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Streamlining Directory Submissions for Increased Productivity
By Sulumits Retsambew of Sulumits Retsambew Canada SEO
Submitting links to directories are one of the least exciting or satisfying tasks required for effective website optimization. There is no alternative for improving link popularity and the process must be conducted in a consistent and ongoing manner. This term refers to the number of sites that have a link pointing back to it, or backlink, which search engines consider to be a positive vote and this eventually will improve website ranking. Unless webmasters have a budget allocated for paying for featured listings most will look for free services and these usually have a tremendous backlog of website links to process so don’t expect it to be quick turnaround for either being accepted or rejected. There are several ways to increase productivity for submitting links and these can be accomplished with some simple preparation. A freeware office suite such as OpenOffice available at http://www.openoffice.org offers applications similar to Microsoft Office but made available for free because it’s open source software. In it there is a word processor for composing the basic information required by the directories for the application of each site and a spreadsheet to record which of them have been submitted to. The following is a general breakdown of what most free directories expect for submitting links successfully. Depending on the script the directory is built on, one should be prepared to modify any of the elements that are requested. 1) Site Title is usually based on the domain name unless the account has paid a fee for a featured listing where the website will be placed in a higher visibility area of the category. In this case anchor text or the sentence used to describe the link can be made of specific keywords. An example of an appropriate title for free links such as h**p://mydomain.com would become My Domain. How tolerant of title variations is dependent on the portal the application is being made to. 2) URL is the domain identifier and is usually follows the syntax h**p://mydomain.com or h**p://www.my domain.com depending on which is the preferred version. In addition to this, the domain extension may differ depending on whether a website is ecommerce based or personal, the theme or its country of origin. Normally only the homepage is allowed with the occasional variations allowed such as deep linking however this is normally a benefit of a paid account. 3) Category is where the link will be displayed and it is crucial that the most appropriate section is chosen. The category selection may differ greatly between different portals so it occasionally takes some digging to find a suitable choice. Listings will most likely be rejected if placed in the wrong area although some webmasters will move an errant link if it is for an exceptionally good website. 4) Description is the text field where the website product, services or purpose is entered. The most effective copy is written in the third person without embellishments such as, the best, the greatest, we’re number one, etc. It is also unacceptable to include personal information, product pricing or repeating the domain URL. This section will usually have limitations on the number of characters or words allowed which may differ for the various indexes as well.
5) Meta Description and Keyword text fields may also be available and these are usually taken from the source code data in the head section of the web page. These are extremely important to fill out correctly as they assist the search engines that spider the directories in determining what each listing is about. These will usually have limits as well for number of characters or words allowed. 6) Contact Name is self explanatory with it a rarity for this information not to be required. Even when the account is free the webmaster will want to know who they are in contact with in addition to it occasionally displayed with the listing. 7) Email is required for notifications sent out by the directory, initially for confirmation of the submission and secondly, regarding rejection or acceptance of the site application. It’s common to ask for an email address that is derived from the domain being submitted with free addresses such as hotmail, yahoo and gmail often resulting in a rejection. This is practiced by most portals to combat spammers who favor disposable accounts. Once again how contact is carried out is dependent on the webmaster that runs the index. It should not be an invitation for the directory to send out spam of its own, however there are occasionally exceptions so reporting this kind of activity to anti-spam organizations is important. It is important to note that automatic submissions are not accepted anymore and any site attempting this will normally get itself banned. It’s also the reason that a captcha system is in place, which forces the applicant to enter numbers, letters or a combination of both before the application is accepted. One difference in payment options that is not usually differentiated between is that any directory offering a free link but then reciprocating is required should not consider it genuinely free as the exchange will dilute the weight of both links. This is the reason reciprocal linking is not the preferred strategy as it’s more advantageous to seek out valid one way links. Just because an index claims to offer quality or be SEO friendly doesn’t necessarily make it so as there are several additional elements to consider. Being particular about where a URL is submitted will help prevent a website from being associated with link farms. As most of the better portals are besieged by applications, it can take several months for notification regarding acceptance or rejection of the site. This is the reason it’s vital that each directory be recorded in the spreadsheet so duplication can be avoided. Attempting to resubmit a site before final notification will result in a ban so patience is imperative. The other aspect about the decision made for each website is that it is up to the discretion of the portal webmaster as to whether or not a site is listed. Do not take the decisions personally as some have very strict standards. If rejected, the site may be resubmitted again if changes are made to improve the quality although there are still no guarantees. If an exact answer is required, an email of inquiry can be sent however it’s unlikely to get a response.
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Contributor's Note
Suggestions made are purely the opinion of Sulumits Retsambew Canada SEO and are based on actual experiences derived from manually submitting websites to improve link popularity.
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Sulumits Retsambew Campaign
| The Original SEO Friendly Directory Listings
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Thank you for sharing this valuable information, loonattic.
I hope that we will see more of your interesting intels!!
Best wishes.
Frederick
The copyright for this content entitled "Streamlining Directory Submissions for Increased Productivity" has been specified by the contributor as:
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This content may not be copied, distributed or adapted by anyone under any circumstances.
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This intel was contributed by loonattic
loonattic
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