Site Promotion Tools Directory Submission

Once you have finessed your website and have every page functional, optimized and attractive you may wish to think about another key implement in your arsenal of site promotion tools.

The Directory

Yahoo and AOL are examples of directories. However the premise behind directories is that a human being researches the website that has been submitted and it is a human being who chooses or refuses a website for inclusion in the directory.

Since your website will be reviewed by an individual it is imperative that you make sure your site is fully developed. If you submit too early it is possible your site will be rejected based on the number of incomplete pages.

Imagine your child taking a page of homework to their teacher. When asked why the teacher returned it she replies, “I’m sorry, but you only answered two of the eight questions. I can’t accept this work.”

Most students know better than to hand in poor or incomplete work, but in the world of cyberspace it is not uncommon to find incomplete sites being sent to directories in the hopes of placement. Maybe these website owners were unaware that their site would be personally reviewed.

In A Perfect World

If you were to do everything correctly you would make sure the following elements were well developed before you submitted to any directory.

1) Pages should load quickly.
2) Content should be optimized.
3) Site design should be attractive and functional.

Once you are in the midst of a directory submission you should make sure you took care of the following.

1) Be intentional about finding the category that best describes your site. If you just pick the first one that seems close you may be missing out on a category that best suits your optimized keywords or phrases.
2) You should look for phrases such as “Add URL” or “Suggest a Site”. This is the place where you can begin to provide the directory with pertinent information about your site.
3) Don’t be in such a rush that you miss the instructions the directory provides. Too many sites miss opportunities in web promotion when they refuse to follow directions.
4) Make your submission information as personable as possible. Your site information will be read by a human so write your information for a human – not a search engine.

In many cases search engines use directory information to begin their search of individual websites. This should prove the importance of making sure your directory submission is a site promotion tool that you use carefully.

Website Promotion Via Manual Directory Submission

Manual directory submission is a method long in use for website promotion. Since the beginning of web directories, webmasters submitted their websites to achieve directory listing in their website promotion campaigns.

By having your website indexed in web directories listing, you'll have a one-way link to your site with the keyword-rich anchored text you've planned yourself. So, don't underestimate the power of directory listing.

Website Promotion: Directories vs Search Engines

Search engines are great sources for website promotion. Directories are great too if you submit websites to them manually, not using mass submission softwares. Unlike search engines, directories operate by humans, not softwares. When you submit your website for directory listing, a living person checks your website to decide if it's worth indexing.

As search engines crawl the entire web and spider directories more often than some other sites, a directory listing can help you a lot. Therefore, I recommend manual directory submission to every website, specially at the earliest stages of your websites' birth.

Why Manual Directory Submission?

There are several reasons for using manual directory submission method. Here are some:

* As many spammers have used mass submission softwares for mass directory submission, these website have realized and blocked it. So, your efforts will be useless if you use such bulk submission softwares or use such services that tell you'll be listed in hundreds or thousands of web directories in a short time.

* There's another reason against mass website submission to directories: Even if you play a trick on web directories, your inclusion in their listings will be quickly noticed by search engines. They soon will realize that someone has spammed that directory for directory listing and ... This is a black-hat technique (illegitimate). So, go for manual directory submission for securing your website promotion efforts, even though it takes more time.

* You can use various keywords and keyphrases in each submission if you use manual method. For instance, you submit your website with one keyword-rich title linking to your site's homepage in 10 web directories. Then, you use a different keyword-rich title linking to the same page of your site in the next 10 web directories. And you can continue for several directory listings.

* If your website is listed in directories, people will find you when they're searching directory categories for the information, service or product you offer on your site. This adds to your website visibility.

Website Promotion Tips for Manual Directory Submission

To achieve the best result from your website promotion campaign via directory submission, you should consider the following tips:

1. Make sure the web directory you use for submission is indexed by major search engines.

2. Read the guidelines of website submission before you start at each web directory to make sure you're at the right place taking right steps.

3. Submit to the best-known web directories on the net: Yahoo Directory and Open Directory. Note that Yahoo Directory is different from Yahoo Search Engine. Getting listed at these two help you boost your website's search engine ranking, indexation and link popularity.

4. Submit to your specialized web directories covering the websites of your own industry or field of knowledge.

5. Submit to your local web directory at your city, state, province or country's websites. Of course, if there are some specialized ones in your area, submit to them first.

6. Submit to the web directories in your website's language(s) as well as the international ones depending on the nature of your website.

7. Don't submit to the web directories that post your link with "nofollow" attribute or use "nofollow" in their meta robot of the pages unless the grat traffic it sends you is worth it.

8. If the web directory demands a reciprocal link, check if it's worth doing so, because there are lots of such directories.

As you've noticed above, for your website promotion, you couldn't take all those important measures automaticallyfor directory listing. You need to begin some manual directory submission campaign for optimum result.

What about Directory Submission Softwares?

These days, some clever softwares are made that don't launch mass submissions to web directories at the speed of light! They simulate human submission and slow down their process to pretend they're humans. This has worked well like in some SEO softwares that send queries to search engines at human speed.

Although the sure way of website promotion via manual directory submission is explained above, I don't disagree with the usefulness of some of these directory submitting softwares.

Internet Directory Submission Tips

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 area/s 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. 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.