Why You Should Consider Submitting to Online Directories to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
All search engine optimization (SEO) experts will tell you that in order to have your websites appear highly in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need 'link' juice.
Lots of link juice.
This means you need as many high-quality backlinks pointing to your pages as possible.
There are many ways in which you can drive traffic to your websites, such as buying a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising package, posting free classified adverts...
or making sure that your pages appear high up in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Almost anyone will agree that the highest quality, most profitable traffic your website can receive comes from ordinary, every day searches - this is called organic traffic.
Why is organic traffic so important and profitable? Well, people arriving on your sites after searching for a keyword or keyword phrase are obviously already interested in the topic your page is about.
If you're selling a product or service related to that search, organic traffic is worth it's weight in gold as these people are effectively free leads - I.
E if they buy your product or service, that sale is to all intents and purposes 100% profit.
Of course, you could invest in a PPC campaign to guarantee you'll appear at the top of Google's pages for a specific keyword or keyword phrase, but many smaller websites just can't afford to compete with the big-boys, especially in more competitive niches.
Sure you'll make sales from PPC, but what will your profit margins be like then? 10%? 5%? In fact many inexperienced webmasters, without the benefit of a large advertising budget (or even a dedicated advertising team, as in the case of large corporations) end up making a loss.
This is why most webmasters who are working for themselves or for small companies look to driving organic traffic to their websites as the most cost effective solution to building their business online.
In other words, they look to SEO.
The basics of SEO are simply to make your pages appear attractive to search engines, I.
E.
to have titles, subtitles and headings containing the keywords you are targeting, and to make sure that your content uses your keyword phrases as often as possible whilst still being attractive and useful to the human visitors you are obviously trying to attract.
This is the very beginning.
In order to get your pages up to the top spots in SERPs you need lots of links pointing to your sites.
This is because search engines 'think' that pages with lots of links pointing to them must be more 'important' (or relevant) than pages with fewer inbound links.
Although it's a little more subtle than this in practice, in general terms, the more links pointing to your sites, the higher up in the SERPs your site will appear.
Remember, if you don't appear in the top two or three pages for your targeted keywords, your site may as well not exist.
This is where directories come in.
Online directories are big business.
There are literally thousands of them, most general, some targeting specific niches.
The best database of free online directories lists over 1300 of them, with more than 600 with a page rank of 3 or higher.
Just imagine what 600 PR3+ backlinks would do to your site's (or sites') position in SERPs! Many directories offer a free submission service, with the option of paying a premium for a better listing, a quicker review time or to receive additional 'deep links'.
Some charge a one-off flat fee for inclusion and offer a lifetime listing, others require that you place a link back to them somewhere on your site.
They all allow you to post a short description and to choose the anchor text for your link.
The traffic you will receive from directories is negligible, the point is to get links.
Preferably lots of links.
Submitting to directories is tedious and time-consuming.
Even if you pay for some kind of semi-automation software that auto-fills the fields for you, submitting your sites to directories is an immensely dull and time-consuming process.
This is why many SEO companies offer directory submission services as part of their business.
Lots of link juice.
This means you need as many high-quality backlinks pointing to your pages as possible.
There are many ways in which you can drive traffic to your websites, such as buying a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising package, posting free classified adverts...
or making sure that your pages appear high up in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Almost anyone will agree that the highest quality, most profitable traffic your website can receive comes from ordinary, every day searches - this is called organic traffic.
Why is organic traffic so important and profitable? Well, people arriving on your sites after searching for a keyword or keyword phrase are obviously already interested in the topic your page is about.
If you're selling a product or service related to that search, organic traffic is worth it's weight in gold as these people are effectively free leads - I.
E if they buy your product or service, that sale is to all intents and purposes 100% profit.
Of course, you could invest in a PPC campaign to guarantee you'll appear at the top of Google's pages for a specific keyword or keyword phrase, but many smaller websites just can't afford to compete with the big-boys, especially in more competitive niches.
Sure you'll make sales from PPC, but what will your profit margins be like then? 10%? 5%? In fact many inexperienced webmasters, without the benefit of a large advertising budget (or even a dedicated advertising team, as in the case of large corporations) end up making a loss.
This is why most webmasters who are working for themselves or for small companies look to driving organic traffic to their websites as the most cost effective solution to building their business online.
In other words, they look to SEO.
The basics of SEO are simply to make your pages appear attractive to search engines, I.
E.
to have titles, subtitles and headings containing the keywords you are targeting, and to make sure that your content uses your keyword phrases as often as possible whilst still being attractive and useful to the human visitors you are obviously trying to attract.
This is the very beginning.
In order to get your pages up to the top spots in SERPs you need lots of links pointing to your sites.
This is because search engines 'think' that pages with lots of links pointing to them must be more 'important' (or relevant) than pages with fewer inbound links.
Although it's a little more subtle than this in practice, in general terms, the more links pointing to your sites, the higher up in the SERPs your site will appear.
Remember, if you don't appear in the top two or three pages for your targeted keywords, your site may as well not exist.
This is where directories come in.
Online directories are big business.
There are literally thousands of them, most general, some targeting specific niches.
The best database of free online directories lists over 1300 of them, with more than 600 with a page rank of 3 or higher.
Just imagine what 600 PR3+ backlinks would do to your site's (or sites') position in SERPs! Many directories offer a free submission service, with the option of paying a premium for a better listing, a quicker review time or to receive additional 'deep links'.
Some charge a one-off flat fee for inclusion and offer a lifetime listing, others require that you place a link back to them somewhere on your site.
They all allow you to post a short description and to choose the anchor text for your link.
The traffic you will receive from directories is negligible, the point is to get links.
Preferably lots of links.
Submitting to directories is tedious and time-consuming.
Even if you pay for some kind of semi-automation software that auto-fills the fields for you, submitting your sites to directories is an immensely dull and time-consuming process.
This is why many SEO companies offer directory submission services as part of their business.