Using Directory Listings as a Linking Strategy
This blog entry was posted on February 15, 2010.
Submitting your site to directories is still a valid and cost effective link building method that should be part of developing your portfolio of back links. You just have to be selective on which directories you use. There are many different directories out there, some worth submitting to, others are totally worthless. Here is how to choose the good ones.
Topic: Find directories that are focused on your market niche. An easy way to locate these is to do a Google search. Google will list the directories with the ones it considers the most relevant and best quality first. Search for “www” alone and you will get a list of sites Google considers the most powerful sites on the web. “www directories” will bring up the most powerful directories. “www medical directories” will bring up medical related directories.
You can also do a wild-card search using * to improve your results. “Medical * directories” or “furniture * directories” will bring up a list of possible directories you can consider for your campaign.
Quality: Look over the site to make sure would want your site listed in their directory. Stay away from directories that include site wide links to a few external websites. Be wary of directories that focus on gambling, adult content, or other offbeat topics. Links being offered should be true hyperlinks, no javascript or other redirects. Links should not use “nofollow” tags on their links. These make their links worthless to you.
Indexing: Does Google index all the content for this directory? Check by using the “site” command. Search using “site:www.dirctoryname.com”. This will not only show how many pages have been indexed, it will rank order the pages in the order Google considers the most important.
There are many types of directories out there. Some are paid, some are free and some require a reciprocal link in order to be listed. I like to select from the paid and free directories and stay away from those requiring reciprocation. DMOZ (free) and Yahoo (paid) directory listings are still important links to get..
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