Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Blog

The value of a single directory link is usually not very great. Directories add value after you list in many of them, especially if you are listing in high-quality ones next to other sites that are in your same vertical.

If you have a keyword-rich domain name, it will help you get descriptive inbound links from directories. Most sites on the web only have links from a few dozen sites. By listing your site in a half dozen to a dozen quality directories and also getting links from other relevant quality sites, you can quickly build up a great linking campaign at minimal cost.

Originally posted 2008-02-27 11:46:41.

Popularity: 6% [?]

You just got your website online. Everything is setup and you're ready to go. Excitement is high and the time has come to open your virtual doors to the millions and millions of Internet users around the globe. You put out the cyber welcome mat and declare your site ready for action. But, instead of sitting and watching the users trample over one another to get to your site, you see little to no traffic.

Don't worry! This is something every webmaster goes through and is to be expected. (Well, webmasters in the late 90's expected to launch their site and be millionaires the next morning, but times have changed since those wonderful days!)
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Originally posted 2007-03-02 19:03:32.

Popularity: 5% [?]

1. For your blogs (eg. WordPress) add a "Similar Posts" or "Related Posts" feature. I recommend using the Similar Posts plugin.

2. Make a list of popular posts (Top 5 or Top 10 list) and feature it preferably on your sidebar or anywhere that is suitable for your blog/site.

3. Build a quality and long-term inbound links. – Go to the Link Building section for more help.

4. Open an account at Technorati and claim your blog. Make use of the Technorati tags.

5. Do a sticky post which are keyword rich that always appears on your homepage. You can also do a separate sticky post for each of your category to spice things up a little. WP-Sticky is highly recommended.

6. Take advantage of the Buzzlogic tool to identify the influential bloggers and get them to link to you by referring their site to your readers first. Get into their blogroll as trackbacks and comment will not do much good.

Originally posted 2007-08-31 12:25:33.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Some directories have recently been removed from Google's cache, while others are not crawled very deeply. Additionally, some of them have not had their cache dates updated in a great deal of time. Google might be trying to slow the growth of directories by not counting the links from many of them. Make sure you check the cache before paying for a listing.

Some of the directories will have a greater effect on relevancy in MSN or Yahoo! than they do on Google, so even if a directory is not counted by Google, the link price might still be cheap for its effects on other search relevancy algorithms.

Many directory owners are building multiple related directories. Some search algorithms such as Google Hilltop are likely to automatically filter out some of the relevancy score from a second directory if it is easily identifiable as being related to the first directory.

The one-time listing fees make directories exceptionally appealing, but expect that many directories will eventually be ignored by some of the search engines. In my perspective, that cost is factored into the listing prices. I average out the link costs for links from a number of sites. If I can spend $1,000 and get a dozen or two dozen well-trusted links, then that is going to be a good buy for launching a site.
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Originally posted 2008-02-29 13:15:32.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Backlinks is another way of saying "links into a page".

When you check backlinks in Google (link:www.whateversite.com,) it only shows a small sampling of your total backlinks. Many links that do not show up when you use the "link:" function in Google still count for your relevancy scoring. In addition, there is a time delay between when links are created and when they will show up in search results.

To get a more accurate picture of links, you will also want to check backlinks using Yahoo! or MSN. Yahoo! typically shows many more backlinks than Google. The code to check Yahoo! backlinks to a site is "linkdomain:www.site.com."

Originally posted 2008-03-11 02:14:43.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Some people buy a directory script, create a ton of categories, and then only add links if people buy them. The problem with this is that many categories will not have unique content. Many of these same directories will list any business that wants to pay for a link.

If there is no unique content, or if the content is all sponsored links, the site does not add value, and search engines may not want to index it. When looking at a directory, ask yourself, if you were a search engineer, would you want to count links from that site? Would you want to allow that site to influence your search relevancy algorithms?

You can view how many pages Google knows about from a directory by searching Google for "site:www.directory.com".
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Originally posted 2008-02-27 09:55:37.

Popularity: 4% [?]

You need to create a compelling headline. The normal blog posts contain two hundred to five hundred words but make yours a little lengthy. You can prefer using lesser words if you have apt videos and pictures to supplement. If you want you can make a good impression by creating a list of things. Because of the lengthy content it makes your content look different from the usual blogs.
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Originally posted 2008-09-01 05:26:51.

Popularity: 5% [?]

At WebmasterWorld forum, a hot debate about the possibility of Google removing the PageRank score from the Google Toolbar.

This is because of a few reasons:
- Toolbar PageRank numbers are always out of date…usually 3 months or more
- There are cases of 'buggy PR updates' that seriously misrepresent a sites or page's real PageRank.
- Matt Cutts (from Google) has frequently blogged that PageRank updates are a non-event around Google
- A flawed economy of massive link building and trading to increase a certain sites or page's PageRank.

Google is keeping an eye on this situation seriously despite the rants that go on and on in forum threads.
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Originally posted 2007-10-08 09:56:37.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Some sites that pose as directories do not provide static text links and/or their pages do not get indexed. Many of these databases will never provide any direct traffic or link popularity. Additionally, many directories require reciprocal linking and use their sites to promote aggressive high-margin products. If you link into sites that primarily promote off-topic high-margin items, then you are sharing the business risk that site owner is taking.

If you choose to spend money on directory submission, you should ensure that the directory provides direct traffic or link popularity. You can do this by checking to make sure their directory pages have some PageRank on them and are in Google's cache. Search Google for "cache:www.directory.com/page.php," and check the links of listed sites. When you scroll over a link in the directory, the status bar at the bottom should indicate the domain that the link is pointing to and not some sort of redirect. You also can right click on the link to copy link location and then paste that to the address bar.
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Originally posted 2008-02-27 09:40:57.

Popularity: 4% [?]