Directory Supplemental Results

Those of us who are directory owners may have experienced the affect of google's supplemental results filter one time or another. And there are some who do not know what supplemental results are. So first I will provide an explantation of what these results are, then I will give a few tips on how to keep your pages from appearing supplemantal as well as how to get your pages out of the supplemental results, which sometimes can be a pain in the butt to do.

Ok, so what are supplemental results anyway? According to google "A supplemental result is just like a regular web result, except that it's pulled from our supplemental index. We're able to place fewer restraints on sites that we crawl for this supplemental index than we do on sites that are crawled for our main index. For example, the number of parameters in a URL might exclude a site from being crawled for inclusion in our main index; however, it could still be crawled and added to our supplemental index. If you're a webmaster, please note that the index in which a site is included is completely automated; there's no way to select or change the index in which a site appears. Please also be assured that the index in which a site is included doesn't affect its PageRank". See What's a supplemental result at googl's webmaster help center.

Staying out of Supplemental Results.

So how do you keep your pages from appearing in the supplemental results? The best thing to do is make sure that you have a well structured directry put togther, for staters make sure that you take the time to name your pages correctly. Fort the most part you will want to make sure the category name is the title tag. It is also better if you give each page and category a unique description, the best way to do this would be to use the name of the category in the description, for example: If your category is named "Directory of Directories" then you might want to write a description that says something like "Have a look at some the directories listed under our directory of directories category". Nothing hard, you just want to make sure that you get the category name in there somewhere. Do not just use the category name as your description, one it does not look very good, and two there is no need to repeat the exact same thing that is in the title tag.

Although not recommended by some, if you wish to use the keywords meta tag then I recommend that you come up with at least 3 keywords for each category. I'm sure you will be fine if you do not use they keyword tag, but I think it is good practise to do things all the way instead of leaving some out. It will not take you long to set up your directory pages up this fashion.

Another thing that you will want to take advantage of is the alt tag function. Alot of directories have logo's on their pages with a link pointing back to the home page, but most of these logo's do not display any kind of information, so what you want to do is name these logo's, for example: If your category page is named "Web Directory" then you may want your alt tag to say something like "Web Directory Category", again something very simple and to the point.

H1 headers are also a good choice to use. Again, you would place the name of your directory category in a h1 header, this is also good to do for ranking purposes as well.

Getting out of Supplemental Results.

If your directory is already stuck in the supplemental results there are few things that you can do to get them out. The first thing you will want to do is remove all duplicate pages that you have from your server. The next thing is to set up a 404 error page through your .htaccess file (for more inforamtion on how to set a 404 error page visit How to Set Up a Custom 404 File Not Found Page on your Website (thesitewizard.com), what this will do is the tell the search engines that those pages no longer exist and therefore they will remove those pages from their index. You could also use a permanent 301 direct and point those pages to your homepage.

As long as you follow the steps above and apply the information provided under "Staying out of Supplemental Results" then get your site of these results will not be a problem for you. Just remember that it can take time before google removes all of these pages from their supplemental index, in the mean time keep getting links to point to your directory.

Directory Page Ranks.

Does page rank really matter for a directory? This is a good question. Some feel that page rank does not really mean much now a days, that may be true for other types of sites on the internet, but for a directory I think it is. Directories with a higher page rank tend to do better in terms of submissions as well as exposure. Maybe it is because there are not alot of them, sure there are tons of pr 6 directories and lower, but pr 7 and 8 directories are rare.

The first thing that most people look for when submitting to a directory is (1)Have the pages been indexed by the search engines. (2) What kind of page rank does the homepage have, and what is the page rank on the inner pages. For the most part if a directory does not have a good page rank inside and out then that seems to affect the amount of money that the owner can charge for submissions.

Now although I think that page rank is important for a directory it is not the only factor that I consider when submitting to a directory, yet some do not think this way. Some will not even submit to a directory if they see that their site will be listed on a pr 0 page. I think this is a bad way to judge a directory, nevertheless it is common practise for webmasters.

I think that if page rank did not exist the directory market would be doomed, at least from a paid submission standpoint. Why? Because there would be no way to justifiy asking someone to pay $35 or more for a listing in your directory, I guess you could use traffic as a tool to get more submissions but even then that does not really mean much. Just because a directory has great traffic does not mean that the sites listed in them would get traffic.

I'm not saying that the directory market would die all togther if page rank did not exist, but the market would be in alot of trouble. I believe that as long as backlinks play a role in how websites are ranked there will always be a need for directories, and as long page rank exist directory submitters will continue to look for the directories with the highest green.

Directory Contest

Some may or may not have heard about the directory contest that is going on right now so allow me to get you up to date. This contest was started by Blogmaster a digital point member of the dp forums. The contest is to find out which direcotires are the most powerful in terms of cateogry listing. In other words, what directories will your site benifit from the most by being listed. The goal is to get your directory category page to rank #1 on google for the keyword directorycontest.com, the directory that is in 1st place on Feb. 6, 2007 will win $2,000. Not a bad pot I must say.

However there seems to be alot of contraverce right now in regards to the rules of the contest. Some do not think it is fair to place a sitewide listing in your directory which points to the page that you entered into the contest. I really do not see a problem with it, after all the sitewide listing in your directory will not have much weight when it comes to the search engines. Those that have alot of inbound links pointing to that page are going to be the ones that get to the top.

But the main question is, is it fair to get 1,000's of inbound links with the anchor text directorycontest.com to point to the page that you have entered? That is a tough call, but keep in mind that there is money on line here so most will do whatever it takes to win.

Overall I think that this contest is great for the directory market, many directories have entered the contest and right now the men are being seperated from the boys in terms of who has the better ranking directory. But does this mean that the winner really has the most powerful directory on the net? I can not be sure of that, but one thing is for sure, the contest is providing alot of exposure to those that are listed in the first few pages.

I'll leave it at that for now, but will keep you updated on the lastest news as I come across it.

Deep Link Directories

I have noticed that alot of directories do not allow deep linking on their directory but ask that you only submit your home page. Why is that? What difference does it make which page you want your link to go to? I think that deep linking is very important for any site regardless if is a directory or not. Having links point to your inner pages can make your directory alot more powerful, and it is even better if you can get relevant links pointing to those inner pages. There are other benifits of deep linking to your inner pages as well, one is that will help those inner pages rank better on the search engines, sure it is nice to have your homepage rank for a few keywords but I think it would better to also those inner pages rank as well.

For example, what if someone is looking for a graphic artist directory, they will probably go to google and type that in, if your graphic artist category is well optimized with a few links pointing at it then there is a pretty good chance that you will rank for the keyword graphic artist directory, thus sending quality traffic to your directory and hopefully that will traffic will turn into sales.

As you can see there are advantages to pointing links at your inner pages, and these are the same reasons why some webmasters like directories that allow deep links, it helps there inner pages rank better on the search enignes.

I have a few sites listed on my directory that allows deep linking the list is small but they are very good directories to be listed in if you are looking for deep links for you site. See them here Deep Link Directories

Directory Backlinks

Another way to see how powerful a directory can be for your site is to check the current backlinks that the directory has pointing to it. Some directories only have backlinks from other directories which is not a bad thing, the problem is that most of the smaller directories are not that powerful themselves. Links from directories like botw.org or yahoo directory are very powerful and can help add more value to a directory listing.

When checking for backlinks the first place I look is at the google backlinks. Why? I just like google better even though they do not show all of the backlinks pointing to a site. The next place I check is MSN which is alot faster it seems when it comes to picking up links, however when msn and yahoo crawls a site they do not go very deep on the first round, it usally takes quite a few crawls before they pick up all of the links.

Anyway, if a directory does not have a large amount links pointing at it then there is a pretty good chance that your site will not benifit much. I would say that 500 or more google backlinks is pretty good for a new directory to have, it shows that the owner is really trying to do something to make the directory more powerful for sites listed. Just a few things to think about when checking for backlinks.

Benifit of a directory listing.

A big topic going around right now is the power of a web directory. I quess the main question everyone wants to know is, what is the benifit of being listed in a web directory? A directory listing can have alot of value if the directory is set up in a fashion which would benifit both itself and the sites listed inside of them. But in order to understand how valuable a directory listing can be for your site you need to do a little research on the directory first. Yeah I know that takes time, but it is worth if you plan to invest money in a directory listing.

Here are a few things I look for when deciding if it is worth it to submit to a certain directory.

Is the directory 100% seo friendly.

Alot of directories claim to be seo friendly just because they have direct links pointing to the sites listed in them, or because they optimized the homepage. However, imo this does not make a directory 100% seo friendly. There are other factors to consider when saying a directory is seo friendly.

For example:

Are all category pages optimized for the title tag.

Are all category pages optimized for the description tag.

Are all category pages optimized for the keywords tag.

These are the 3 most important, there are other factors to consider as well, such as page names, h1 tags, alt tags etc. The directories that have their sites set up in this fashion will provide the most benift to the sites listed in them. Sure it is nice if the pr is good on all pages, but pr is not the main factor when it comes to serps. I believe that directories that have their pages fully optimized are alot more valuable then directories that just have a high pr. The reason I say this is because if I have a site related to say gift baskets but I am listed on a page that only says gifts, then sure my link is somewhat relevent and could provide good serps, but being listed on a page that has gift baskets in the meta title, description, keywords and h1 and may be a little content, is going to be alot more powerful because the page that I am listed on is 100% relevant to what my site offers. Google can not over look links like this, they want links from relevant sites or pages.

Remember if you want to rank on the search engines you need relevant links, and directories can provide relevant links but only if the owner takes the time to make sure that the categories are relevant to the site listed in them. I have put together a list on index-it.net of my top 10 100% seo friendly directories which you can view here seo friendly directories.