Web Directory Submission – An Important Part of SEO
Web directories have been used by the internet since its birth in the early nineties, and today they still play an important role in the promotion of new and existing websites. Originally they were used simply as a tool to allow users to search for and locate a particular website name or types of website in a particular category. Though this role still exists, it has somewhat taken a back seat to the true SEO (search Engine Optimization) value that web directory submission has today.
It would be fair to say that web directories, in todays, modern Internet provide the many positive benefits to websites that are successfully listed, and these can be summarized as-
Faster URL Indexing
If you submit a URL that is not listed in Google to a high traffic or page rank directory then the website will be likely listed within just a few days, sometimes sooner. If you submit to Google though the normal process the indexing may take a few months. If you have an existing website that you would like to be re-cached fast, then submission to this type of high ranking directory would also be beneficial cutting you re-caching time down to a day or two.
Improvement in SERP’s
The most common reason that webmasters submit to directories is to provide a boost in the SERP’s (Search Engine Result Position’s). It is a well known fact that Google calculates the number of links to and from a website and a site with more URL links is going to perform better in the search result. This of course is a generalized statement as there are many other factors that include the quality of the link pointing to the website, the link type – please see the next benefit.
One Way Links
A one way inbound link is the most important type of link any website can have. The perfect one way link, i.e. one that has both SEO value and a traffic click value is one from a relevent, high traffic, high page ranked website. These are highly sought after and incredibly hard to get as you will need to approach a market leader within your industry and ask them to add a link to your website with no favor in return – can you see the problem? A specialist well categorized or niche web directory can offer you this type link, often for little or no charge, especially if you submit to a directory that sits nicely within your chosen niche.
Deep Links
A deep link, that is a link that points to a page located within your website, are essential to a SEO campaign. Deep links allow you inner pages to become more prominent in SERP’s and are normally only picked up creating fantastic content backed up by link baiting (encouraging people to link). Any good website will pick up a number of these over it’s time, however if you would like to speed up the process many deep link web directories will provide the service for a nominal fee.
Web Traffic Increase
Web directories, particularly, older, high Alexa ranking directories, below 50,000 will provide a number of referral visitors to any website that is listed. To maximize the visitor numbers, a submitter can opt for either a home page link or a featured link. A home page link will often provide a link from every page in the directory. This provides both the effect of boosting the SEO value of link tremendously whilst giving a visible opportunity for every visitor to click on the link to visit your website.
Featured links offer a web traffic increase as the website is listed first (or in the top 5) in the relevent category into which was put into. A top 5 listing will encourage more clicks.
Speed, Cost and Ease of Submission
Many web directories are friendly, easy, fast and often very cheap or free to submit links to. Often, link submitters will get an email confirmation of there request, followed up by another email once the submission goes live. There are however over 10,000 web directories to submit to and if you are in a competitive niche you may well need to submit to a large proportion of these to compete in the SERPs. If this applies to you then there are many ethical web directory submission companies that can help you speed up the process even more by offering to do it for you, again for relatively little cost.
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