Placing your link in major directories is still by far one of the best ways to not only increase ranking in the search engines but also obtain targeted traffic to your site.
When deciding on which directories to place links, authority directories should be your target whether it be local directories, major business directories or themed business specific directories.
Directory Qualities
Here is a quick list of items that should be considered when looking to place a link on directories.
- Authority within market place
- Age
- Theme – by industry or country inbound links – number and quality
- Yahoo listed
- Dmoz listed
- Links allowed – number
- Internal page allowed
- Price
- Directory pages cached by major search engines
The Internet provides a level playing field for businesses. Businesses that invest in a web site know this and want to get their share of the world wide customer base, but how to achieve this with a vast number of web sites available is a daunting task at best and may even seem impossible. One way is to work with a search engine placement specialist.
When a prospect conducts their search through one of the search engines or directories, they are looking for one of two things: Either they are looking for a product or they are looking for information; will they find your web site?
Consider this; you’re on the bus, the train, or driving to work. You see an advertisement in the newspaper or magazine, or on a billboard, and at that moment you think you could use the item being advertised. When you get to the office, you connect to your favorite search engine and type in what sticks in your mind. The results are…well, if the advertiser is search engine optimized, you will find the advertiser’s web site. Otherwise, you will likely find the competition. Now, think about what would happen if the searcher was someone looking for your web site.
Rules when linking…
1. Link to the same subject websites or at least within your larger business field/area.
2. Higher page rank sites best on the index page…. even better if higher on the links page.
3. Do not use link farm services. Link metro doesn’t quite fall in this category all saying this be choosey with whom
you link to.
4. Ranking for Goggle = quality over quantity. Ranking for Yahoo & Msn = quality & quantity.
5. Do not link to bad neighborhoods.
It really annoys me when the SE’s make slight changes to their algorithms that many so called SE experts make a song and dance that the old is now completely defunct and the new will save you from ranking oblivion!
What a load of rot.
Reciprocal linking with themed, on topic and useful sites that match your content is…
- Great for your visitors.
- And yes… still good for pushing you up in the SE’s.
And it will always be that way. Read the rest of this entry »
Here is their blurb…
“You’ll be pleased to know that the Wordtracker rewrite that we’ve been working on is well on its way - and the first major update is now live online! The new Keyword Researcher will eventually replace all of the multiple search functions. These have been incorporated into one simple interface and as a result, you’ll get:
- A greatly improved user interface that will encourage everyone to get more from their keyword research.
- You can do everything you used to do in the multiple searches but now it’s all in one place.
- Slick, fast operation to make keyword research less time-consuming
- A doubling of keyword results from 500 to 1,000 so you get more relevant keywords for your money.
- The facility to export all your results to Excel.
- Unlimited projects so that you can manage as many projects and campaigns as you like.
Before you get started with the Search Engines you should decide which of the two major Search Engine marketing strategies will work best for your site. This will help you to stay on track and not waste a lot of time needlessly.
The 2 major Search Engine marketing strategies that exist today are SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click). You should know and understand that these two methods are very different from one another. This will help you to be better enabled to decide which one is right for you and your web site. Of course, part of this decision will depend upon what your web site is like.
One of the main reasons why it is difficult to decide which of these 2 strategies is best for your site lies in understanding why you cannot use both of these methods. In reality, there really is no reason why you cannot use both of these methods. In fact, it is encouraged to use both strategies because PPC can work well with any SEO plan.
Analyzing a competitor’s web site may seem like a big job. You should have the mindset that you are going to do this as a learning experience though. This will help you along your way when you may feel like giving up.
Before you even begin to analyze a competitor’s web site you should make sure that you are equipped to do the job. If you do this job properly you can gain a lot of information that will help you to increase your site’s traffic and popularity. These sites can also help you to analyze your own market. After all, if a web site is getting a lot of hits then it must be doing something right. If you take time to see where it is ranked, what key words are being used, how the site is formatted, and what you can do to make your site better while not violating any copyright laws then you will be well on your way to success.
