SEO Recap – Directory Submission

Directory submissions were definitely THE way of getting back links back in the day. With many new ways of linking, some webmasters have chosen to ignore this valuable source of links, and this is a mistake. Directory submissions do not just deliver back links for your website, they also bring you targeted traffic to your website. In fact, directories were originally used to get traffic to websites – when people wanted to find a certain service or product, they visited these directories and made a search inside the directories.

Of course, many people only use search engines these days, but there are diehards who prefer to use specialized directories for search. Even without traffic form directory search, as the  concept has been changed concerning directories, people have started using these directories for getting back links. Even if only a few people are visiting these directories to search for a service or a product, since search engines have become much more powerful and  are capable of indexing websites much faster than before, directories remain a terrific source of backlinks.

Certainly, since Google now uses Sitemaps which tell the search engine bots how frequently it should visit your websites, which ensures that sites are indexed based on the update frequency of the websites, this has dealt a blow to the directories and made them slightly less useful in terms of being informational search destinations. However, these directories will be indexed in search engines for keyword searches, and can still act as entry points for visitors to your website, sending you targeted traffic to your websites.

Let‘s get back to the main present day for directory submission, however –  deep links. The backlinks you can acquire for your website buy using directory submissions are not only good or your home pages, but you can  also submit the links to inner pages. This is important as your website needs to have links for all the pages, so that each of the important pages of your website will get indexed promptly, have good PageRank, and have good ranking in the search engines.

Normally when people submit their sites to directories, they want links pointing to their homepages first. The problem with this is that you are missing out on the opportunity to juice your site‘s lower levels. In many cases, it is not the homepage that provides detailed information about your products or services; instead, it is the inner pages that are focused on each service or product, and can provide specific detailed information. Also, the inner pages will have the right keyword optimization.

Keyword strength and back links should both be used to get good ranking for the pages. Since search engines rank the pages individually, rather than ranking an entire site,  it is important to get deep links – and directory submission can be highly helpful in getting deep links for your website.

Although most of the directories do not charge for listing your website, there are a scattered few directories that will charge for listing your website. When submitting your websites to directories, make sure you don’t cross submit in directories that are not relevant since it will be a waste of time and not beneficial. Be aware that most of the directories will also review your listing request before approving your link. Make sure you never get caught in submitting to a fake directory that is a link farm or scam – this can get you banned from search engines. It is best to have directory submissions done by a professional who will only submit your site to reputable, relevant directories.