The Importance Of Long-tail Keywords
Posted on March 4, 2010
Filed Under General, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
Keywords are essential to SEO. You simply cannot rank (high) without them. But then, you already know that. I am pretty sure you also know that ranking high for a particular keyword is often more difficult than logic suggests it should be. Those of you who have tried in vain for years to rank high for your head keyword of choice know what I am talking about. To those of you who are newly introduced to this wondrous world of SEO, I’ll say this: roll up your sleeves and prepare to wait. Or you can do the smart thing and just target long-tail keywords. You won’t have to deal with all that fierce competition for popular head keywords, and you will be a few steps closer to getting your site rank high.
It comes with one warning: the traffic volumes will be considerably lower than that from a head keyword. But then, the probability of your ranking high for a head keyword is less than unlikely, so the traffic from that keyword will amount to exactly nothing.
Now you do the math and figure out which type of keywords will be more beneficial for your small business.
That’s right, the long-tailed ones. Like my great-great-great-grandma once said, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. …Read more
How Long Before Your Directory Submission Efforts Bear Fruit
Posted on February 27, 2010
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, General, Link Building | 1 Comment
Over the years, we’ve received mails from frantic customers worried that all the energy they expended on directory submissions had and would come to naught. All because, they couldn’t find any change in the number of backlinks to their sites or any improvement in the sites’ rankings after submissions. Today, with this post, I’d like to allay the fears of anyone who has been similarly disposed or will likely be in the future. 
Directory Submission is not some quick-fix trick that you can slap on like a Band-Aid and hope to make your SEO better. What Directory Submission offers instead is a long-lasting, albeit slower, SEO-goodness that is virtually impossible to duplicate. And what’s a little wait when the benefits are so bounteous, really? It wasn’t the quick-legged hare, but the slow and steady tortoise that won the race! What I mean to say is slow isn’t always bad, especially when it comes to SEO.
The ‘slow’ benefits from Directory Submission include permanent backlinks to your site, with the anchor text of your choice (I am sure your are well aware of the fact that link building is the most important component of SEO, but building links with the right anchor text is even more important), and an improvement in rankings for the targeted terms. But, yes, it doesn’t happen overnight. …Read more
Goldenter – Premium Website Directory
Posted on February 23, 2010
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, Paid Directory Corner, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
In this edition of the ongoing Paid Directory showcase, we bring you – Goldenter.com, a premium web directory.
Goldenter is a human edited, SEO-friendly paid directory that is a PR6 site as well. Functional since 1998, Goldenter’s age amply contributes to the authority it enjoys. Older sites have more authority and are favored by searchbots, which means links submitted to such directories will be favored as well, and hence indexed faster. Having your site submitted to this quality directory can help optimize your site and at the same time give it adequate exposure.
The image below will give you an insight into how frequently the directory is indexed by search engines like Google:
Below, you will observe that not just the homepage, but even the inner pages of the directory are regularly indexed:
MedRanks SEO-Friendly Web Directory
Posted on February 6, 2010
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, General, Link Building, Paid Directory Corner, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
MedRanks.com – SEO-friendly Web Directory is the next paid directory to feature in our ongoing Paid Directory showcase.
MedRanks is a PR6 Paid Directory that has been online since 2004. A human edited business directory, it is a veritable repository of business resources. As mentioned on their site, their primary aim is to preserve a well-organized category structure for the listings and improve user experience. The Medranks personnel also ensure that the directory remains SEO-friendly at all points in time so that it is regularly indexed by search engines. As is known, submitting links to directories that are regularly indexed can get them indexed as well, and faster too.
The image below will give you an insight into how frequently the directory is indexed by search engines like Google:
The Importance Of Link Diversity In SEO
Posted on February 3, 2010
Filed Under Directory Submission, General, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment
Any SEO worth his salt knows that link building is the key to ranking higher in the Search Engines. So, rather than reiterating the importance of link building in SEO, I’ll move one step further and tell you about maintaining link diversity while building links. Because it is crucial, and also because many of us often don’t understand its importance. So, why is link diversity important?
The answer has to do with the SEO holy grail that is natural link profile. When a searchbot finds that a big chunk of all the links pointing to your site come from one site in particular, it doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist before it concludes that your are hand in glove with the said site, and that the link profile you’ve established is far from being natural, even if that were not the case. Needless to say, it can go downhill from there in no time, and you can consequently bid adieu to your dream of ranking high, or ranking at all for that matter! Because hell hath no fury like a search engine duped, and you may find your site being dropped from the index before you can say SEO! Now, even if things weren’t to take such a bad turn, a diverse link profile will get better of a homogeneous on any given day.
Research shows that search engines love sites high on the link diversity factor, which they equate with authority and trust, and index them frequently. If that doesn’t motivate you to increase your link diversity, then you are probably one of those people who won’t even blink if Matt Cutts himself offers to index your site!
Also, by diversity I don’t only mean getting links from different sites, it includes so many other things. So, do yourself a favor and keep these six points in mind while trying to build diverse links to your site: …Read more
7 SEO Predictions For 2010
Posted on January 28, 2010
Filed Under General, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization, Social Bookmarking, Social Media Marketing | 2 Comments
We are settling nicely into this new year; though things have been turbulent in the real world, the web has enjoyed an easy, peaceful feeling so far – no major upsets or updates (some would argue they are both the same) have happened. Yet, late last year, Matt Cutts was definitive when he mentioned that the Caffeine roll-out can be expected after the holidays. Well, the holidays are over and the second month of the year almost upon us, so, those of you who haven’t yet taken stock of your SEO efforts, now would be a good time to do it. For, though SEO has remained largely unchanged over the years, this year will see some changes wrought to it thanks to the tremendous growth enjoyed by social media, and various developments in search technology. With this post I hope to bring you up to speed on all the changes you can expect to see in SEO this year and tell you just what you should do to claim a place on the SERPs.
1. Social Media Optimization Is The New SEO – This wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone; in the last two years or so, SEOs around the web have come to realize and accept the immense optimization potential that social media offers. Now it’s even more important that you no longer see social media optimization as something that will take away from your SEO effort, but as something that will help boost it. Be it building good backlinks from individual social sites or building a robust network, or developing a strong social media presence with good profiles (that will also help you land on the first page of the search results) or even ensuring you’ve got a piece of the real-time search pie, using social media as a crutch to take forward your SEO efforts will (only) be a good idea.
2. Site Speed And Other On-Page Factors – If you belong to the group of people who think it’s all right to ignore on-page factors, then it is time you changed your way of thinking and got optimizing, the site load time in particular. In their (latest) effort to school the web in good behavior, Google has decided that a slow loading site doesn’t just align itself with their ‘Don’t Be Evil’ policy and hence needs to be ‘penalized’. Site speed will figure prominently in the algo this year, so will the oft-neglected Meta tags. So, get your Webmaster working on tweaking your on-page factors adequately or prepare to miss one crucial ranking opportunity. (Or many, for that matter) …Read more
Why Does Google Hate My Site?
Posted on January 12, 2010
Filed Under General, Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment
Does your site fail to rank on Google despite all your efforts? Does your well-ranking site suddenly disappear from the listing? Is being sidelined by Google affecting your business? Do you think Google hates your site?
If your answer to all the questions is yes, I suggest you continue reading and find out just what is going wrong and where, and how you can get yourself some Google love. Google provides more than 80% of all search traffic to a site, a fact that highlights the importance of staying in its good books. Listed below are the possible reasons your site has lost/will lose favor with Google.
1. Your Site Doesn’t Have Enough Quality Content To Entice A Visitor Back To It. Google has always been particular about the quality of the content present on a site. According to the big G, the primary function of a site is to provide useful content to the users, that good content will make users go back to the site for more. As they put it, “Focus on the user and all else will follow”; if your site has Good Quality, Original content, it will help you rank on Google.
2. You Put In Large Chunks Of Content At Once, And Then Go On For Long Intervals Without Refreshing It. An add-on to the earlier point, this has to do with content too. If you are serious about having a user-friendly site, you will update your content regularly, not add a bulk of content at once and then ignore to update/ refresh it at timely intervals. Resorting to such a practice will harm your chances of winning Google’s favor.
3. You Engage In ‘Cloaking’- Your Site Shows Different Information To A Searchbot Than It Shows A Real User. Cloaking ranks on top in the list SEO crimes according to Google. 
They do not take kindly to the kind of deception that is involved in Cloaking – fooling both users and bots by creating a page or site that will appear different to either party. According to Google, “Cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines…Serving up different results based on user agent…[like] Serving a page of HTML text to search engines, while showing a page of images or Flash to users or serving different content to search engines than to users…”. When found out, a ban from the index will be immediate.
4. Your Site Harbors Duplicate Content. Google doesn’t like duplicate content. 
Period. So, every site that is found retaining duplicate content will be penalized; it doesn’t matter which site originally possessed the content in question, and the penalty can be as severe as removal of site from the index. To ensure you aren’t wrongly penalized, avoid using duplicate content and regularly check if your content is being duplicated elsewhere using sites like www.copyscape.com and www.duplicatecontent.net and if you find sites infringing your copyright, file a Notice of Infringement with Google immediately.
Directory Dawn
Posted on January 5, 2010
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, General, Link Building, Paid Directory Corner, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment
We’ve showcased three paid directories in this space in the past weeks, and as the New Year dawns, we bring a new paid directory to you, appropriately named Directory Dawn (dirdawn.com).
Directory Dawn is a PR6 Paid Directory that prides itself on its reputation of being a high quality directory. In order to maintain this reputation, the people at Directory Dawn strive to constantly uphold their quality standards. As a result, Directory Dawn continues to be an active directory that’s regularly indexed by search engines. Submitting your links to this directory can help your links get indexed faster and significantly aid your SEO efforts.
The image below will give you an insight into how frequently the directory is indexed by search engines like Google:
Below, you will observe that not just the homepage, but even the inner pages of the directory are regularly indexed:
Directory Dawn Features:
- The directory is free of ads and has a well-planned category structure that’s easy on the eye as well.
- All submissions are manually reviewed and the directory reserves the right to edit or delete listings that at any point in time are found to be in violation of their rules.
- Directory Dawn doesn’t approve adult-themed sites or ones that contain adult related content. Gambling and dating sites, as well as sites that endorse alcohol, tobacco, racism, or warez aren’t allowed either.
- The directory will refund the fee in case a submission is rejected; this doesn’t hold true in the case of an approved listing that is deleted at a later stage.
- The refund policy doesn’t apply to sites that belong to the categories banned by the directory.
A regular permanent listing on Directory Dawn will set you back by a one-time fee of $46.95 per submission; but with Directory Maximizer’s Paid Directory Submission Service, you can get the same at a discounted fee of just $40.00 and save $6.95.
Don’t let this opportunity go abegging; have your site submitted to this high PR, SEO-friendly paid directory and do your SEO efforts a good turn.
Family Friendly Sites Directory
Posted on December 22, 2009
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, General, Link Building, Paid Directory Corner | 2 Comments
Next up on the Paid Directory Showcase is Family Friendly Sites Directory
A PR6 Paid Directory that caters to a global English speaking audience, Family Friendly Sites (FFS) Directory has been functional for over twelve years. It is unique in the way it places special emphasis on the suitability of its contents with regard to kids and families. The newly revamped FFS directory isn’t merely family friendly, it’s SEO friendly as well. The dedicated FFS staff ensures that each site draws the maximum SEO benefit from the listing.
The image below will give you an insight into how frequently the directory is indexed by search engines like Google.
Below, you will observe that not just the homepage, but even the inner pages of the directory are regularly indexed.
SBSN Premium Website Directory
Posted on December 22, 2009
Filed Under Directories, Directory Submission, General, Link Building, Paid Directory Corner | Leave a Comment
Continuing our Paid Directory Showcase, as promised in our earlier posts, we present to you, SBSN Online Premium Website Directory.
SBSN is a PR6 Paid Directory that is over 12 years old. The high PageRank and the age of the site have contributed to a domain authority that is almost unrivaled. As you may already know, search engines favor older sites with authority and regularly index them. Submitting to a regularly indexed directory can help your links get indexed faster and boost your SEO efforts considerably.
The image below will give you an insight into how frequently the directory is indexed by search engines like Google.
Below, you will observe that not just the homepage, but even the inner pages of the directory are regularly indexed.
A few features that recommend SBSN:
- This easily navigable site is clutter free and boasts of an impeccably well-organized category structure.
- It’s an English language dictionary targeting a global audience, but non-English sites can be submitted as well, to the Regional category.
- The directory enforces strict guidelines to ensure the site is spam free. Sites with adult, warez, gambling or any kind of illegal content are banned.
- All submitted sites undergo manual reviews; even approved sites are regularly reviewed in order to keep the directory free of dead links.
- The directory allows submission of inner pages and thereby encourages deep linking.
The one-time fee for a regular review at SBSN is $49.99 per submission; with Directory Maximizer’s Paid Directory Submission Service, you get a discount of $5.99 and can have a submission made at a special fee of just $44.00.
Get a hold of this unbeatable deal to have your site submitted to a well-indexed, high PR SEO-friendly directory.