Posts Tagged ‘Directories’
Friday, July 18th, 2008
The optimal keyword density doesn’t appear to have changed but rather appears to have declined in value altogether. Sites with low keyword densities are starting to appear more often for phrases based more on their links than their content and also overall site relevancy.
While the importance of a specific keyword density on a page has declined, this has been countered by an increasing importance of relevancy throughout the site. Google is opting to assign relevancy based more on the overall content of the site rather than a single page. General directories will be showing up less and less in exchange for topic-specific directories. Additionally, sites with a central theme carried throughout the majority of pages will tend to rank over sites with a specific page or even section on a topic.
Internal links are carrying a solid weight in attaching relevancy to specific internal pages. Properly worded internal links, preferably built into the content of your site (see note on natural links above) will add weight to those internal pages and increase the likelihood of those pages ranking for specific secondary phrases.
Tags: content, Directories, google, internal pages, overall, pages, phrases, properly, Ranking, Relevancy, search engine optimization, site, structure, topic
Posted in SEO, google, tricks | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Another way to generating inbound links is to submit your links to directories. I know of webmasters who swear by the benefits of such a strategy - the first thing that they do when starting a new site is to do the rounds of directories - submitting links to key pages with appropriate keywords in the links. There are loads of directories out there - many of which offer a free submission. Ari Paparo has compiled a list of blog directories that you might want to start with.
Tags: blog, compiled, Directories, keywords, loads, pages, search engine optimization, Start, Starting, submission, submitting
Posted in SEO, google, tricks | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. Search engines crawl through the web. Search engines eventually find your site and index the pages they find. Page titles, body text (ie, great content), META tags and other elements all play a role in what gets indexed. People then review the results of what was found by the search engine, based on keywords they type into the search engine.
A directory such as Yahoo! Directory depends on human editors to create its listings. You submit a description of your site to the directory for editors to review. A good site, with good content, will be more likely to get reviewed than a poor site. A search of a directory looks for matches only in that directory’s index.
Yahoo! also has a search engine that includes spidered websites along with their directory listings and “Sponsor Results” which are pay per click ads, similar to Google’s Adwords. Originally Yahoo! displayed only listings from their directory. Then in 2002 they added search engine listings from Google. In 2004 they started using their own search engine based on AltaVista’s technology. A few years later they acquired Overture (formerly GoTo) which was the first pay per click program.
Tags: Altavista, automatically, body text, crawl, Directories, directory, Elements, engine, engines, found, gets, good content, google, indexed, Listings, Meta tags, people, Results, Search, search engines, technology, the pages, Titles, Web, Websites
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Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Think back to the library card catalogue analogy. In the old card files, and even in today’s computer terminal library catalogues, you find information by searching on either the author, the title, or the subject. You usually choose the subject option when you want to cover a broad range of information.
Example: You’d like to create your own home page on the Web, but you don’t know how to write HTML, you’ve never created a graphic file, and you’re not sure how you’d post a page on the Web even if you knew how to write one. In short, you need a lot of information on a rather broad topic–Web publishing.
Your best bet is not a search engine, but a Web directory like the Open Directory Project, Google Directory or Yahoo. A directory is a subject-tree style catalogue that organizes the Web into major topics, including Arts, Business and Economy, Computers and Internet, Education, Entertainment, Government, Health, News, Recreation, Reference, Regional, Science, Social Science, Society and Culture. Under each of these topics is a list of subtopics, and under each of those is another list, and another, and so on, moving from the more general to the more specific.
Example: To find out about Web page publishing from Yahoo, select the Computers and Internet Topic, under which you find a subtopic on the Wide World Web. Click on that and you find another list of subtopics, several of which are pertinent to your search: Web Page Authoring, CGI Scripting, Java, HTML, Page Design, Tutorials. Selecting any of these subtopics eventually takes you to Web pages that have been posted precisely for the purpose of giving you the information you need.
If you are clear about the topic of your query, start with a Web directory rather than a search engine. Directories probably won’t give you anywhere near as many references as a search engine will, but they are more likely to be on topic.
Web directories usually come equipped with their own keyword search engines that allow you to search through their indices for the information you need.
Important note: Search engines and Web directories are being integrated in interesting ways. For example, if you use the Google search engine and one of the results happens to be found in the Google’s Directory (which is based on the dmoz directory), Google will offer you a link to that section of the directory. Meanwhile, if you conduct your search in the Google directory, Google will order the results according to PageRank, which is Google’s all-important measure of “link popularity.”
Tags: analogy, author, card files, catalogue, Computer, Directories, Economy, Education, Entertainment, government, graphic file, Health, html, information, internet, news, Open Directory Project, organizes, Recreation, reference, Regional, science, search engine optimization, searching, Social Science, Society, subject, Today, Web publishing
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Monday, July 14th, 2008
Links are one of the most important parts of successfully running a search engine optimization campaign. As a matter of fact, having well-placed links will do a lot to help to push your website to the top of the search engine result pages for the keywords of your choice. Although there are many different ways for you to acquire these links, there are some ways which are almost automated in nature. By taking advantage of every aspect of your link building campaign, you can not only get your website listed in the search engines quickly, you can also be benefited by the incoming links for a long time to come.
One of the easiest forms of linking that exists is that which is found in directory submissions. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of directories for you to choose from on the Internet where you can post a link to your website. Some of these directories are free to post links and others charge a fee, either a one time fee or a recurring fee. It is up to you to decide if it is worth the effort to post to the free directories and if it is worth the cost to post to some of the paid directories.
Some of the paid directories are very important for you to be listed in, regardless of what the price is. This is especially the case if you are a little bit experienced with search engine optimization and are fairly confident in your ability to get your website listed well on the search engines from your efforts. Some of the paid directories that you want to make sure you’re part of include Yahoo and Joeant.com. Yahoo is fairly expensive at $299 a year but by having a link in the Yahoo Directory, you will be giving your SEO efforts of major shot in the arm. Popular directories such as Joeant are an excellent way for you to position yourself with some back links as well.
Submitting your website to the free directories is also an excellent way to give yourself a boost in the SERPS as well as getting yourself listed on the search engines initially. Google does not necessarily give as much weight to these free search engine submissions but remember, Google is not the only kid on the block. Yahoo also has the ability to send you a massive amount of traffic if you’re positioned well in their search engine results and MSN can send you traffic as well. Each of these lesser search engines will place a lot of weight on many incoming links from these free directories.
All in all, submitting to directories, whether free or paid is an excellent way to set yourself up for success in your search engine optimization efforts. Make sure, however, that you don’t stop with just a few simple directory submissions. Make it a part of your overall efforts to continue improving on your rankings in the search engines.
Tags: benefits, Directories, efforts, excellent, free directories, Improving, MSN, optimization, search engines, SEO, success, Using, Yahoo, yourself
Posted in SEO, google, news, tricks, web designing | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Search engines come in two varieties, human-edited and spider indexed. The two major human-edited search engines (or directories as they are properly called) are the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org) and Yahoo. Search engine optimization is lost on the human-edited directories. Because humans will write your title and description for your site when they place it in their directories, using both objective and subjective methods, you have no control in the SEO-world over how your website will rank in these directories.
In both DMOZ and Yahoo, you can suggest a title and description, but most often your words will be rewritten by an editor and placed in their directories according to criteria of which you will not be privy to knowing. One of the big differences between DMOZ and Yahoo is that DMOZ is free and Yahoo is a paid inclusion. With both search directories there is the possibility of not being included, but as stated before DMOZ is free and with Yahoo, if you are not included, no refund will be given.
The only types of search engine in which you have some control are the search engines, which use spiders (sometimes called robots) to read, index and rank your site. The robots (and this is plural because some search engines like Google have several) are basically software applications that travel the Internet by following links and finding websites to read and add to their databases. These robots will travel to your website if you submit your site directly to them (hand-submit) or indirectly submit (through another software submission service or application) or fail to submit (they will follow incoming links to your sites also).
Once the robot finds your site and indexes it, it will move along to other sites from your outbound links. When you site is indexed, then another process takes place and this is the process of determining your ranking for specific keyword or key-phrase searches performed upon the search engine. All of the major search engines that use robots to index websites also use complicated algorithms for determining the page rank of your site. The search engine algorithm software looks at the title and description of the website along with keyword density and prominence to name a few to see which keyword or phrase your site is optimized for (if any). Certain weight is given for each of these components and the page is ranked accordingly.
The advantages of the spider-driven search engines over the directories are that first, search engine robots will continue to index your site on a regular basis whereas the directories basically will stick with the same title and description for the life of the website. Second, a webmaster or SEO professional has control over the optimization process in relation to the search engines, whereas in the directories, optimization is mostly irrelevant. Third, the volume (and popularity) of people using the search engines far outweighs the volume using the search directories. This means that yes, the major search directories are important places to submit your website to, but the major search engines are an absolute necessity.
Tags: components, Control, description, Directories, keyword, links, necessity, professional, search engines, SEO, software applications, SUBMIT, website, Work, Yahoo
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Monday, June 30th, 2008
Guidelines for submitting to Directories
What is a Directory?
A categorized index of web sites that does not use robots is called a directory. All sites that are indexed are submitted manually. You need to submit your web site under a relevant category, after which an editor will review your site and then accept or reject your site according to its content.
Guidelines while submitting to Directories
* Good site design, fast loading pages, and informative content are very important issues.
* From the homepage of a directory take your time and find the appropriate category your site fits into. You can do a keyword search using your most important keywords or key phrases and note the category that lists these sites. That will probably be the best category for your site. You may also have multiple categories, in which case you must submit under all the suitable categories.
* Once you have found a suitable category, look out for a “Suggest a site” or an “Add URL” link. Click on this link to submit your site.
* Since Directories do not use robots, your best bet is to describe your site accurately as the final decision of adding your web site to a directory’s database rests with the editor who reviews your web site.
Top Directories
Yahoo Yahoo!
Yahoo is without a doubt the single most important index on the Internet. Make sure you follow the guidelines given above and Yahoo’s submit page instructions while submitting your site. The effort you put in now will reap huge benefits in the long run. Submit carefully!
Submit to Yahoo
Open Directory - DmozThe Open Directory - Dmoz
Lycos, AOL Search, AltaVista and HotBot feature Open Directory categories within their results pages. As ODP is now the directory listing source for many search engines, it is in the “big leagues” and is a must to submit to.
Read their instructions and submit
Web Design Directories
DesignDir.net - Web Design Directory
DesignDir.net is an industry leading web design and development directory. We bring together the best designers and their customers. URL: (http://www.designdir.net)
Submit to DesignDir.net
HotPlum.com
Top sites - Web templates, web & graphic design, flash, etc. top.hotplum.com
Business Directories
BusinessRanks.com
Complete directory of only business links. Submit to BusinessRanks.co
Tags: Altavista, AOL, big leagues, categorized, Directories, directory, HotBot, loading, Lycos, SEO, site design, submission, Web design, Yahoo
Posted in SEO, google | No Comments »
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
Links are one of the most important parts of successfully running a search engine optimization campaign. As a matter of fact, having well-placed links will do a lot to help to push your website to the top of the search engine result pages for the keywords of your choice. Although there are many different ways for you to acquire these links, there are some ways which are almost automated in nature. By taking advantage of every aspect of your link building campaign, you can not only get your website listed in the search engines quickly, you can also be benefited by the incoming links for a long time to come.
One of the easiest forms of linking that exists is that which is found in directory submissions. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of directories for you to choose from on the Internet where you can post a link to your website. Some of these directories are free to post links and others charge a fee, either a one time fee or a recurring fee. It is up to you to decide if it is worth the effort to post to the free directories and if it is worth the cost to post to some of the paid directories.
Some of the paid directories are very important for you to be listed in, regardless of what the price is. This is especially the case if you are a little bit experienced with search engine optimization and are fairly confident in your ability to get your website listed well on the search engines from your efforts. Some of the paid directories that you want to make sure you’re part of include Yahoo and Joeant.com. Yahoo is fairly expensive at $299 a year but by having a link in the Yahoo Directory, you will be giving your SEO efforts of major shot in the arm. Popular directories such as Joeant are an excellent way for you to position yourself with some back links as well.
Submitting your website to the free directories is also an excellent way to give yourself a boost in the SERPS as well as getting yourself listed on the search engines initially. Google does not necessarily give as much weight to these free search engine submissions but remember, Google is not the only kid on the block. Yahoo also has the ability to send you a massive amount of traffic if you’re positioned well in their search engine results and MSN can send you traffic as well. Each of these lesser search engines will place a lot of weight on many incoming links from these free directories.
Tags: automated, benefited, benefits, Directories, engine, found, important, long time, optimization, worth
Posted in SEO | No Comments »
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
Canada and the UK have many directories for websites of companies based in those countries. Can you get a business address in one of those countries?
Tags: Canada, companies, countries, Directories, foreigner, SEO, UK, Websites
Posted in SEO | No Comments »
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
* The first thing to do to get high-quality links is to submit your blog and RSS feed to blog search engines and directories.
Start by submitting your blog to all the directories listed on this page:
* Link exchanging with other similarly-themed blogs will help you to form richly interlinked networks or communities.
* If you find an interesting article on another blog, link to it generously. The trackback will become a link back to your blog.
* Lastly posting legitimate comments in response to posts on other blogs will help you get backlinks. Regularly post legitimate comments in similarly-themed blogs with high traffic to get many backlinks.
Tags: backlinks, Directories, directories listed, exchanging, high-quality links, interlinked, legitimate, response, RSS, trackback
Posted in SEO | No Comments »