Using Directory Submissions To Build Inbound Links

There are literally 100's of free directories out there that you can submit your website to, and build inbound, one way links to your website. But it really helps to follow several guidelines to get the most benefit from these free directories.

Rule #1: Read the rules
Most directories have a list of rules that your listing must comply with to be accepted. Some directories have a very particular set of specifications, and if your submitted listing does not meet them, it will be deleted without a second glance.

So it is in your best interest to read the rules. If a particular directory does not have a list of rules, you can probably use a set of rules such as:

1- Submit your homepage url only
2- No promotional language or keyword stuffing in the title & description
3- Submit to the deepest sub category possible

Rule #2: Anchor text

As with all inbound links, you want to strive to get your keywords in the anchor text of the links. With directories, you have an additional challenge, as many of them require that you use your official site name as your title. So you may have to compromise.

Rule #3: Vary your anchor text

Another general rule of link building that applies to directory submissions is to vary your anchor text a little so that the links do not look artificial to the search engines.

Rule #4: Use legitimate information

Submit your real name, email, etc when you submit your website. Your link is much more likely to be approved if you do. If possible, use an email address at the domain you are submitting. Many directories like this, as it indicates that you are the owner of the site.

Just follow these rules to build 100% free inbound links to your website with directory submissions. And of course, you can even start your own directory to build more back links, but that's another story all-together.

By: Gabriel Adams -

Submit your site to the www.azook.com directory.

Benefits Of Web Directories

Web directories accept links from webmasters or site administrators seeking to submit their site for inclusion, the sites are then reviewed by a human editor who usually does a review of the site to determine its quality and content before approving it.

TYPES OF DIRECTORIES

General This directory basically consist of many categories divided into smaller categories and will include a variety of different website e.g. business, computers, health, etc. These directories can become quite large with the continual growth of categories and sites added.

Niche These directories are also known as specialty directories in which they specialize or cater to one category of products and services or themes. These directories are quite useful less overwhelming than the vast content of a general directory.

Paid A fee is charged for reviewing the submitted website, there is no guarantee of your site being approved and usually there is a no-refund policy (there are a few exceptions to this rule). Some others will simply include your site once the fee is paid, many webmaster prefer this method because of it's fast inclusion. Reciprocal There is a mutual linkage between two websites in order to ensure mutual traffic, the site submitting must place a link from their site before approval or inclusion. Please note this does not guarantee inclusion, beware of unscrupulous sites that approve your site then shortly thereafter remove your link.

Free As the name implies these directories are free and do not require a link back, sometime these sites do get backed up, the higher the page rank, the more popular the directory is, so submission and approval periods may be long, but these free directories are by far the best in my opinion, unless your have the means of paying for your site submission. Basically the benefits of any web directory is to provide your site with incoming links or reciprocal links a combination of the two links would be ideal in getting your site moved up in page rank. Getting your site indexed by spiders and search engines Bring targeted traffic to your website because visitors would already have an idea of what your site is about. Get higher ranking for targeted keywords. Help contribute to an increase in page rank.

Is the page rank of the directory you are submitting to important? Well I will have to say, yes, but this must not be the only factor in your decision to use that directory, for instance a directory may have a low rank because its new, every website at one time or the other started off with a 0 page rank, if we were all to spurn a site because of a 0 PR then we'd all be out of business. Ultimately the decision is yours but a site should be judged by the quality of the sites it contains, back links and content. CHECK DIRECTORIES FOR:

No Follow - there is a "no follow" tag associated with the link, meaning search engines will not follow the link. Uses Redirects Uses unscrupulous reciprocal methods- removing sites shortly after approving them to boost their own incoming links Links embedded in JavaScript and other codes that search engines can't follow.

Submitting to web directories is not the only means of promoting your site or building back links but it is a very important one.

Karleen P. 32 yr female, located in Florida, USA. Web administrator of links-to-us.com Free Web Directory

Effective Directory Submission (Page Rank)

Some points to note before starting
1. Budget : How much you are willing to spend on submissions?
2. Purpose : Just increase to Page Rank or to drive traffic to your site or both? Or is it for prestige and brand awareness? Most directories wont give you decent traffic, even big and popular directories Yahoo! or Business.com or Microsoft bCentral Small Business Directory may not increase your sites traffic.
3. Planning : The most important part of your link building campaign. You need to spend a lot of time knowing which paid directory to submit to and how to submit your site to, what anchor text and meta tags and keywords to use and the niche or market you are looking for.


Some general points to note when submitting to directories
1. Make sure you read the Terms of Service (TOS).
2. Always submit to the correct category (if not possible, something similar)
3. Make sure your description is correct without any spelling mistakes
4. I would not encourage reciprocal links (or 2 way links) at all. Too troublesome and may work against you if the directory is sandboxed by Google. If you must, try linking to big directories or reputable ones.
5. Vary your descirption you submit to directories a bit so that it will look natural to visitors and Search Engines. And remember to add some keywords into your description.
6. Choose a local or a regional directory if possible, as these will at least give you a better amount of traffic as well as PR.
7. Niche directories are better : They are targeted and usually have less links listed just like a local or regional directory.

Free Directory - Why not? It's free so just submit to them even if they are PR0. Every bit helps and you will not know whether in the future their PR will rise and can help your improve your PR as well. Just try to avoid link farms (directory with tons and tons of links per page) as they are useless and seldom get indexed by Search Engines at all. Also ensure that they have static text links because some dynamic links(especially those which looks like session ids) or "weird" links won't push PR to their listed sites.

Paid Directory - Depending on how much you are willing to spend, you can even have links to your site from PR9 directories. My suggestion in choosing which directory is as below:
1. PR Value : Check the PR of the directory and the category in which you want to submit your site to using Google's toolbar.
2. Static Links : Make sure they provide static links, which can help you in improving your sites PR better. Do a search on Google (site:www.directory.com) and see whether their category pages and listings are indexed.
3. Number of links per page : The less the merrier. In my opinion, the optimal is 10 links per page. Sometimes smaller directories (and thus less links) with a decent PR can help more than a big directory (and thus tons of links) with a high PR.
4. Featured or sponsored links : Its good to be on top, because Search Engine spiders will crawl from the top to the bottom.
5. Correct category : Make sure you are submiting to the correct category. And make sure the category you have chosen isn't crowded or populated with too many links or it will be less effective. If your first choice category is too popular, try some other category that is similar and has less links on it.
6. Do a backlink search for the directory you want to submit to. For Google, try (link:www.directory.com) and see the number of links they have. From the results, you can see the number of links to that directory and it will give you a rough indication of how well this directory is doing and whether they can maintain their PR.

Boon Leong is the admin for Simple Sites. A forum/directory promoting the use of simple layouts & designs to create elegant & stylish sites for the web. This article was writen and extracted from Page Rank List Articles.

The Open Directory Project - Your Key To Google's Heart

Let's start it simple: www.dmoz.org

Now, if I am lucky, you either didn't click the link or you did but you came back here to read my article. Either way, you want to know why is the Open Directory Project so important for your website and Google.

According to Wikipedia®, "The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as dmoz (from directory.mozilla.org, its original domain name), is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links owned by Netscape that is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors. ODP data powers the core directory services for many of the Web's largest search engines and portals, including Netscape Search, AOL Search, Google, and Alexa."

The Most Important Directory on the Web

A short definition of the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) is: "the most important directory on the Web". If you add "human edited" to the short definition, you've got it all. However, this "human edited" tag doesn't say it all. The "humans" are volunteers. Volunteering means you don't get paid for what you do, you do it for free. On occasion, these volunteers don't have the time to do their job, or just don't want to. That means your good submission may never make it into the directory or may get listed, but only after a long waiting period.

Assuming that the volunteers do perform their duties in time and correctly, there's nothing else against DMOZ. On the contrary: Google considers sites listed in the DMOZ important for the very reason that the directory is human edited. To get into the Google directory you need to be listed in the DMOZ. Other search engines, smaller than Google use DMOZ listings as well for their directories.

How to Get Listed

DMOZ has some very strict inclusion rules. Fail to follow them and you'll never see your site listed. Submit your site two or three times to the same category, other pages than the home page, and you'll get no results either. The editors don't tolerate spam, in any form.

You can submit to the Open Project Directory all kinds of valuable websites, including blogs. If you have good content, non-offensive, to the point, etc, you will get your site listed.

There can be one major problem after you submit your website: the waiting period. As the busy human editors do not notify you whether your submission was accepted or not, all you can do is wait, and this can take up to six months. It is not recommended to resubmit your website before the six months time limit (better make it seven), or you might have your website moved back to the end of the line, or rejected as spam. You may never really know what happened to your website, unless you are lucky and get an answer from the DMOZ public forum. Take care: the tone makes the music. So be polite.

If you are tempted to submit your website to a second category, think twice. Unless your website contains enough useful information related to the second category, don't submit it. You wouldn't like to have it rejected for spamming the directory, would you?

You might, however, try to submit your website to the DMOZ regional listings - but you should provide enough relevant content for the people living in the region: your local visitors.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com