Using directory submissions to get links to your website and gain visibility will usually give you permanent links and advertisement for your site. The benefit of this is that with only a small effort you can submit to the directories and then just sit there and enjoy the quality links and higher search engine rankings you get for your site.
The problem is that the more well-known directories get thousands of applications to their sites. As such, they have rules and guidelines for your listing. These rules are put in place to ensure that the submission and review procedure can operate without extra work, as well as to help the editor select just the sites that are appropriate. And so the question is: How can I improve the chances that my listing gets accepted into the highest-traffic, top web directories?
One of the most common restrictions imposed by directories has to do with the size of your title, description keywords. Before you begin submitting anywhere, sit down and take down a few properly-formulated descriptions that are 100, 150, 200, and 250 characters long. One of those four levels can usually get accepted in any web directory you come across.
You may not be able to say everything about your site, so pick the most important points and go with that. After that’s done with, highest of the difficult work is out of the way. Now all you have to do is search for the length requirements, copy and paste your excerpt of that length, and you’re all set. The exact same process holds true for keywords, so prepare a few different options so that, when it’s time for the submission forms, it’s just a matter of picking the appropriate one.
If you waste time submitting to web directories with poorly categorized, spammy listings, you are going to get turned down. You’ve then wasted a lot of your effort and gotten absolutely nothing in exchange. An example of this would be that if you deal in widgets, when you submit your information you include the keyword ‘widgets’ in your description, title, and keywords as many times as you can. typically readability takes a backseat as the focus becomes cramming the keywords in as many times as possible. Review editors detest this and it’s a really easy rejection. Do not spam your directory listings. That can’t be more plainly stated, yet for whatever reason, people still do it.
Web directories are sorted by topic and editors commonly take great pride in ensuring that everything stays well categorized. Every directory should advise you this as it makes their job easier when it comes time to review your link. So, put yourself in their shoes and do them a favor, because ultimately it’s you and your website that are going to gain when you are accepted.
A tiny extra bit of effort on your side to properly submit your site can vastly improve your likelihood of getting approved. Think about it: If you’re the editor and you want to approve a site, you probably only need to click one button. But, if the webmaster chose the wrong category, then you have to edit his application to modify the selection (and now find the proper category), which takes extra time. If you are the editor sitting down with thousands of applications to read, it’s far easier to click the ‘delete’ button than it is to deal with fumbling through categories.
Selecting the proper category should be stressed because it not only makes the directory editor’s job a lot easier therefore speeding up your acceptance, but also the search engines will look at the various links that are next to you on the page you are listed on and if they are of a related theme to your own this can improve your rankings.
It’s usually not that hard to adhere to the regulations of a web directory with very little extra work. Most of the editors are looking for the same things, so the formalities from directory to directory tend to be pretty similar.