Maximizing the Benefits of a Directory Listing

2007/07/18 in Link Development | 2 comments

Jeff Behrendt recently offered some great advice over at Search Engine Journal in 7 Costly Mistakes Webmasters Make About Web Directories.

One of the points that really should be emphasized is the mistake of not varying your anchor text and descriptions:

Costly Mistake #5 – Not varying anchor text and descriptions. From what I’ve seen, a lot of submitters seem to use the same anchor text and description for all of their directory submissions. My editors spend a large amount of time re-writing this. A good way to set up a red flag with Google is suddenly to gain a lot of links to your site with the exact same anchor text and the exact same surrounding text. Ideally, all of your directory submissions should use unique wording. At the very least, have several versions of anchor text and descriptions that you use when submitting to directories.

Consider the possible consequence of replicating the same listing hundreds of times over (think duplicate content/supplemental results) and it’s easy to see how you’re contributing to the probability that the listing/link will provide you with little if any benefit.

Many complain that submitting to free directories is a waste of time as they don’t provide any boost or juice, yet they don’t try to maximize the potential when submitting.

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Understanding Directory Supplemental Results

2007/07/17 in Directories and Search Engines | 1 comment

Reading comments and posts across a variety of webmaster forums I’m intrigued by what I’ll call a misunderstanding of Supplemental results for a web directory.

You see posts from directory owners inviting comparisons of the number of Supplemental results or the percentage of pages labeled Supplemental. You’ll also see posts stating that some web directories have more pages in the Supplemental index than they have cached and indexed in the main index.

I find that it’s difficult to make a sound assessment of a web directory based solely on the number of results returned when querying Google for Supplemental pages. The number of results returned can be deceiving, and through a simple misunderstanding it’s easy to get the impression that it may not be worthwhile to have a listing in such a directory or that the directory owner is just not doing a good job.

I’m sure that we’re well versed on what a Supplemental page is, and also that these pages are likely to receive little if any traffic due to the limited exposure they’ll receive.

Before condemning a web directory because of the number of Supplemental pages, it’s a good idea to review the results and better understand why Google is returning those pages as Supplemental.

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Picking the Right Directories

2007/06/19 in Directories and Search Engines | 6 comments

Seems that with the scramble for inbound links little if any regard is given to the quality of a general web directory where the link is coming from. Submitting blindly may not be in your best interest.

I personally think the quality and calibre of a directory listing is more important than quantity. So how can you determine if a directory has the potential to become a quality Internet resource and not end up as just another hyperlink landfill?

There are a few easy steps you can take to judge the quality, or lack of in the smaller general web directories available today. It’s all about editorial integrity.

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Link Exchange Crap

2007/06/01 in Link Development

Yeah, I’ve about had my fill of the crappy link exchange offers and the webmasters looking to get over on others for a link.

It’s seems some are so desperate for a link they’re willing to defraud others to promote their garbage sites. Here’s a typical example from today:

From: Richard Bean
Date: June 01, 2007 9:02am
To: Us
Subject: Get quality PR 4 home page link (Link Exchange request)

Dear WebMaster,
We are looking quality link partners for our site and your site is ideal for the purpose.

We will add your link on the home page of ucepnepal.org (Page Rank 4)

Please add our link at home page or a good Page Rank internal page (not a link page) of your site.

Here is our link information:

Title: Richard Bean

URL: http://www.beautyfeast.com/makeup-tools/makeup-tools-main.htm

Descriptions:
Makeup tools assists in applying the makeup in the correct and precise form.

Or copy paste the following code:

a href=”http://www.beautyfeast.com/makeup-tools/makeup-tools-main.htm” mce_href=”http://www.beautyfeast.com/makeup-tools/makeup-tools-main.htm”
target=”_blank”> Makeup Tools  looks shabby, funky and rough and has cool cuts and is very popular among young guys and girls in the present world.

Please let me know once our link is up and and we will add your link back in 24 hours.

Regards

Richard Bean

P.S.: If you want us to link to your site first please reply to this email with add first in the subject and place where you will place our link.

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Directory Market Matures?

2007/05/06 in Directories and Search Engines

I was reading a discussion over at Digital Point Forums today regarding the maturity of the directory maket.

I don’t think the directory market has reached “maturity” as much as it has attained saturation, especially within the webmaster/seo community. The majority of web directories I’m familiar with are relatively unknown outside of these small circles. It’s not surprising, given that the majority of those directories are targeting webmasters/seo’s within such communities.

It’s likely that there could be a downside if directory owners don’t remove their blinders and get outside the box.

I’m willing to guess that the majority of those directories share a common footprint that may be easily distinguishable to SE’s. Free script, free template, free category dump – you’ve struck out your first at bat.

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