Directory Listings – Increase Traffic & Search Engine Rankings!

Once you start investigating improving the ranking of your web site on the search engines you will undoubtedly come across the terms, link popularity, inbound links or back links. What this refers to is other web sites that link to your web site.

Obtaining high link popularity ratings by the search engines can be crucial to your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts. The goal is to have many other web sites linking to your site. This means that the more sites that link to you means that your site is going to be deemed more important and deserves a boost in rankings.

It’s not just the quantity of links though. It also comes down to the quality of the links and the context of the link. It’s no good having hundreds of links to your site if they’re from completely unrelated terms or web sites that aren’t visible to the search engines.

Enter the world of directory listings.

Using directory listings is all about adding you web site to the hundreds of directories available on the Internet to build your link popularity. A stereotypical directory web site will contain little more than a directory of web site links contained within logical categories.

While there are many directories that you need to pay for a listing, there are literally hundreds that you can add your site to for free. There are also some that require a “reciprocal link” in order to add your site. This means that your site must have a return link to the directory. There are also general guidelines within which your site must fall that many use, including:

• Your site must be all in English
• Your site must not be adult or gambling orientated - Although there are directories that are specifically adult or gambling orientated.
• Must be a complete site - Not a single page marketing web site, or be a page full of links.
• Your site must not be “under construction”
• Your site must not “redirect” – Meaning that when you land on the link you add to the directory you are not redirected to another site.
• Must not be a “hate” or illegal web site – The site must not contain information that promotes racial slurs, violence or illegal activities such as a “warez” sites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_(community)).
• Can only contain one entry – Trying to add your site multiple times may get you removed from the directory completely.

Many directories are “human edited” so trying to trick them into listing your site will generally not work.

Where do you find directories to add your site?

A widely accepted resource is found at http://info.vilesilencer.com/. This site contains a list of quality directories that can be downloaded as an MS Excel spreadsheet and a service to add your site to directories. At the time of writing this article their list contained nearly 300 directories.

If you download the file and consider adding your site to all the directories it can seem a daunting task. However it need not be. If you choose to do, say, 10 directories per day then it will take you a month. However the directories are listed in alphabetical order, so if you choose on a letter per day then it will take you 24 days. You’ll also find lots of tips and tricks for getting organised to add your site to directories.

The services to do the directory submissions for you will save you the hard work and add the listings in the correct manner is the best option. However, if your budget doesn't stretch that far and you’re prepared to put aside an hour a day to adding your site, you can achieve it.

How do you prepare for directory listings?

Firstly, decide if you want to provide reciprocal links and then prepare a page to put the links on. Secondly, set up an email address specifically to use when adding directory listings. Lastly, create a text file that will hold all the information you need to copy and paste your details into the directories.

Now you know the ins-and-outs of directory listings, how and where to find them. Don’t expect results overnight, but you will definitely get results if you persist.

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