Top 10 SEO Tips and Tricks | Submitting to Directories (free and paid) Tip 9

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Tip 9 of my Top 10 Tips and Tricks for building a search engine optimized (SEO) website from the ground up is Submitting to Directories (free and paid).

A web directory or link directory is a directory on the World Wide Web. It specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links.

A web directory is not a search engine, and does not display lists of web pages based on keywords, instead it lists web sites by category and subcategory. The categorization is usually based on the whole web site, rather than one page or a set of keywords, and sites are often limited to inclusion in only one or two categories. Web directories often allow site owners to directly submit their site for inclusion, and have editors review submissions for fitness.

While it isn’t recommended that you submit to the search engines directories are a horse of a different color. It is a GOOD thing to submit to directories both paid and free.

A Google search shows 1,620,000,000 results for the search term “directory”.

Paid directories are the ones that charge you a fee to post to their directory. Some directories charge a yearly fee, some charge a one time fee, and others charge a one time fee for as many listings as you would like to post.

The top of the list for the paid directories is the Yahoo Directory . The Yahoo Directory is the most desirable paid directory to have your website listed in. The fees for the Yahoo Directory are as follows:

For web sites that do not feature adult content or services, the Yahoo! Directory Submit service costs US$299 (nonrefundable) for each Directory listing that is submitted. Furthermore, for each listing accepted into the Directory, there is a recurring annual fee of US$299 to maintain the listing in the Directory for the subsequent year.

This may seem like a paid link but that is not how Google considers a paid directory listings. They (Google) see it as part of a viable business like the phone book yellow page listings used to be.

The top of the list for the FREE directories is the DMOZ. The DMOZ has been around for a long time (according to their site 1998). The only trouble getting listed with dmoz.org is that all the work is done by volunteers. If the category you choose either does not have an editor or a very slow one it can take forever to get listed there.

The Open Directory Project is a web directory of Internet resources. A web directory is something akin to a huge reference library. The directory is hierarchically arranged by subject – from broad to specific. The ODP is maintained by community editors who evaluate sites for inclusion in the directory. They are our experts, and all submissions are subject to editor evaluation.

We care a great deal about the quality of the ODP. We aren’t a search engine and pride ourselves on being highly selective. We don’t accept all sites, so please don’t take it personally should your site not be accepted. Our goal is to make the directory as useful as possible for our users, not to have the directory include all (or even most) of the sites that could possibly be listed or serve as a promotional tool for the entities listed.

When you are submitting your website the most important factor is relevance. Choose your category carefully and intentionally. One way to find relevant directories for your content is to put your sites most important keyword or keyword phrase together with the term/s submit site or submit URL into the search engine of your choice and work your way down the list.

The most important thing to remember when submitting to directories is don’t get in a hurry. Make all your actions deliberate. Don’t use the exact same description text for every listing. Vary your anchor text if possible. It is OK to use the same site and business name.

Now that you have submitted your site to all the relevant directories you can get ready for the final tip of this series SEO Tip 10 Meta Keywords.

This is a post from the Search Engine Optimizician&trade blog.

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