Search Directory Submission

Posted by donna

February 12, 2008

Search Directories are a good way to get one way backlinks to your site.

Backlinks are links on other websites pointing back to your site. What you want is a lot of one-way links to your site. That means a site links to your site, but you don’t have a link to them. One-way backlinks can get you a lot of love from Google.

There are two ways that backlinks can help you get more traffic. First, you may get people directly clicking on the links to your site. The second, and usually more important reason for getting backlinks is that the more high quality links to your site the higher your site will rank in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The higher your site ranks in the SERPs the more likely people are to click on the link to your site. Notice that I emphasized high quality links… there is a whole area of study around this, it’s called off-page optimization.

Before we start I just want to point out the difference between a Search Engine and a Search Directory. If you already know this, good on ya! Just skim over this next bit if you want.

Search Directories vs Search Engines

Both search engines and search directories aim to catalog websites. The main difference between the two is that a search directory will only have your website in its catalog if you go to the search directory and fill out a form telling them about your site, in other words, if you submit your site to them.

Many search directories have a human editor who checks over your submission prior to approval. A search engine uses software programs, commonly called search bots (bots for short) or spiders, to actively crawl the web looking for new sites to add to its collection. New sites and pages are found through hyperlinks on pages the spiders already know about. You don’t need to submit your site to a search engine, and in fact many search engine experts recommend you don’t. If another site the search engine knows about links to your site, the spiders will find it.

There are ways to help the spiders find your site, but that’s another article

How To Submit Your Site To Search Directories

You can submit your site to the search directories manually by browsing to each directory and filling in their URL submission form. But there is an easier way, and it’s free. There’s a great software tool called Directory Submitter, I recommend you go to the site and download it right now. The free version has a limited number of search directories listed. There’s also a paid version that has heaps more search directories and the great thing is that they are all managed by the software developer - new directories will be added and dead directories removed so you don’t have to go through the extra work of doing it all yourself.

The paid version is very reasonably priced and is worth paying for if you want to gain maximum impact from search directory submission. I also recommend you take the time to watch the videos on the Directory Submitter site. They’ll get you up to speed with using the software as quickly as possible.

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