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Building Site Authority Through Directory Submissions  By
Stephen Pitts
When it comes to building a website for SEO success, link development is an extremely important part of an effective online marketing strategy. Two important questions about link development regarding directory submissions: 1. Are directory submissions still a relevant tactic and worth your time and your budget to build quality links to your website for improved ranking in SERPs? 2. Are directory submissions still a relevant tactic and worth your time and your budget to build quality links to your website to get more traffic to your website? Understanding what directories are, their purpose and how they are useful is what we will cover first. History Directories have been one of the most useful tools for users to find information on the Internet, in fact, prior to search engines, they were the best way to find what you were looking for online. Similar to a phone book, online directories allowed users to find out about websites around specific topics, and as with what 411 service did to printed phone directories, search engines ushered in a new age of finding what you were looking for quickly and easily. There are a lot of correlations between phone books and online directories: • Both are limited in the information they contain - phone books only have information for those businesses that are in a particular area and online directories are also limited by the amount of sites that are included in the particular directory usually not a constraint of geographical concerns but still limited. • Traditional phone directories list phone numbers within categories based upon what the business does as well as online directories. In some circumstances they both can give multiple listings to a business/site that don't fall into a single category within the directory. • Both of these types of directories have constraints based upon time as well. Offline directories have to be printed and distributed which takes time and money. Online directories are limited due to the fact that a directory listing needs to be initiated and reviewed before entry into the directory.
What makes a good directory and what to consider when submitting? As with offline directories, like phone books, an effective online directory will be useful because it has visibility and is used by the people you are trying to reach and has enough authority to be considered useful by the people and organizations that are often resourced when trying to find information. Basically, any directory that you submit to should be used by your target audience and considered useful by search engines as a quality resource for the topic of your site. Why the distinction for topical relevance? Topical relevance is an extremely important aspect of link building. Yes, a directory might have a high PageRank according to the Google toolbar you downloaded, however, it might not be the most relevant directory for your site. Here is an example, if you have a website about computers & Internet, you might be very well suited to be listed in this category in the Yahoo! Directory, however, if you are an organization that offers search engine optimization services, you might be better suited to become a member of SEMPO and be included in the member directory. Both offer a valuable link to your website for $299 per year, however, you might get better visibility from the people you are trying to reach and more relevance from search engines that can improve your SERPs. Continue reading this article.
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