In Search of Optimization

Most webmasters think that directories are the thing of the past. If you think like they do, then you’re wrong. Though modern search engines are mostly driven by a database of spidered websites, directories still have their place in search engine optimization. In fact, they’re still of much importance that even Google and Yahoo have web directories aside from their spidered database.

What benefits do web directories offer to the typical webmaster? Believe it or not, there are people who still use web directories when searching for online information. However, the benefit perhaps that you could get from submitting to web directories is what we call inbound links. Furthermore, web directories are often visited by search engine spiders therefore submitting to many of these directories will most probably ensure that your website gets a regular visit from these spiders. Also, you don’t have to trade links with most web directories.

The problem with submitting to directories though is the time spent to go through each directory, look the proper category, and suggest your website. Most will ask for your website’s title, URL, keywords, description, your email, and your name so unless. I know a few people who would submit websites for a fee but there’s no guarantee that they’ll do it properly.

What option do you have? Well, I found out about one search engine submission service who would submit your website to an A to Z list of search engines and directories. The sign-up form is easy to use - you just need to fill out the typical information that a directory would ask you and click a button. They also offer a free website monitoring service that will monitor your website’s uptime and downtime. Then of course, the price. Their price is lower than anything I’ve seen in the internet. Guarantees? Apparently, their claims are all true - no false claims whatsoever.

I don’t see any reason why I should not make use of their service. I would.

To SEO experts, getting backlinks is like the holy grail of SEO. The number of backlinks determine a site’s PR and PR is definitely a huge factor in Google’s search algorithm. Also, though Yahoo and MSN don’t have a PR thing in view, it is also clear they also give weight to the number of backlinks a website has in determining who should be on page one of their SERPs.

There are different ways to getting backlinks. Some are good and some are bad. Some SEO experts prefer one and some prefer the other. In the end, it’s just a matter of knowing how much backlinks you need and how much credibility you’ll get.

Now, I found one good way to get backlinks and gain credibility at the same time and that my friend is no secret to most of you. This way that I’m referring to is writing articles and submitting them to article directories. Another way is participating in ‘open blogs‘ wherein subscribers are allowed to submit articles as well. Creating articles and submitting to article directories is pretty trivial so I’ll focus more into the ‘open blogs’ technique.

Joining what I call ‘open blogs’ is a bit more tedious than mere submitting to article directories but I believe that it’s also more rewarding simply because blogs are gaining popularity very fast and people are starting to like reading other people’s blogs. Open blogs take this fact a little further by letting everybody contribute to the blog. Usually, these types of blogs are focused on a particular topic so you just have to find the right blog for you. It’s much like a wiki but less strict.

By participating in open blogs, you get to share your point of view on a particular topic and of course, you can add a link to a similar topic on your website - remember that our main goal is to get backlinks. The bonus part of this is that people will start seeing you and if you write good enough, they might just follow the trail back to your website. Some may bookmark your article, and some may tag them in social bookmarking sites. Better yet, some people may even link to you if they find your topic really interesting. I understand that this way of getting links could be pretty slow but it can also be really fast. The good part with this technique is that your links are likely to stay for a long time as opposed to paying for links which is well limited by the money that you have in your pocket.

Well, I admit that I’m not that good of a writer but I’m sure that this article have piqued your imaginations.