Web Directory Blog - SEO Talk & More

Are Web Directories Getting To Fancy?

2008-02-24T07:54:00.000-08:00

Over the past year we have seen web directories go from your basic php template to a more custom design with all kinds of cool features. It was good to see this happen because the market did in fact need a face lift, but has the market gone over board with all of it's new features? Now of course the creators of most of the new features we have seen being used would disagree, after all it does put money in their pocket. But do all of these features really help your web directory? Do people who visit your directory even use all of the features?

As a directory submitter myself I can say that although I do like alot of the new features that are out there it is not something that I look for when submitting to a directory. Nevertheless, I have to admire all of the hard work that goes into creating these features and those who take the time to make their directory a little different from the next.

For me the only features I need is a direct link to my site and the ability to deep link to some of my other pages, details page is important to. Other than that I really have no need for any of the other features.

What are your thoughts and what features matter the most to you? Do you think directories have gone over board by having so many features on their directory? Do you even care if a web directory has any features?

No Follow Tag Removed From Our Blog.

2008-01-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

Because I believe it is only fair to allow link juice to those who wish to comment on this blog, we have removed the no follow tag from the comments. Now I am sure a few spammers will come through from time to time but that is ok, after all what's the point in having a blog if you don't read the comments and then moderate them. So feel free to post your comments but please keep them on topic. If you post a comment that says something like "hi nice blog" then you pretty much bet that your post will not be added. The same goes if you post something like "I agree", in other words don't come here just to post your one liners. Thanks again for reading and happy posting.

Do Directory Owners Play PS3

2008-01-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

I was wondering the other day if I was only directory owner who likes to play video games. For me it is a good way to get my mind off some of the stress that comes with running a directory. So the other day I decided to go out and get myself a new PlayStation 3 to replace the old PS2. Even though the cost was a little out there I felt it would be a good buy so I went ahead and got it. What I did'nt know is that I could have got one of these for free.

A buddy of mine pointed me to a site that he swears by. Apparently all you have to do is follow a few steps and these guys will send you a free ps3. I know that sounds a little crazy because there are tons of sites out there who pull scams like this all the time. But my friend did in fact get one from these guys with no problem so I did a little research into it and found that this is the real deal, there are 1,000's of people getting not only free ps3's but also ipods, laptops and straight cash if that is what you chose to go with.

Now of course the only way to find out for sure is to do this myself, so I went and signed up and completed on of the offers. Now all I need is a few referrals in order to get my free ps3. A few things need to be stressed before you sign up. Do not use any form of fake information, just be straight forward and honest. These guys take this stuff very serious and do not like to be scammed. So don't try and cheat their system, trust me, these guys will catch you and in the end you only look silly and have nothing to show for it, you'll just be helping them make money and will get nothing in return. As long as you follow the rules then you will get your prize.

So let's give this a try and see what happens. Use the following link in order to sign up for your free PS3: Sign Up Here

Please let me know if you sign up. For every person that sign's up using my referral link will get a free listing in our directory www.index-it.net. Only one free listing per person, after all you can only use the referral link once anyway. I'll also need to verify that you did in fact sign up and you must complete at least one offer in order for your referral to count.

Well good luck and hopefully we can all get one of these free PS3's. Thanks for reading and please feel free to post any comments or questions you might have. I'll will tell you guys if I get one from them, let's see if this really works.

Why Some Directories Dropped In Pr.

2008-01-17T06:02:00.000-08:00

I know that this topic never seems to end but I wanted touch on it because I know it is a major concern for some directory owners. A few months back google performed a pr update that cut almost every directories page rank in half on directories that appeared to be violating their guidelines. For the most part alot of directories dropped because of buying high pr links to point to their directory. However, there are 100's of other directories that were not violating any rules yet still took a hit. Some feel that this has been a direct hit to the directory market in an effort to shut down directories. That may be true, as there are few things that I have noticed that just do not seem to be right, I'll touch on some of those issues later.

But what could be the reason why some directories took a pr hit. According to matt cutts the reason why some directories may have dropped is because there is just not enough page rank to go around in some niches. In this case, since most directories lost page rank on the inner pages of their directory this has caused a huge drop in page rank for directories that may have 100's of featured listings or regular listings on directories. Keep in mind that it can take quite a few links to get a page rank of 6 or 7, so just because you have a few pr 7 or 6 links or maybe even a 8 or two does not mean that you are going to get a high pr. Plus if you do have any of these links google is likely to think that those were paid for and therefore are not being counted in the pr algo.

The point is that although you may not be selling links for page rank or have bought high pr links to point to your site you are most likely being affected due to the lack of page rank that is available in your niche. I suspect that everything will get back to normal after another update or 2, but I am sure that there will still be a few directories suffering from the effects, as well a few that will be being watched to see if they have changed there ways. So in the mean time I recommend that owners stay focused on keeping their directories up to quality standards. Keep building links and keep doing whatever it is you were doing that help make your site successful.

As always thanks for reading and may the serps and pr be with you.

Someone Loves My Web Directory Alot.

2008-01-16T14:52:00.000-08:00

It appears that someone loves index-it.net web directory so much that they chose to point 1,000's of links to the site from various domains and boosted my google backlinks from 2,260 to 5,150. Moreover, the person or persons who love the directory so much also thought it would be really cool if they ranked #1 for the domain name "index-it.net" (check google rankings). Now I may not keep up with traffic to much but one thing I do keep track of is where I got my links from, and I can tell you right now that I have no clue who the owner of this site is or how they even no of me.

Now this is either some form of attempt to try and get the directory banned from search engines, or is one big glitch in the google algo. Don't get me wrong I love free links and all, but if someone did this because they wanted to give out some link love then why were the links removed. From what i can tell this is clearly an attempt to try and ban the directory. Notice how both //liushen.org and index-it.net have the exact same amount of google backlinks, how is that possible unless I 301 index-it to the other domain. I have had this issue once before and brought it before matt cutts but still have not received a reply. Although that issue has now been fixed for that page.

I'm not sure how long this person tends to go along with this, but I'll keep my eye to see how long it last.

Happy New Year! 2008

2008-01-14T04:22:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say Happy New Year to all of the directory owners out there. I've seen alot of changes in the directory market in 2007, some were good and some where not so good. Either way I look forward to seeing some of the new ideas that will be coming out this year. Let's keep up the good work and continue to work hard on our directories. May the serps and pr be with you all.

Getting The Most Out Of Your Directory Submissions.

2007-11-16T14:47:00.000-08:00

Despite all of the madness going on around right now about web directories, directory submissions are still one of the best ways to go if you need links that will help you climb the search engines. I've put together a few things that will help you along the way when submitting your sites to web directories.

Avoid directories that use the no follow tag as this shows a lack of trust towards your website and therefore will not help you in any fashion to climb the search engines.

1. Relevant Category Listing: This is by far the most important factor when submitting your site. If you have a site related to the jewelry market then it will be better if you list it in the jewelry category instead of the shopping category. Although listing in the shopping category will still help, your link will not be as powerful as it would be if you listed in the jewelry category. Search engines like relevant links from relevant pages (supposedly) and this includes directories. So when submitting your site try to list in a category that is almost 100% relevant to your website.

2. Use Good Anchor Text: Some directories only allow you to use your orignal site name for the anchor text and that is fine by me. But there are alot of directories that also allow you to use keywords in your anchor text. IMHO the best anchor text to use is one that contains both your site name and the keyword you are targeting. For example, if you own a computer repair website then your anchor text should read something like this "Computer Repair from Website.com". Adding your domain name at the end of the anchor text will not hurt anything because the search engines read from left to right so the keyword you are targeting will be read first. More importantly, when you use a combination of both it looks alot cleaner then just using keywords.

3. Use Different Descriptions: Using the same description for every submission will not help much. The main reason you want to use a different description for each submission is because about 80% of the directories out there allow for each submission to include a detail page. Most of the time your detail page will only contain the description that you used to submit your website. If you are using the same description for every submission then you are losing out on the benifits that come from detail pages. So although you might have a 100 directory listings you are missing out on the other 100 you could have from the detail pages alone. In other words you will end up with only 1 link out of a 100 with the other 99 going to dup content. So don't cheat yourself, write a unique description for every submission, the longer the description the more it will help.

4. Take Advantage of Deep Link Options: Many directories no longer offer the deep link option and I still do not understand why that is. But again, there are many directories that still do offer this option so you want to take advantage of it. Deep link directories allow you to link to other pages in your website. This can be helpful if you are trying to rank some of your other pages for certain keywords since the deep link directories allow you use anchor text for your deep links. Moreover, if you use the right anchor text on your submission then you can end up with a pretty relevant detail page, thus making it easier to rank for certain keywords.

5. Don't Sweat The Traffic: Keep in mind that you are submitting to directories to help you rank better in the search engines not get tons of traffic from them. I know alot of us would like to think that we can get alot of traffic from being listed in directories. Now granted, there are in fact some directories that will send you some traffic but who's word can you take for that? The only way to know for sure is to submit your site in order to find out.`If traffic is really that important then I would recommend that you go with the featured listing as these will give you a better chance of gaining some traffic.

6. Don't Sweat The Green Bar: As most of you know google has been making alot of changes in the page rank algo and therefore you will likely see some low numbers on most directories right now. But don't let that stop you from submitting, most of these directories are sure to gain a respectable page rank once google gets everthing in order.

7. Pricing: Because of the changes in the recent pr updates alot of directories have dropped the submission fee to a much lower price. I would take advantage of that, remember, you need as many links as possible in order to rank higher, so if there are directories out there with low prices then go for it, it will not hurt anything only help you out in the long run.

Conclusion: Don't get caught up in all the hype about whether or not if directories are still worth submitting to, I can assure you that as long as the search engines keep using links as a way to rank websites then all links will continue to help you rank higher. Another thing, do'nt get wrapped up in the pr of the directory that you are submitting to, otherwise you will find your site staying at the bottom of the rankings. Again, directories are there to help you with link popularity, if your only focus is pr and not the search engines then I recommend you look elsewhere to get your links from. If you submit to directories in the right fashion then you will see the benifits that come from them. If you are not sure about which directories you should submit to then I recommend that you take a look at http://www.avivadirectory.com/strongest-directories/ which has a list of the most powerful directories on the internet and has been a valuable source for myself and many other site owners and webmasters.

Once again, thanks for reading and sorry it took so long for me post something, things are little crazy around here as I have a new baby girl on the way so I have been spending alot time getting ready for that. Feel free to stop by from time to time and check out what else I might be talking about. God Bless and May the serps be with you.

Keyword-Pages.com - A New Free Web Directory

2007-08-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

Back in June I launched a free web directory called http://www.keyword-pages.com/. The directory is free for submissions although it may take some time to get listed since the database is pretty full right now. The directory is cool in that it allows all of the sites listed equal opportunity to gain traffic to their site through the "random sites of the day". Each submission is also allowed to place 3 deep links to the inner pages of their website on the details page. Sites are sorted according to the day they were accepted.

The directory has over 3,400 categories and so far has a total of 1,234 sites listed. I had a featured listings option on it for a little while but then took it off as I am not sure exactly what I want to do in regards to the cost and whether or not if the links should be permanent or yearly. I know there has been alot of buz going on around about which way a directory should go, either "permanent" or "yearly" but I'll get into that later.

I do plan on keeping keyword pages free at all times for regular submissions. And although I am not pushing the promotion to hard with this one there is still a nice amount of money being invested into the directory. I will most likely start accepting some form of advertising just to keep the name out there and the traffic coming. That is what I always liked about free directories, they get tons of traffic.

I will try to all submissions caught up by the end of the month so that the directory can reopen for some fresh submissions. I will surely let you know when the directory is back open for business. In the meantime keep stopping by every now and then to see if I am really keeping this blog up to date.

Thanks for reading.

It's Been Awhile

2007-08-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

I know it has been awhile since I have posted something on this blog. Maybe that is why google has dropped the page rank from a pr 4 to pr 0. That is fair, I should have been keeping people up to date with what is going on out there. Well a whole lot of things have been happening since my last post so I will try to run through as many as I can.

So what have I been doing all this time? Well I spent alot of time putting together our new free web directory keyword-pages.com. I added categories as well as put the layout and logo together. I'll start a another post which will give the full break down of the directory. I also took some time to make changes to index-it.net. One of the main problems was that the site was not showing up very good in the fire fox browser. Well that has now been taken care of. I also had a few seo clients that needed to be taken care of as well. Now that just about everything is caught up I have some time to get this blog caught up, as well as work on some link building for index-it.

Benifit of having high pr links pointing to your website.

2007-03-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

Today I want to talk about how a link from a high pr website helps your website and what it can do to get you better results. Now of course the first reason most people want high pr links is because they pass more page rank to your website. But lets take a look at some of the other reasons why some people go after these links.

1). Faster Indexing.

Since sites that have a high page rank are visited more often by the search engine spiders, the chance of your site being picked in a short period of time is very likely. Sites with low pr are not crawled as often and therefore it may be awhile before google finds these links, unless that site has a few high pr links pointing to it as well, the link will in fact be found sooner or later but not as fast if that link was coming from a site with high page rank.

2). Cached More Often.

Although somewhat already explained, sites that have a high page rank are cached more often by google, this is because google sees that site as an authority and therefore comes by more often looking for changes, if any change is found then google will most likely recache that page and at the same time come by and pay your site visit as well. Therefore, by having high pr links pointing at your site it allows google to come by your site more often and look for changes.

3). Crawls Deeper Into Your Site.

Another reason people go after high pr links is because it is believed that google will crawl deeper into your site if they find you listed on high pr website, now I can not really prove if this is true or not, but I can say that when I got a few high pr links for my directory a few months back I did see a big jump in the amount of pages that google indexed from my site, and google does seem to pick up new pages alot faster then what they use to, so maybe there is some truth in this.

The bottom line is that high pr links do in fact help your website, does that mean you need to start spending a arm and leg for these links? No, but I do recommend that you get at least 1 pr 7 to point to your site if you are having problems getting all of your pages indexed in the search engines. I know some people that buy these only long engough to get there whole site indexed and then they drop the link. Not a bad idea if you are tring to get new pages to gain pr in time for the next update.

Well that is my tip for today, again thanks for reading and keep stoping by from time to time to see what else I am talking about.

Tips for Ranking multiple keywords to your homepage.

2007-03-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

I thought I would provide a tip on how you can rank for muliple keywords on your homepage. This infomation may not be new to some of you, but those who are just starting out will find this information very helpful. In order to rank well for muliple keywords the first thing you will want to do is remove your "meta description" tag from the source code. Although some search engines do in fact still use the "meta description" it is not a big factor for some of the major search engines out there.

There are two differnt options you could use when trying to rank for more than one keyword. (1) You could deep link to those keyword pages (Most likely this would be the best choice) or you can place some content on your homepage that is relevant to the keywords that you are targeting. For example, let's say you are targeting "cleaning services" then you could insert a paragraph on your homepage that talks about "cleaning services". By removing the meta description tag this will cause google to search your page for the phrase cleaning services, if they find it then they will place that information in the description durning a search result.

Therefore, you can target muliple anchor text for your homepage and will not need to add other pages to your site. I hope this information is to you, if nothing else just run a few test to see how it works for you.

As always, thanks for reading.

Best Directory Logos.

2007-02-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

I thought I would give credit to the directories that I have found which have the best directory logos. Some directories only have a standard logo, in other words alot of directories just use some text as thier logo. There is nothing wrong with just using text but I like the directories that have taken the time to create something different from the others. A cool logo can make a directory really stand out from the others. Below are the directories which I think have the best logos. I am sure that there are tons of directories out there that also have some really cool logos, these are just the ones that come to mind right now, I may update this list as I come across more directories. As always, thanks for reading and continue to stop by for the lastest news and updates in the directory market.

Directory Review: Index-it.net

2007-01-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

This week we will have a look www.index-it.net. In a directory market full of phpld scripts and many others index-it.net has chosen to do things the old fashion way. The directory has been built from scratch using straight html coding, pretty impressive if you ask me, seeing that the directory has over 1,500 pages all which were built by hand, every category even has it's very own submission page except the free categories. I'm sure it is a nightmare to manage but you gotta give credit to the owner for taking on a such a task.

Although the directory is not flooded with tons of categories to choose from the ones that were selected have been based on popular keyword searches and ones that people search for the most on the internet. Another cool feature this directory offers is the ability to read the lastest news for each category. For example, if you are in the Travel category you will see the lastest news in the travel market. Not all categories provide that lastest news but about 75% of the directory does give the users fresh content for that category each time they visit or refresh the page.

Index-it.net is also making a pretty good showing in the directory contest and is currently in position #5 for the keyword directorycontest.com . With only a week left to go in the contest index-it.net seems to be making one last final run at first place. I feel that is a very good directory and one that will surely be among the best directories out there in the future. Let's have a look at some stats for index-it.net.

Index-it.net Stats

Online Since: April 26, 2006
Page Rank: 6
Page Strength: 5.5
Google Backlinks: 2,240
Yahoo Backlinks: 58,077
MSN Backlins: 13,894
Cost to get listed: $25 for top level catogories, $20 for second level categories.

As stated above index-it.net is a very good directory and one that is surely worth the submission fees. And from looking at the stats this directory looks to be pretty promising in the future, with a nice page rank and good backlinks this directory is sure to be around for quite some time. If you have any questions regarding index-it.net you can visit their about us page and send them an email and I am sure that any questions you have will be answered in full. Thanks for reading and there are more reviews to come in the future so continue to stop by for the lastest updates in the directory market.

Webbieo Web Directory Taking Submissions Again.

2007-01-26T07:26:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to make an anouncement regarding www.webbieo.com. This directory has been on the book shelf for guite sometime now but the lastest pr update boosting the site to pr 5 I figure it derserves a shot at the directory market again. This directory does not have the best design or alot of categories,to be honest I made it for my girlfriend and she chose the design so I gotta stick with it for now. But I did tell her that if things start to look better with the submissions then we will need to redesign it as well as take some of the submission money and starting marketing more. I wanted to sell it because I really do not have alot of time to take care of it, but like I said lets see what happens with the submissions.

You can get listed in webbieo web directory for a one time fee of only $5 and if you want a featured listing then that will only cost a one time fee of only $15. There is also a sitewide listing available for directories only and there are two options to chose from, you can select the 3 month option for $50 or the 6 month option for $80 either one would provide some good backlinks to your website.

Webbieo Web Directory is owned by Online Marketing Advisors and is also connected with Index-it.net a powerful internet web directory that is starting to take off. So visit www.webbieo.com and get your sites listed today at a great price.

Directory Review: eBusiness-Directory.com

2007-01-24T10:17:00.000-08:00

Here is another directory that I have come across that is a great value and worth being listed in www.ebusiness-directory.com. The directory has some really good features and the design is also very nice. This site is also loaded with categories to chose from which always a plus for a directory.

Although I am not to fond of the adsense on the site it is not something that I think should hinder one from wanting to be listed in the directory. Let take a look at some of the stats for ebusiness-directory.com.

eBusiness-Directory.com Stats

Online Since: September 7, 2005
Page Rank: 5
Page Strength: 4.5
Google Backlinks: 960
Yahoo Backlinks: 29,496
MSN Backlinks: 7,417
Cost to get listed: $9.99 with other options to chose from.

Another good directory with great stats, a soild page rank and good backlinks along with a pretty good page strength makes this directory well worth the submission fee. For more information regarding ebusiness-directory please visit their website at www.ebusiness-directory.com and do not forget to get your site listed while you are there.

More directory reviews to come in the future. Thanks for reading.

Another Shift in Directory Contest Rankings

2007-01-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

Google has done another update to directorycontest.com rankings. Looks like for now that there is a new 3rd place leader directories.global-weblinks.com/blogs/detailpage.asp?site=9788 has taken this spot over. Man these guys are good, how long should I wait before I make my final move? As I said timing is everything and with a few sites following behind and getting links from the place do not make things easier, however I do think that copying someone elses links is a little tacky at the same time there is nothing I can do about it.

There are 13 days left in this directorycontest and the results are getting larger and larger and I'm sure it will hit the half million mark soon. Again lets see how things play out. Look for index-it.net to take the overall lead here soon.

Directory Contest Hits 400,000 Results.

2007-01-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

As we come closer to the end of the directory contest the results are now getting higher and higher. Results can be seen as high 431,000 on some data centers with the lowest at about 416,000. It is great that results are moving up but I have not seen any change in the sites ranking in the top 5, the only suffling going right now is between some of the other sites.

As things stand right now it looks like trincas.org has this contest in hand, but as most of us know the results could take a big shift in next few days. Would'nt it be funny if someone like dmoz jumped in the directory contest right at the end and just blew everybody away? Just think how many directory owners would be sick to the stomach if this was to happen. Well as some you know I am in this directory contest and am currently ranking #4 not bad I guess, but I know I could do alot better than this, my directorycontest.com page has alot of links pointing to it but I guess I will have to push a little harder.

Link Wars - Directories vs. Blogs.

2007-01-19T21:15:00.000-08:00

Looks like there is a bit of war going on right now between directories and blogs. While alot of people still look towards directories for links, more and more each day people are starting to turn to blogs as a way of gaining good quality links to their website. I think this is a great move for link builders, with out question I think that blogs do provide a somewhat higher quality of links, at the same time I am still a firm beliver that directory links provide this as well.

I guess the big question is which is better to have, a link from a directory or a link from a blog? Since both do help your site I would get links from both, the more links you have the better. Blogs do have an advantage because they provide you a link wraped around content which I am sure most will agree are the best kind of links to have. The reason is because the links look more natural. Does this mean that links from directories are no good? I'm not saying that, directory links also have there advantages. One advantage is that in most directories you can chose your own anchor text and you are likely to get on a page with good rankings and pr.

I think that there will be a pretty big boom for blog links, however I also think that directories will continue to be a dominate force when it comes to gaining links for your website. Lets wait and see what happens between these two in 2007. I will keep you upated as I come across more information.

Directory Contest: Update.

2007-01-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

Well the contest is heating up more and more everyday and for the most part it looks like it is going to be a tight race down the stretch. There still seems to be a confusing regarding the rules but it is good to see more directories take part and work a little harder to get to the top.

Here are the current leader right now.

1. www.trincas.org/detail/link-5.html
2. www.gii.in/detail/link-116.html
3. www.ewebpages.org/detail/link-2832.html
4. www.index-it.net/blogs/blogs41.html
5. www.romow.com/Web-Directories/
6. ask-dir.com/detail/link-516.html
7. www.web1directory.com/detail/link-25.html
8. linksarena.com/webmasters/
9. www.projectultra.com/Blogs/Personal/
10. www.hotbizdir.com/detail/link-452.html

Let see how things play out in the final weeks of this directory contest, will trincas.org be able to hold on to the #1 spot or will one of the other sites take the lead right at the end? We will have to wait and see. Either way good luck to all that has entered this directory contest and may the rankings be with them.

Directory Review: DirectoryDump.com

2007-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

Each week I will review a few directories and give my thoughts in regards to layout design, backlinks, pagerank and a few other things.

I have been checking out www.directorydump.com lately and I must say that the site is very well put together and is loaded with tons of features some which I have not seen on any other directory. The site has some really cool looking icons and there are alot of categories to get listed under. The yahoo stock market chart is a nice addition along with the lastest world news.

One thing that I noticed about the design is that a piece of the logo seems to be missing at the top of the page but that could just be on my end of things. I also noticed that the pages take a little while to load up, that is really not that big of an issue yet one worth noting. Other than that I think this is a really good directory and one that I do not see alot of people giving credit to, but the site gets my vote as being a true quality directory.

DirectoryDump.com Stats
Online Since: May 30, 2006
Page Rank: 0
Page Strength: 4
Google Backlinks: 9,050
Yahoo Backlinks: 71,360
MSN Backlinks: 17,995
Cost to get listed: Free

Gotta love those stats. The site has been online for less than a year and has already gotten a nice amount of backlinks pointing to the site, and although the page rank is 0 that is not a good reason for someone to not submit to this directory. The page strength is pretty nice as well, and hey the site is free to be listed in so you can't beat that. With the kind of google backlinks this directory has I would expect it to get a page rank of at least a high 6 or low 7 once google can figure out how to do a page rank update again.

So my hats are off the owner of this directory, if you have any questions regarding www.directorydump.com then you can contact them at http://www.directorydump.com/contact.php or if you are a member of Digital Point then you can contact an0n and I am sure he will be able to answer any questions that you may have regarding directorydump.com

Thanks for reading and there are more reviews to come.

Directory Supplemental Results

2006-12-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-12-14T22:40:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

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.