Weekly Tip #1 Plan of Action to Do Once Your Website Is Complete & Ready for Traffic

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Submitting to Live Directories

Web directories are large, topical, searchable directories that differ from traditional relevancy search engines in that their content is maintained by actual humans rather than by 'robot spyders' checking your site. Hence they are "live." Web directory personnel review your site and decide whether to include your website in their index. Sites in the index are located by browsing, by category, or by searching sites in the index using simple keyword matching. There are over a hundred Web directories on the Internet, each of varying importance. Nevertheless, your strategy should be to submit to all of them, if possible.

At this point, it should be noted that of the many web directories on the Internet, two are the most important. These are Yahoo! and The Open Directory Project. While you should certainly make efforts to submit to all of the web directories, these two are the foundation directories for several reasons. As discussed in the Link Popularity & Page Rank tutorial, Google values links to your website with differing weight. Links from some websites are worth much more than others. Links from Yahoo and ODP are among the most valuable on the Internet. Getting links from these websites can do more than anything else to improve your page rank. Furthermore, links in these and other web directories will allow relevancy search engines to find you and list you, often much faster than a direct submission to each engine.

Live Directory Benefits

The real power in submitting to live directories isn't so much the link that is added to the particular directory, but the additional links that follow. Many of the live directories listed in this article allow other websites and directories to copy them. For example, the Open Directory Project is the most important live directory on the web. The ODP allows over 200 (estimated) other major websites on the Internet to copy their entire directory. If you submit and are accepted to the ODP, it is only a matter of time before that link propagates itself onto the other websites that copy the ODP. Your one link really generates 200 links. Many of the live directories on the list power other directories. The list below has over 100 directories to which you should submit your site. You won't just end up with about 100 websites linking to yours; you will automatically receive hundreds of additional links! A live directory campaign is a simple, yet effective way to promote your site.

Submitting

Submitting to these live web directories involves accessing each directory and then looking for the "suggest a site" link. This link is usually on the front page or on a page in an appropriate sub-category. Carefully read the instructions for each live directory, as the submission process is usually more involved than simply telling them your web address, as is done with the relevancy search engines. Web directories often ask you to enter titles, descriptions, a list of relevant keywords and keyword phrases, and other pertinent information.

Paid Listings

Some of the web directories charge a fee for listing a website, although many paid inclusion directories also offer a slower "no listing guarantee" free submission option. Unlike relevancy search engines, web directories will not list you unless you submit to them. You should judge the worth of paid submissions on a case-by-case basis. When you are just beginning, it is advisable to submit only to the free listings first. After your site has started to generate revenue, you might consider re-investing some of that money in paid link directories. For your convenience, directories listed below show paid and free categories.

The following list provides several general ideas that will improve your efforts in submitting to web directories:

    * Most web directories use an alphabetical index. This means that in the bottom-level category pages, the listings appear in alphabetical order based on the content of the title. Having an alphabetically friendly title can be worth more traffic. Remember however, that these are live directories and a human editor will approve your listing before being added to the index. They often don't appreciate titles whose only goal is to attain a higher listing. "AAAAA Zodiac Readings and More" is an example of a falsely alphabetized title.

    * Carefully read and comply with all the terms and listing guidelines. Many web directories take these guidelines very seriously and are very watchful for the slightest non-compliance. Inappropriate submissions, including less than relevant keywords, marketing hype, forced alphabetization, incomplete websites, etc. may result in your listing being rejected. In some cases, your listing may even be modified by an editor who may make a mistake and alter important data.

    * Make sure you use the search term suggestion tool to research and choose the most relevant 2 or 3 keywords for your title and description.

    * Avoid any marketing hype. Most editors like sterile, boring, accurate descriptions. Avoid hyperbole and exclamation points. Editors may modify your title and description, so it pays to fully comply to avoid loss of your editorial control. If you have named your store properly, alphabetically friendly, with good keyword phrases in your title and description, then you should get plenty of traffic from these directories. You can only submit your site once, so be sure to follow the proper procedure for each directory

    * If you can't determine how to get listed with a particular directory, especially any of the smaller ones, send a polite email to them inquiring about the website submission procedure.

Specific Directories

Yahoo! www.yahoo.com It is important to get listed in Yahoo, because their web directory is the most trafficked on the entire web, despite the fact that Yahoo no longer gives priority to their live directory listings, choosing instead to display Google's relevancy results as the default results. Google values a link from the Yahoo live directory more highly than any other link on the Internet.

Yahoo, like most search engines and web directories, is in a desperate attempt to make all aspects of their business generate revenue. Over three years ago, Yahoo introduced their Yahoo Express Service, which is their paid website submission option. It costs about $299 per year and ensures Yahoo editors will review your site within seven days. Yahoo does not guarantee your inclusion in the index, only the review of the site. However, as long as you meet all of Yahoo's requirements for a listing in their index (which you should read and comply with fully) you should have no trouble getting listed.

While there is no way to prove it, some believe that Yahoo will NOT include a commercial site in their index that does not pay the express listing fee. In our experience, we know of no commercial site added to the index through their normal free submission procedure. Non-commercial websites, however, can still be added through free submission. If you choose to pay for the annual express listing, it will be some of the best marketing money you will spend on the Internet. A good listing in Yahoo is worth far more than the fee they charge.

If you are concerned with having to pay the fee to Yahoo for a listing, you should do a free submission. If it works, great. If it doesn't, you might make additional free submissions to Yahoo, limiting them to one submission every four months or longer. Later, if a paid listing in Yahoo becomes viable, then submit your website.

Open Directory Project www.dmoz.org The ODP accepts submissions for free but takes several weeks to add sites to their index. While its market share is thought to be at about .5% it also provides search listings to other portals. Many portals use this index to build their own. Google's live directory (directory.google.com) is a mirror of the ODP, and Google values a link there more than almost any other on the Internet.

About  www.about.com About.com has a web directory, but it is extremely picky. You submit to the proper category in the directory. It is quite difficult to qualify for a review, but it is worth the time to make the submission anyway.

A common question: How do I submit a link to About.com? Find the most appropriate topic site and submit via a friendly email to that site's guide. Include your domain name and a brief, simple description (25 words or less). Do not include any marketing in this message, but rather information to help the guide understand what your website offers. The guide will decide if they wish to include the link on their topic site. Also, all descriptions are subject to the guide's editorial discretion.

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Note that there are over 1300 live directories on the Internet. DMOZ, YAHOO and ABOUT are major directories with a rank of 9 and 8 and you don't have a good chance of getting listed in their directories unless you are in a ton of the 1300 others. Here is a tip, do your research on what they are. Add the Google rank bar feature when you access the Internet and then go visit the live directories.  You want to start submitting to the ones with the lowest rank first being rank 0. When you visit the sites make a list from 1-10 then put them into rank categories.  Your chances will be much higher to get listed on high rank live directories when they see you are joined with all the low ranked directories first. I suggest you put an hour in a day at this and just grind it out. Once it’s done its done. When you get around 1300 you will actually have tens of thousands of pages you are actually linked to.

Remember, when you submit your site to a live directory, you are submitting to a human being. Be courteous in your submission!

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Brian Marshall

http://www.gaspricessave.com