually, it's free to join a directory and the fee you have to pay is for the editors to review your site, only.
- Through the increased visibility web "crawlers" will find you more easily and as a result your website will automatically get indexed by search engines much quicker.
How can you submit to directories?
You can submit your web site to free, paid, reciprocal, non-reciprocal and search engine friendly directories. Ideally you want your site to be submitted to free and non-reciprocal directories, where you receive quality one-way links, and this is what you should focus on. There are three avenues you can take to submit your site to directories. We will look at each of them in more detail and show you their advantages and disadvantages.
One Way vs. Two Way Links
