Important Considerations While Making Directory Submissions - Part 2
Posted on June 24, 2008
Filed Under Directory Submission, General | Leave a Comment
As promised earlier, this is a continuation of the previous post regarding some important aspects that need to be kept in mind while submitting to directories. Here, we will broadly cover the options available for getting a site listed in the directories as well as the time it takes for links to be approved by the directories and indexed by the search engines.
LISTING OPTIONS:
In order to get a website listed in a directory, it is important to go through the listing options available to decide which one will be most suitable to you. Most directories come with many listing features and pricing options. Although submitting to an article directory is completely free of cost, other online directories broadly offer the following listing options:
Paid Listings:
Some directories require payments to be made in order for websites to be listed. The amount that needs to be paid for each listing varies from one directory to another. These directories may also offer various payment packages, the most expensive package offering the most benefits to the website in terms of quick review, guaranteed backlinks, featured listings, advertisements and attractive placements in the directories.
While some directories charge a one-time fee for a site to be listed, others require payments to be made yearly, monthly or after determined periods of time. If these payments are not regularly carried out, the website will be dropped from the directory.
The directories to which payments have to be made in order to list websites, are known commonly as ‘Paid Directories’. Bidding directories are a form of paid directories. General, niche and regional directories could also be paid directories.
Free Listings:
Directories that offer free website listings are also known as ‘Free Directories’. No payment whatsoever is required in order to get a site listed in these directories. However, each site that is added free of cost will have to undergo a review process. This could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, and link approvals from these directories are usually not guaranteed. Nevertheless, it is well worth the wait to have a site listed in a quality, SEO friendly free directory, as the links received will add value to the site.
Reciprocal Listings:
There are some directories that require links from the sites that are listed in them. Only when these directories find a link pointing to them from a website, will they give a link back to that website. This process of exchanging links is known as reciprocal linking and directories that require reciprocal links are known as reciprocal directories.
Reciprocal linking is not always recommended, especially if there is an option for a free listing, since search engines would rather that a site build one way links. However in most directories that offer both reciprocal and free listings, the review time mentioned for reciprocal listings is normally lesser than that for free listings. Hence, people still make use of this option. General, niche and regional directories could be reciprocal directories as well, if they require websites to link to them first.
Web directories would offer at least one of these listing options, if not all. Some directories offer a combination of these listing options, such as a free listing with reciprocal links or a paid listing with reciprocal links.
LINK APPROVAL:
In the cases of the directories that guarantee link approvals (almost always paid directories), the time taken for the same maybe a few days. However with directories that do not guarantee approvals, links to the site submitted may take a little longer. This is because these directories being human edited directories, put all the websites that have been submitted under a thorough review process.
This review of websites is conducted by a human editor who checks the content and the relevance of the site under the category to which it was submitted, among other factors. Only if the site is found to be a quality site with plenty of good content, will it receive a directory link. This process of review and approval by directories varies from one directory to another and hence, it could take anywhere between a week to three months after being submitted, before a website gets its directory links.
Once these links are received, they need to be indexed by the search engines before results can be noticed. this could take a few more weeks. If the links to a site come from quality, SEO friendly directories, they would boost the site’s chances of appearing high on search engine rankings.
Although the entire process of submitting a site to a directory and getting directory links may seem long drawn out, it definitely has its benefits. If you think that the entire task is too difficult and time-consuming to manage yourself, you might want to consider hiring a professional directory submission service like ours to handle it for you.
Leave a CommentImportant Considerations While Making Directory Submissions - Part 1
Posted on June 23, 2008
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment
Making directory submissions by yourself is a time-consuming and monotonous task. There are several important factors to bear in mind before submissions are made. Directory submissions will be worth the time and effort invested only if the links that are obtained in return are search-engine friendly or ‘SEO-friendly’. By this we mean that the links should be counted and valued by the search engines. There is no purpose to receiving links that are not recognized by the search engines, because ultimately, the aim of every website is to appear high on search engine rankings.
In this post we outline a few major factors that need to be kept in mind while making directory submissions; they are:
SEO-Friendliness:
A link from directories to your website or blog would not be of any use if search engines were unable to notice them. In other words, directory links would only be worthwhile if search engines were able to ‘read’ or detect them. The links that can be read by search engines are commonly known as ‘SEO-friendly’ links and thus, the directories that provide SEO-friendly links are known as SEO-friendly directories.
There are several factors that contribute to making a directory SEO friendly. Some of these are enumerated as under:
If the source code of a links page in a directory has either of these two commands displayed, it would be best to avoid making submissions to this directory. The codes that you should look out for are:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow”>
‘rel=nofollow’
Basically, these commands tell the search engines not to waste time on indexing and ‘following’ a site. When the search engines read this command, they do as told and do not value the links to the site. There is no point to obtaining links that will not be valued by the search engines.
Next, it should be ensured that the links received are not JavaScript-generated. Search engines cannot read JavaScripts and hence will ignore these links.
Besides this, if a link redirects to another page, it would not be assigned any value by the search engines since they are not direct links to a website.
Lastly, the URL of the links page shouldn’t contain too many parameters.
Hence, before making directory submissions yourself, you should take the time to ensure that the directories to which your website will be submitted are all SEO-friendly directories. For detailed information, click to see what makes a directory SEO friendly.
Varying Titles and Descriptions:
Whether you submit to directories yourself, or use a submission service, you should consider the option of having multiple titles and descriptions with which to submit your site. Varying the titles and descriptions could be more beneficial for two reasons:
Firstly, you can target many more key terms or phrases (both in the titles and descriptions) with which you want your site to be identified. The titles that you submit become the anchor texts or the text with which you receive directory links. Knowing this, you could submit titles that target relevant keywords.
Secondly, you will have a variety of different links pointing to your site. If all the links coming to your site were the same, i.e., having the same anchor texts and descriptions, search engines may consider them to be duplicate links thus not assigning much value to them. On the other hand, if you have submitted multiple titles and descriptions for your site, this doubt is eliminated and each link will be valued individually.
Human edited directories:
Another important point to keep in mind would be to ensure that the directories to which submissions are made are human edited directories. Human edited directories are those that are developed and operated by humans. Links are given only when a site or article or blog is reviewed post submission, and is found to match the approval criteria of the directory. This is a means by which quality is maintained as directories do not give out links to all sites. Only those sites which have relevant and updated content are rewarded with a link.
Most directories do not allow automated submissions and thus include visual verification codes that need to be manually entered while making submissions. Automated submissions tend to become spammy and could number in the thousands since many submissions can be made at once. It would then not be possible for human editors to review so many submissions while at the same time, maintaining the quality of the directory. For this reason, human edited directories do not permit automated submissions.
The benefit of submitting to human edited directories is that one can be assured of getting valuable, good quality one-way links that are recognized by the search engines.
Time Requirements:
Making directory submissions yourself is an activity that demands a lot of time. You would first have to come up with a list of SEO-friendly directories and then constantly update this list to check if they still exist after a while. Besides this you would also have to manually visit each directory, fill up the submission form, choose the right category under which to submit your site, ensure that all the directory’s guidelines have been followed and then submit your site. Repeating this process time and again is not only very laborious but also extremely monotonous.
As regards the pricing options available for directory submissions, that aspect will be covered in detail later in the next blog post. Watch this space for more.
Leave a CommentTypes of Online Directories
Posted on June 23, 2008
Filed Under Directories, General | 1 Comment
To understand the various types of online directories, one should first understand what is meant by the term ‘directory’. A directory is an ordered classification of a list. This list could mean a list of addresses, phone numbers, individuals, businesses, organizations, services, websites, publications,and so on. These lists become directories when they are classified or categorized either alphabetically or according to similarity in topic or themes or regions.
Web directories are online directories that list websites by category.There are several types of directories that fall under the classification of web directories. These include:
General Directories:
General directories are those directories that accept all kinds of sites. They have a wide variety of categories and sub categories under which websites can be listed. Common categories that can be found in these directories include, art, business, finance, internet home, shopping, sports and travel among many others. The categories are listed in alphabetical order.
Since general web directories are the most expansive of all web directories, they naturally have a larger audience and thus a wider reach. A link from a quality general directory under a relevant category adds to the value of a website. Besides, general web directories provide the website owner with a variety of different categories under which to place a site.
Niche Directories:
Niche directories are the opposite of general directories. They are specific directories that target a relatively small audience. These directories list only those websites that deal with, or are in some way related to, the specific nature or theme of the directory. Health directories or shopping directories for example, would be niche directories that only list health and e-commerce related websites respectfully.
Getting a link from a niche directory would hold more value, since the link is relevant and comes from a quality source. Also, it is easier to connect with a target audience if one is listed in a niche directory.
Regional Directories:
Regional directories, as the name suggests, are directories that list only those websites that belong to a particular region, area or country. For instance, a UK regional directory will only list websites of those businesses or individuals that are based in the UK, or that provide a service specifically for businesses or individuals in the UK.
It would be appropriate for local companies or area-specific businesses to list their websites in regional directories of that particular area.
Bid or Bidding Directories:
Bid or bidding directories are those directories which require website owners to place bids in order to get sites listed in these directories. The bids usually start from as low as $1 with which one can expect to get listed in these directories. However, for the highest placement or listing in a category, one would have to constantly increase bids in order to ward off competition from other websites.
The websites in these directories are thus ordered based on their bid amount. The higher the bid, the higher will be the listing. Higher listings are the ones that are most visible; hence these attract more incoming traffic.
Article directories:
Article directories are directories to which articles are submitted. Like web directories, article directories also have a wide range of categories and sub categories under which the submitted articles can be listed. However, unlike web directories, all article directories are free directories, i.e., no payment needs to be made in order to submit an article.
Any article may be reproduced on another website, also free of cost. However it must be ensured that the resource box details including the name of the author, his company and his website, are also mentioned wherever and whenever the article is reproduced. This way the copyright is protected.
Article directories may be general or niche directories. General article directories would include all types of articles listed under the most appropriate categories whereas niche article directories only accept list those articles that are related to the specific theme of the directory. For example a health article directory would only list articles that are in some way related to health. These niche directories have several categories under which an article can be submitted, however all these categories are related to the main theme. Using the same example, the categories that one could find in a health article directory could be: alternative health, medical research, procedures and therapies, treatment and so on.
Blog directories:
Blog directories are those directories to which blogs can be submitted under relevant categories and sub categories. Blog directories are mostly general directories classifying all types of blogs under different categories. No payment is required to list a blog in a blog directory. They are also, like article directories, free to submit to.
Blog directories are relatively new to the scene, but are becoming very popular with bloggers since they provide a great blogging resource.
Podcast Directories:
A recent type of directory that is quickly gaining in popularity is the podcast directory. Podcast directories as the name suggests, list MP3 audio podcasts as well as video podcasts - rather than websites. These multimedia files can be downloaded for free onto iPods and personal computers.
Brick and Mortar Directories:
Brick and Mortar directories, though very rare to find, are those directories that list offline businesses and stores. They could be general directories listing several different kinds of offline businesses or organizations, or regional brick and mortar directories with area-specific listings or niche directories listing those businesses or stores that deal with a particular product or service.
If you would like to know more about directories and the benefits you can derive from making directory submissions, watch this space in the coming days. We’re coming out with a free downloadable ebook that will be available in about a week from today.
1 CommentThe Possible Impact of Directory Submissions on Search Engine Ranking Position
Posted on June 23, 2008
Filed Under Directory Submission, General, Link Building | Leave a Comment
In today’s age of cutthroat competition, it is imperative for every business to have good visibility online. It is the goal of every website to appear high on the search engine ranking pages in order to attract more visitors or traffic. There are several ways by which this can be done. One of the oldest methods that has successfully stood the test of time, is that of directory submissions. Submitting websites to directories is a tried and tested way of improving web popularity and thereby achieving higher search engine rankings.
The best way to explain this entire process is through an example. Let us take the case of a site – http://www.statisticalforecasting.com. Apart from directory submissions, this site has never used other methods of web promotion and link building. As an experiment of sorts, it has banked solely on directory submissions in order to get links. The results will hopefully give us a better idea about its impact and benefits.
Before we get down to the actual results, it would be worthwhile to understand some important features of directory submissions and how they work. While submitting a website to directories you would need to submit your homepage URL along with a title and a description for your site. The title that you submit becomes the ‘anchor text’ or the text with which you will receive links from the directories. Hence, choosing an appropriate title that targets specific keywords or key phrases (with which you expect your site to be searched) is of utmost importance.
Getting back to our example, the site: http://www.statisticalforecasting.com was submitted to directories using 5 different titles and descriptions. The titles used were ‘Forecasting & Statistics in Business’, ‘Statistical Forecasting’, ‘Methods of Forecasting’, ‘Statistical Techniques’ and ‘Statistics and Forecasting’. If individual searches were conducted in Google for each of these titles, you would see that the first two titles rank at the number 1 position while ‘Methods of Forecasting’ is placed at the 12th position, ‘Statistical Techniques’ at number 3 and ‘Statistics and Forecasting’ ranks at number 2.
Considering the fact that this site relies solely on directory submissions to get links, the high rankings on Google do seem impressive. Some would argue however that the titles the site was submitted with, face lesser competition when compared with more general keywords or key phrases. In response to this, we would say that it would only be wise to target specific words related to the theme of your site. Search engines read these links to identify the purpose of your site. Besides, if yours is a new site, the directory links with related anchor texts help the search engines classify and index your site. Hence when someone makes a related search for the words or phrases you have used in the titles, your site will probably rank high in the search engines.
For a long time now, rumours about the decline in the importance of directories and directory submissions have been doing the rounds across blogs and forums. This study only goes to prove that even today web directories continue to be a valuable means of link building provided submissions are made to good quality, search-engine friendly directories.
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Leave a CommentThe Evolution of Directories from the Dinosaur Age of Yahoo!
Posted on March 13, 2008
Filed Under Directories | 3 Comments
The phenomena of online directories began quite accidentally in a campus trailer in early 1994. Jerry Yang and David Filo, then engineering students at
Although Yahoo! has moved on to greater things, …Read more
3 Comments