Jun 21 2008
Building links with Directories
Directory Link Building:
To begin marketing a website one of the best ways to start is by listing it within directories online. A great one to start with is Yahoo. For a low price of $299 you can get your business listed in a related catagory within the yahoo directory. The Botw.org is also a great place to get listed. Currently the price for getting listed in the botw directory runs $99 annually or a one time fee $249.95. Let’s not forget the DMOZ.
DMOZ is a little harder to get accepted into. There are no listing fees, your only accepted if you meet a list of requirements. Unfortunately not all these requirements are not really explained that well to site owners. To better your chances in getting included in this directory your site needs to impress the Dmoz editor reviewing it. You site must function well and be well formatted. Another thing that will help you get included is to provide all Company contact information where it can easily be found by visitors. I’ve noticed many sites that are listed in this directory have the company name, street address, phone, fax and email address posted right there in front on the home page of the website.
Now there have been some rumors about the Dmoz. Shoemoney.com claims an editor from the DMOZ blackmailed him for the sum of $5000. He claimed someone contacted him threatening his site would be removed from the directory if he chose not to pay the money. Of course he chose not to pay the cash and soon after his page was removed. Check out his story here.
I’d like to also include Joeant.com. For a low price of $39.99 you can get included in this directory. Most times when I’m looking into which directory I should place my site on, I’ll research what other companies placed trust in the directory. If you see a few websites on the directory ranking well on search engines, than adding your site to that directory is probably a good move. Google does frown on paid links and some directories so it’s a good idea to limit the number of directories you decide purchase placement on.
Last but not least I also recommend Business.com as a great place to be listed on. When getting listed on this directory you will see they care when it comes to who they include. The make sure there are two contact methods listed on your homepage. Usually an email and phone number will suffice. Since they do a personal review of the business website, I can only assume search engines see their directory as great resource with a directory of useful websites.
Building Links in General:
As great websites continue linking to your page, such as the directories mentioned above, the higher in the ranks your website will climb. In a way it’s a good idea to think of building links as a point system. A website closely relating to yours is worth 10 points. A good directory like yahoo.com or business.com can be worth 5 points. A link farm (page with over 50 unrelated links) can be seen to be worth -20 points. Now when your in the process of trying to build a link to your site from lets say “Page A“, take a minute and think, If you ran a search engine, would you give this “Page A” a positive or negative point value and why. Build links with great resources including pages within your niche and you will be rewarded.
