A Lot of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing Professionals are voicing their opinions and saying than directories are dead. But remember, these are the people that also say that Page Rank is dead, SEO is dead, and the latest this is dead theory. So is directory link building no longer worthy? well only the Search Engines can tell you for sure.
I believe the real issue with directory links is that only some of them are good and worthy, while some others are junk, being able to tell this difference is the key between loosing your time and having a fruitful link building campaign. How you can tell if a directory is good enough or that you should pass it. Here are the 3 main criteria of identifying a good directory from a bad one.
1) The director is listed in the Search Engines and most pages are being crawled.
You can find the directory in the most popular search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask. Also the category pages of the directory are cached on the search engines, if the directory offers detail pages, these should be indeed too.
2) The links are plain text, no redirects or javascript.
Check the source code of the pages of the directory. Look to see if the links are plain a href’s, without the rel=”nofollow” attribute, and no sneaky redirects are present. By validating all these you guarantee that these links are seeing and counted by Search Engines.
3) Doesn’t link to bad neighborhoods.
The directory doesn’t link to questionable websites, specially topics like gambling, casino adult, and illegal content websites. Be very wary about directory that offers sitewide likes to these type of sites.
Hopefully these guidelines will help you do more quality link building campaigns getting links from quality web directories.
The author gives a candid description of how he started his writing venture since his early age which eventually led him to write about Internet online marketing business. He explains in simple English the importance and power of article writing in this new business venture and how he has done it and how it has helped built his Internet business.
If your doctor advised you to run, jog or walk for the sake of your health, I’d advise you to write for the sake of your wealth from Internet business!
Since I ventured into this very interesting and exciting Internet marketing business, I’ve been writing for some time, something I happen to be enjoying doing. Since the day I learnt to construct the first complete and grammatically correct sentence in English, writing to covey to others my thought, ideas and opinions has been a very fascinating process for me.
For many years friends and business associates have been seeking my input to assess, correct and improve their own writings. Before I knew it, strangers from the Internet have also approached me to help them in copy writing their sales letters and web content. These “clients” of mine include those whose mother tongue is English!
Having been immersed in the intriguing English language for about 4 decades and after writings articles pertaining to Polymer Technology with occasional feature articles, the Internet business now “demands” that I should start to delve into the possibility of writing about Internet-online-home-based-businesses. What a refreshing and welcoming prospect!
Despite my“advanced”age (to some at least), Internet online business is relatively new and foreign to me compared to Polymer Technology. A considerable amount of effort in the form of research work has to be put in through both primary (mainly interviews) and secondary market research (Library and the Web). The part I enjoyed most was the interviews I held with the so-called Internet“gurus”most of whom are young enough to be my children!
It has therefore been a very challenging, interesting and rewarding experience. Equally, the“gurus”found the interviews utterly amusing, sometimes jaw-dropping, having to answer questions on matters that are so basic and simple (to them but definitely not to me!) which they have taken for granted for so long!
You must be agonizing yourself with questions in your mind at this juncture wanting to know what writing has got to do with Internet business, if you happen to belong to the uninitiated-soon-to-be-obsolete group of individuals. Relax, I’d put you out of your agony this every instant!
You see, I’ve found to my pleasant surprise that one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is by writing articles. Of course, by “driving traffic”, I’m not for a moment suggesting that you rev your car aggressively towards some one! “Driving traffic” simply means directing the traffic flow of visitors to your websites. Needless to say, visitors are your potential customers.
Getting your own articles written, distributed and published on the Internet is one of the very best Internet marketing techniques in existence.
Once you have become an author of an article with quality content, you become an instant authority. When visitors locate and read your article they would obtain some useful information from it. As a result they would most probably appreciate you. When appreciation turns into trust, it is very likely that they would click the link in your article resource box to visit your website to get more information. The“resource box”is a special space at the end of your article allocated for a short description of the author and the all important URLs of his websites.
Chances of them signing up with you in one of your recommended business opportunities or buy one of your recommended products would be greatly boosted.
You get the idea? Of course you do!
The question is how to write the relevant articles which might demand some of your effort and time?
If you have a flare in writing and enjoy doing it, you might decide to write your own articles. Follow the steps I mentioned above. Otherwise you could join some article cooperatives to get access to private label articles (meaning using others’articles) or hire someone to write articles for you.
Of course you know now that I’ve chosen to do my own writing as it gives me a sense of achievement and satisfaction knowing that my own articles are touching and benefiting many people across the globe!
The following e-mail is one of the many which I have been very delightfully receiving:
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 14:37:53 -0800 (PST)
From: ArticleSubmissionlinkgrinder.com Add to Address Book
To: Woonsungliang*********
Subject: YOUR ARTICLE SUBMISSION - LinkGrinder.com
Dear Woon Sung Liang,
Thank you for submitting your article titled ‘Come Blog with Me and Ride the Crest of The Blogging Wave of Internet Business’ to Linkgrinder.com. Your article has been approved and is now in the process of being indexed by the search engines. You should be able to find your article on our website within the next couple days.
Thank you Again!
.linkgrinder.com
Note the e-mail says “…….is now in the process of being indexed by the search engines…..”
Once my article is indexed by the search engines, it means that they (the search engines) love it! The ranking of my website would be enhanced and this in turn would lead to an increase in the popularity of my website.
By virtue of the Internet etiquette, authors quite often allow others to re-print their articles for further publication in other ezines, newsletters, websites etc on condition that the content of the“resource box”be left untouched. This allows the new groups of readers to still be able to click on the authors’URLs.
Hence, through this simple process, your website could be spread like a virus. Many Internet marketers refer this as to“VIRAL MARKETING”. This is by and large my main objective of writing. The joy I obtain in doing so is incidental but definitely a welcome bonus!
The next question is how can you ensure that your articles will reach the maximum amount of potential web visitors? You submit your articles to Web version of publishers.
I normally submit my articles to Article Directories, Article list/Newsletters and Ezine Directories. This could be done either manually by yourself or get some organizations to do it on your behalf by paying them a monthly fee. It is tedious to do it yourself manually because there are at least hundreds of directories in the Net. However the biggest benefit of submitting your article by hand is that it’s absolutely free.
Organizations who charge a fee for doing this are using software that allows them to submit articles to hundreds, if not thousands of interested parties in an instant just by the click of the mouse.
I hope you now realize the power of writing in creating wealth in your Internet business. If you’re in Internet business but have not written a single article, it’s high time you did.
If you’re one of those who’re still groping in the dark not knowing whether or when to start your Internet business, please remember Bill Gates’ wise words: “There’ll be two types of business in the years 2000’s : those online… and those out of business”
Is well known that above all DMOZ directory is the best online directory. DMOZ, also known as The Open Directory Project (ODP), is a large, categorized directory of websites and pages, which is staffed by volunteers. Every website and page that is added to the directory has to be manually reviewed before it is included. Being listed in the directory is free.
But when you try to list your site in DMOZ you are in trouble. After you add your site an editor will approved it … or not. And this can take months, even years.
So what is the solution ?
A good alternative until your site is listed to DMOZ is to submit your site to online free web directories. Submitting site to online free web directories will fast increase your PageRank. PageRank is an integral part of Google’s ranking algorithm, and higher PageRank helps towards higher rankings. The PageRank within a website is increased by pages from other sites linking to it, and the higher the PageRank of the pages that link to it, the better it is for the receiving site.
When submitting a site to online free web directories, always take time to find the right category for it. Don’t be tempted to submit it to a category that is higher up the tree than it belongs, because it won’t be accepted there and, doing so, could cause unnecessary, self-induced delays.