SEO

Directory Submissions - Classic Link Building

August 1, 2008 By: Justin | 9 Comments

I’m going to start off our link building discussion with an old school method, because I think it represents what it takes to do well in SEO. That is: no gimmicks, no tricks, just work. (of course, we’ll get into sneaky methods, but I there is not some great secret I’m holding on to)

You see people discounting directory submissions all the time. They get written off as low quality spam links, so many internet marketers simply ignore them or only submit to the very top directories. Of course, many directories lack the authority sites like DMOZ carry or paid directories like Yahoo, but success can be found in directory submissions. These types of links are not sufficient to dominate highly competitive terms, but help you gain one way anchored links to your small niche blogs that target long tail phrases.

Important point: Do not allow people to tell you what does and doesn’t work. Test it on your niches and see what result you get. So many make money bloggers rant about their view of SEO, but never test to see how it works. In my experience, I’ve had success with directories.

Evaluating Directories

You should evaluate directories for the link value they provide. There are various factors that can come into play here, but basically you want to get the best directories possible. Factors to consider may be: homepage pagerank, pagerank of sub pages, depth of your listing, number of indexed pages, and if it is being used as a link farm for many spam-ish niche sites. With bad directories, you’ll notice that only a few pages have PR and the PageRank does not spread well across the site. This may result in many of the listing pages not getting indexed. You may also notice several footer links out to gambling, porn, and prescription sites. This places this site in a bad neighborhood.

One thing I hate seeing is people referring to a link by the PR of the homepage. Yes, evaluating the homepage PR is a factor in determining the directory’s quality, but you are not getting a link from the home page. I see people talk about directories and say stuff like “it’s a free/easy PR 6 link”. No it is not. It is likely a PR 0 link! PR is assigned per PAGE. The power of the link will be based on the PR of the linking page, not the home page.

Directory Submission Best Practices

First lets make this clear. The purpose of directory submissions is to gain keyword anchored links, not to generate traffic via clicks. Our focus is getting anchored links. There is a very small chance you will get click traffic from these links, unless it is one of the huge popular directories.
The biggest key to success is varying your submission information. Most important, vary your anchor text. It is good to vary your description and keywords, but it is a must that you vary your anchor text, which will make the links look more natural. This is simple to do. For example, here are a few variations I might use (notice how they all include my keyword)

  • Nashville SEO
  • Nashville SEO Zombie
  • SEO Zombie
  • SEO
  • SEO Blog
  • Learn SEO
  • SEO Lessons
  • SEO Guide
  • Wordpress SEO
  • SEO Design
  • SEO Consultant
  • SEO Consulting
  • SEO Services
  • SEO Tips

It is important to have variation in all your link building methods. The more natural it appears, the more success you will have. You do not want to get flagged for Google boming.

One last time: VARY YOUR ANCHOR TEXT

Do Directory Submission Work?

Yes. Of course, these are not the best links, but they should be one part of your link building. I’m a huge supporter of diversity. You need to get links from as many different places as possible. Submissions can be a time consuming task and very boring, but nobody said this wouldn’t be work.
Directory submission can really help you increase the number of anchored links to your site, which will solidify your rankings with your long tail niche sites.

How To Find Directories?

I’m not going to give you a list of the best directories, because honestly I don’t want to keep up with maintaining a list. There are several people on the internet that do this already. Below are two free lists that include directories that can be used to gain links from.
There are also two paid / semi paid options I can suggest. I’m not pushing products here, but these are tools and resources I have used. The first is Directory Submitter. I will be 100% honest. I don’t try to cheat you guys here. I have never purchased the paid version, so I cannot give a first hand review of the paid version. I have however used the free version. It does have a nice set of directories you can submit to and it semi automates the process by auto filling in the forms. I do use the free tool, but use it In combination with other directory lists. If you’re promoting a legit site, you might consider getting an SEOMoz Premium membership. They have a nice list of high authority unconventional directories. I am a PRO member at SEO Moz, so I am just sharing my experience. Not trying to push it, but it is worth checking out.

Free Directory Lists

Conclusion

Directory Submissions are boring and tiring work. They are not the best links either. They are one way anchored links from new link sources though. If you’re not seeing the success you’d like, consider submitting to directories. I know you might have expected more from me for my first “link building” post, but I thought this was a great way to start. The truth about link building is that there is no magic secret. It’s just creativity and hard work. Get out there and get your site some anchored links.

Filed Under Link Building

What Would You Like?

July 30, 2008 By: Justin | 13 Comments

Alright guys. So there are some really nice SEO tools on the market, including some really nice Firefox Addons and Wordpress plugins.

Is there anything you would LOVE to see? Doesn’t have to be huge, but any improvement to these tools or a small tool you wish you had? I’m not making any promises, but we’re looking into the idea of developing some free tools for people. I have an awesome programmer friend who may be helping us out around here a little. We don’t have the resources (yet) to do large scale scrapping and automation with multiple IP’s, but stuff small tools, firefox addons, and wordpress plugins are fair game.

We’ve been brain storming, but thought… fuck it… why waste time guessing what you want, when I can just ask you? What would you like?

And sorry for the lack of updates this week. I’ve been busy working on some idea for SEO Zombie and a few other big projects. I hope to roll them out on here. I just have to see how they all work out. I will try to post tomorrow. Targeting “SEO”, means I need to bring out the big guns.

And while I’m asking questions. Any topics you want me to talk about? I plan to move into link building soon, but if you need help with something, let me know.

=)
Justin
SEO Zombie

Filed Under SEO

Zombie Sniper SEO Wordpress Theme

July 27, 2008 By: Justin | 19 Comments

Releasing a new theme. It is inspired by the Transblack theme, which Vic suggests for usage on an Adsense niche blog. It is meant to generate high CTR. I took the theme and optimized it for search engines. This theme is designed to target a specific keyword.

Changes

  • Applied “Keyword Sniping” features to the theme
  • Auto generated H1
  • One right sidebar, that appears below the content
  • Nofollow on “home” link on menu
  • Only 1 H1 tag
  • H2 tag on post titles
  • H3 tags on sidebar and comments
  • Site name anchored link in footer
  • Valid code

Also made changes to the graphics to account for the side bar changes.

Preview

Set up

This theme is designed to target a specific keyword. This works just like the keyword sniper theme, but I made it easier to insert your keyword. Instead of inserting your keyword directly into the theme, you need to insert your main keyword into the site description field. (Settings>General>Tagline). I can make a video showing you how to do this, if you need help.

Recommended Ad Settings

This theme is designed for increasing your CTR by making links stick out and ads blending in. Here are the recommended settings for your ads.

Adsense or Yahoo
300×250

  • Border #212121
  • Title #a2dc02
  • Background #212121
  • Text #909090
  • URL #909090

Download Zombie Sniper Version 1.0

Downloaded a total of 45 times

I’ve tested the site a little and I haven’t seen any problems. The code is valid, so it “should” work fine. If you find any problems, let me know and I’ll correct them.

Filed Under SEO Wordpress Themes

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