A lot of people ask me to submit their site to directories as part of their SEO campaign. That's fine I say, which ones do you want me to submit to? That's when the phone goes a little quiet. Er just submit it to the best ones for me please. That's easy for my clients to say, but with over 20,000 free directories and over 1000 paid directories how do I quantify who is the best?
The first step in deciding if a directory is worth submitting to is to find out if it is listed in Google? Directories that are not listed in Google are not worth submitting to. The way to check if the directory you are considering submitting to is listed, is to go to Google search and type in this. site: followed by the URL. For example site:http://www.site-sift.com. This will tell you if the site is listed, and how many pages are listed in Google. You can then decide for yourself whether you think it is worth submitting to or not.
Another good way to determine the importance of a directory is the page rank it has. PageRank is a function of Google that measures the quality of a website on a scale of 0 to10. One being not so good, and 10 being the best. The site in the above example site sift, has a page rank of 6. That would be a better than average site according to Google, and would be worth submitting your site to.
Another thing for you consider would be free submissions against paid submissions. Free submission directories will generally not be of great benefit to your SEO campaign, unless they have a high page rank. But directories with high page rank generally charge for submissions. My advice for stating off would be submit your site to 10 paid directories and 100 free directories. Try to pick directories with good PageRank (for free and paid listings), as they are well respected by Google and will generally get more visitors than low pr directories.
Whichever directories you decide to submit to, always make sure you write a good title and description for your listing. Poorly written titles and descriptions will result in your site not being accepted into the directory, and if it does get accepted, a poorly written title and description may put people off visiting your site.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
What To Avoid in SEO
If you’re planning on using search engine optimization techniques for your business, you’d better know what you need to avoid along the way.
While there are many useful and legitimate ways to increase the SEO of your site, there are just as many ways to create problems for your web site’s credibility and searchability. By learning what you avoid, you can boost your businesse's reputation as well as the traffic flow.
While it might seem like a good idea to add as many of your desired keyword as possible to your web site, that’s actually not the best search engine optimization technique. When you do this, several things happen that can damage your site’s credibility.
Your articles won’t read well – When you’re ‘stuffing’ the website with keywords, the reader will be put off by this. Seeing the same word over and over only looks bad for your business. Are you trying to give your reader useful information? or are you just trying to trick the search engines?
The search engines may realize what you’re doing – If you’re only trying to help your SEO by adding more keywords, the search engine may rank you lower. Because search engines know that more businesses are aware of the use of SEO, they are looking for those that abuse this idea.
You won’t look like an expert – When you create articles and information only so that you can include your keyword, it can begin to look like you are not a genuine company.
Another no-no in search engine optimization is to hide your keywords in pages that a customer can’t read. Most of the web sites that used to do this are now banned, as search engines began to crack down on sites that tried this trick.
When you use hidden pages to increase your SEO, the reader will be drawn to your web site because of this, but it may not be what they were searching for in the first place. Many of the hidden keywords are only there to increase traffic, but when the customer arrives on your site and sees that nothing is related to their search, they will not continue to respect your site’s contents.
Constantly leaving old SEO content on your site, is another way to decrease your search engine rankings. When your reader comes to your site, they want to see things that are exciting and new, or else they will go elsewhere to find these fresh ideas. Though you might see initial rises in your traffic flow from new articles, these high traffic numbers eventually decrease as those returning to your site see that nothing has changed and begin to stop coming back.
When you’re trying to increase your search engine placement, you need to realize that while you might read a lot of advice on what TO do, there’s little advice on what NOT to do. But by avoiding these common mistakes, you will increase your web site’s popularity, and start bringing in the sales you deserve.
While there are many useful and legitimate ways to increase the SEO of your site, there are just as many ways to create problems for your web site’s credibility and searchability. By learning what you avoid, you can boost your businesse's reputation as well as the traffic flow.
While it might seem like a good idea to add as many of your desired keyword as possible to your web site, that’s actually not the best search engine optimization technique. When you do this, several things happen that can damage your site’s credibility.
Your articles won’t read well – When you’re ‘stuffing’ the website with keywords, the reader will be put off by this. Seeing the same word over and over only looks bad for your business. Are you trying to give your reader useful information? or are you just trying to trick the search engines?
The search engines may realize what you’re doing – If you’re only trying to help your SEO by adding more keywords, the search engine may rank you lower. Because search engines know that more businesses are aware of the use of SEO, they are looking for those that abuse this idea.
You won’t look like an expert – When you create articles and information only so that you can include your keyword, it can begin to look like you are not a genuine company.
Another no-no in search engine optimization is to hide your keywords in pages that a customer can’t read. Most of the web sites that used to do this are now banned, as search engines began to crack down on sites that tried this trick.
When you use hidden pages to increase your SEO, the reader will be drawn to your web site because of this, but it may not be what they were searching for in the first place. Many of the hidden keywords are only there to increase traffic, but when the customer arrives on your site and sees that nothing is related to their search, they will not continue to respect your site’s contents.
Constantly leaving old SEO content on your site, is another way to decrease your search engine rankings. When your reader comes to your site, they want to see things that are exciting and new, or else they will go elsewhere to find these fresh ideas. Though you might see initial rises in your traffic flow from new articles, these high traffic numbers eventually decrease as those returning to your site see that nothing has changed and begin to stop coming back.
When you’re trying to increase your search engine placement, you need to realize that while you might read a lot of advice on what TO do, there’s little advice on what NOT to do. But by avoiding these common mistakes, you will increase your web site’s popularity, and start bringing in the sales you deserve.
Monday, September 10, 2007
What is SEO?
If you own or are thinking about starting, an Internet-based business, you may have heard the term “SEO” or Search Engine Optimization. Search engine optimization is the process of making your web site easily found, by people looking for your products or services. If you, for example, sell left-handed widgets, but people can’t find your business when they need a left-handed widget, you have lost a customer. Search engine optimization helps customers find you.
There is more to SEO than meets the eye. It is a specialized job that can be quite expensive. If you can do you own SEO then you have an edge on your competition, as you do not have the expense of paying an SEO guy every month.
The object of this site is to help you learn more about SEO, and to give you the confidence to develop your own SEO skills. We hope that you find this site useful. Please feel free to link to us if you think this site would benefit others.
There is more to SEO than meets the eye. It is a specialized job that can be quite expensive. If you can do you own SEO then you have an edge on your competition, as you do not have the expense of paying an SEO guy every month.
The object of this site is to help you learn more about SEO, and to give you the confidence to develop your own SEO skills. We hope that you find this site useful. Please feel free to link to us if you think this site would benefit others.
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