Which Is Best? Absolute Or Relative URLS?

This is another one of those areas in SEO or website development that you
shouldn’t be concerned about. My advice would be to keep it consistent.
I prefer absolute urls. That’s just a preference. Google doesn’t care so neither
do I, really. I have just gotten into the habit of using absolute urls.
Relative just means relative to the document the link is on. Move that page to
another site and it won’t work. With an absolute URL, it would work.

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Keywords In Bold Or Italic

As I mentioned in the ALT Tag seo tip, some seo proclaim putting your
keywords in bold or putting your keywords in italics is a benefit in terms of
search engine optimizing a page – as if they are working their way through a
check list.
It’s impossible to test this, and I think these days, Google might be using this
to identify what to derank a site for, not promote it in SERPS.
I use bold or italics these days specifically for users. Only if it’s natural or this
is really what I want to emphasise!
Don’t tell Google what to sandbox you for that easily!

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Search Engine Friendly URLs (SEF)

Clean URLS (or search engine friendly urls) are just that – easy to read,
simple. You do not need clean urls in a site architecture for Google to
spider a site successfully (Update 23/9/08 – apparently confirmed by
Google), although I do use clean urls as a default these days, and have done
so for years.
The thinking is that you might get a boost in Google SERPS if your URLS are
clean – because you are using keywords in the actual page name instead of a
parameter or ID number. Google might reward the page some sort of
relevance because of the actual file / page name.
Google does reward pages with keywords in the url, and they can also form
part of a link to your site if shared in a forum, for instance.
Sometimes I will remove the stop-words from a url and leave the important
keywords as the page title because a lot of forums garble a url to shorten it.
It should be remembered it is thought although Googlebot can crawl sites with
dynamic URLs, it is assumed by many webmasters there is a greater risk that
it will give up if the urls are deemed not important and contain multiple
variables and session IDs (theory).
As standard, I use clean URLS where possible on new sites these days, and
try to keep the URLS as simple as possible and do not obsess about it. That’s
my aim at all times when I seo – simplicity.
Be aware though – Google does look at keywords in the URL even in a
granular level.

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What is Alt Tags?

NOTE: Alt Tags are counted by Google (and Bing), but I would be
careful over-optimizing them. I’ve seen a lot of websites penalized for over-optimising invisible elements on a page.
ALT tags are very important and I think a very rewarding area to get right. I
always put the main keyword in an ALT once when addressing a page.
Don’t optimise your ALT tags (or rather, attributes) JUST for Google!
Use ALT tags (or rather, ALT Attributes) for descriptive text that helps visitors
– and keep them unique where possible, like you do with your titles and meta
descriptions.
Don’t obsess. Don’t optimise your ALT tags just for Google – do it for humans,
for accessibility and usability. If you are interested, I ran a simple test using
ALT attributes to determine how many words I could use in IMAGE ALT text
that Google would pick up.
And remember – even if, like me most days, you can’t be bothered with all the
image ALT tags on your page, at least use a blank ALT (or NULL value) so
people with screen readers can enjoy your page.
Update 17/11/08 – Picked This Up At SERoundtable about Alt Tags:
JohnMu from Google: alt attribute should be used to describe the image. So
if you have an image of a big blue pineapple chair you should use the alt tag
that best describes it, which is alt=”big blue pineapple chair.” title
attribute should be used when the image is a hyperlink to a specific page.
The title attribute should contain information about what will happen when you
click on the image. For example, if the image will get larger, it should read
something like, title=”View a larger version of the big blue pineapple chair
image.”
Barry continues with a quote:
As the Googlebot does not see the images directly, we generally concentrate
on the information provided in the “alt” attribute. Feel free to supplement the
“alt” attribute with “title” and other attributes if they provide value to your users!
So for example, if you have an image of a puppy (these seem popular at the
moment) playing with a ball, you could use something like “My puppy Betsy
playing with a bowling ball” as the alt-attribute for the image. If you also have a
link around the image, pointing a large version of the same photo, you could
use “View this image in high-resolution” as the title attribute for the link.

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Redirect Non WWW To WWW

Simply put, http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/ can be treated by Google as a
different url than http://hobo-web.co.uk/ even though it’s the same page, and it
can get even more complicated.
It’s thought PageRank and Google Juice can be diluted if Google gets
confused about your URLS and speaking simply you don’t want this PR
diluted (in seo theory).
That’s why many, including myself, redirect non-www to www (or vice versa) if
the site is on a linux / apache server (in the htaccess file –
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^hobo-web.co.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/$1 [L,R=301]
Basically you are redirecting all the Google juice to one url.
Do you need to do this? Of course not. As standard these days, I
do however. It keeps it simple, when optimising for Google.
It should be noted, it’s incredibly important not to mix the two types of
www/non-www on site when linking your own internal pages!
Google can handle most sites no problem even without this measure being
taken, and it’s certainly no magic bullet implementing this canonicalization fix.
Note Google asks you which canonical version one to pick in Google
Webmaster Tools.

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Link Out To Related Sites

I am old school. I regularly link out to other quality relevant pages on other
websites where possible and where a human would find it valuable.
I don’t link out to other sites from homepage. I want all the PR residing in
the home page to be shared only with my internal pages. I don’t link out to
other sites from my category pages either, for the same reason.
I link to other relevant sites (a deep link where possible) from individual
pages and I do it often, usually. I don’t worry about link equity or PR
leak because I control it on a page to page level.
This works for me, it allows me to share the link equity I have with other sites
while ensuring it is not at the expense of pages on my own domain. It may
even help get me into a ‘neighbourhood’ of relevant sites, especially when
some of those start linking back to my site.
Linking out to other sites, especially using a blog also helps tell others that
might be interested in your content that your page is ‘here’. Try it.
Generally I won’t link out to sites using the exact keyword /phrase I am
targeting, but I will be considerate, and usually try and link out to a site using
keywords these bloggers / site owners would appreciate.

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Internal Links To Relevant Pages

I silo any relevance or trust mainly though links in text content and secondary
menu systems and between pages that are relevant in context to one another.
I don’t worry about perfect silo’ing techniques any more, and don’t worry about
whether or not I should link to one category from another, as I think the ‘boost’
many proclaim is minimal on the size of sites I manage.
Sometimes I will ensure 10 pages link to 1 page in a theme, and not
reciprocate this link. Other times, I will. It depends on the PR google juice I
have to play with and again, if it feels right in the circumstance to do so, or the
size of the site and how deep I am in the structure.
There’s no set method I find works for every site, other than to link to related
internal pages often and where appropriate – it’s where I find some
creativity.
Be careful overdoing internal linking.

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What is Keyword Density?

The short answer to this is – no. There is no one-size-fits-all keyword density,
no optimal percentage. I do not subscribe to the idea that there are a certain
percentage of keywords per 1000 words of text to get a page to number 1 in
Google. Search engines are not that easy although the key to success in
many fields is simple seo.
I write natural page copy where possible always focused on the keyterms – I
never calculate density in order to identify the best % – there are way too
many other things to work on. Hey, I have looked, a long time ago. If it looks
natural, it’s ok with me. Normally I will try and get related terms in the page,
and if I have 5 paragraphs, I might have the keyword in 4 or 5 of those as long
as it doesn’t look like I stuffed them in there.
I think optimal keyword density is a bit of a myth these days, although there
are many who disagree.

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Google SEO: How Many Words & Keywords?

I get asked this all the time –
How much text do you put on a page to rank for a certain keyword?
Well, as in so much of SEO theory and strategy, there is no optimal amount
of text per page.
Instead of thinking about the quantity of the text, you should think more about
the quality of the content on the page. Optimise this with searcher intent in
mind. Well, that’s how I do it.
I don’t subscribe that you need a minimum amount of words or text to rank in
Google. I have seen pages with 50 words out rank pages with 100, 250, 500
or 1000 words. Then again I have seen pages with no text rank on nothing but
inbound links or other ‘strategy’. In 2012, Google is a lot better at hiding away
those pages, though.
At the moment, I prefer long pages and a lot of text, still focused on a few
related keywords and keyphrases to a page. Useful for long tail keyphrases
and easier to explore related terms.
Every site is different. Some pages, for example, can get away with 50 words
because of a good link profile and the domain it is hosted on. For me, the
important thing is to make a page relevant to a user’s search query.
I don’t care how many words I achieve this with and often I need to
experiment on a site I am unfamiliar with. After a while, you get an idea how
much text you need to use to get a page on a certain domain into Google.
One thing to note – the more text you add to the page, as long as it is unique,
keyword rich and relevant, the more that page will be rewarded with more
visitors from Google.
There is no optimal number of words on a page for placement in Google.
Every website – every page – is different from what I can see. Don’t worry too
much about word count if your content is original and informative. Google will
probably reward you on some level – at some point – if there is lots of unique
text on all your pages.
  Character Counter Tool 

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H1-H6: Headers

I can’t find any definitive proof online that says you need to use Heading Tags
(H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6) or that they improve rankings in Google, and I have
seen pages do well in Google without them – but I do use them, especially the
H1 tag on the page. For me it’s another piece of a perfect page, in the
traditional sense, and I try to build a site for Google and humans.
<h1>The Hobo SEO Company, Scotland</h1>
I still generally only use one <h1> heading tag in my keyword targeted
pages – I believe this is the way the W3C intended it be used – and ensure
they appear at the top of a page and written with my main keywords or
keyword phrases incorporated. I have never experienced any problems using
CSS to control the appearance of the heading tags making them larger or
smaller.
I use as many H2 – H6 as is necessary depending on the size of the page, but
generally I use H1, H2 & H3. You can see here how to use header tags
properly.
How many words in the H1 Tag? As many as I think is sensible – as short and
snappy as possible usually. Aaron Wall at SEOBook recommends not making
your h1 tags the exact same as your page titles, although I personally have
never seen a problem with this on a quality site. I also discovered Google will
use your Header tags as page titles at some level if your title element is
malformed.
As always be sure to make your heading tags highly relevant to the content on
that page and not too spammy, either.

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Google SEO: Robots Meta Tag

OK – So I’ve theorised about the Title Element, the Meta Description Tag and
the pointless Meta Keywords Tag. Next:
The Robots Meta Tag;
<meta name="robots" content="index, nofollow" />
I could use the above meta tag to tell Google to index the page but not
to follow any links on the page, if for some reason; I did not want the page to
appear in Google search results.
By default, Googlebot will index a page and follow links to it. So there’s no
need to tag pages with content values of INDEX or FOLLOW. GOOGLE
There are various instructions you can make use of in your Robots Meta Tag,
but remember Google by default WILL index and follow links, so you have NO
need to include that as a command – you can leave the robots meta out
completely – and probably should if you don’t have a clue.
Googlebot understands any combination of lowercase and
uppercase. GOOGLE.
Valid values for Robots Meta Tag ”CONTENT” attribute are: “INDEX“, “NOINDEX“,
“FOLLOW“, “NOFOLLOW“. Pretty self-explanatory.
Examples:
  META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, FOLLOW”
  META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”INDEX, NOFOLLOW”
  META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”
  META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOARCHIVE”
  META NAME=”GOOGLEBOT” CONTENT=”NOSNIPPET”
  Google will understand the following and interprets the following robots
meta tag values:
  NOINDEX - prevents the page from being included in the index.
  NOFOLLOW - prevents Googlebot from following any links on the page. (Note
that this is different from the link-level NOFOLLOW attribute, which prevents
Googlebot from following an individual link.)
  NOARCHIVE - prevents a cached copy of this page from being available in the
search results.
  NOSNIPPET - prevents a description from appearing below the page in the
search results, as well as prevents caching of the page.
  NOODP - blocks the Open Directory Project description of the page from being
used in the description that appears below the page in the search results.
  NONE - equivalent to “NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”.

Robots META Tag Quick Reference

Terms  Googlebot  Slurp  MSNBot  Teoma
NoIndex  YES  YES  YES  YES
NoFollow  YES  YES  YES  YES
NoArchive  YES  YES  YES  YES
NoSnippet  YES  NO  NO  NO
NoODP  YES  YES  YES  NO
NoYDIR  NO  YES  NO  NO
NoImageIndex  YES  NO  NO  NO
NoTranslate  YES  NO  NO  NO
Unavailable_After  YES  NO  NO  NO
I’ve included the robots meta tag in my tutorial as this is one of only a few
meta tags / html head elements I focus on when it comes to Google (and
Bing) seo. At a page level – it is quite powerful.
1.  Title Element – Important – Unique
2.  Meta Description (optional but advisable in most cases) – Unique
3.  Robots Meta Tag (optional) – Be Careful
4.  Canonical Meta Tag (optional – recommended) – Be Vigilant
If you are interested in using methods like on-page robots instructions and the
robots.txt file to control which pages get indexed by Google and how Google
treats them, Sebastian knows a lot more than me

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Meta Description

Like the title element and unlike the meta keywords tag, this one is important,
both from a human and search engine perspective.
<meta name="Description" content="Get your site on the first page of Google,
Yahoo and Bing too, using simple seo. Call us on 0845 094 0839. A company
based in Scotland." />
Forget whether or not to put your keyword in it, make it relevant to a searcher
and write it for humans, not search engines. If you want to have this 20 word
snippet which accurately describes the page you have optimised for one or
two keyword phrases when people use Google to search, make sure the
keyword is in there.
I must say, I normally do include the keyword in the description as this usually
gets it in your serp snippet, but I think it would be a fair guess to think more
trusted sites would benefit more from any boost a keyword in the meta
description tag might have, than an untrusted site would.
Google looks at the description but there is debate whether it actually uses the
description tag to rank sites. I think they might at some level, but again, a very
weak signal. I certainly don’t know of an example that clearly shows a meta
description helping a page rank.
Sometimes, I will ask a question with my titles, and answer it in the
description, sometimes I will just give a hint;
It’s also very important in my opinion to have unique title tags and unique
meta descriptions on every page on your site. It’s a preference of mine, but I
don’t generally autogenerate descriptions with my cms of choice either –
normally I’ll elect to remove the tag entirely before I do this, and my pages still
do well (and Google generally pulls a decent snippet out on its own which you
can then go back and optimise for serps. There are times when I do
autogenerate descriptions and that’s when I can still make them unique to the
page using some sort of server-side php.
Tin Foil Hat Time
Sometimes I think if your titles are spammy, your keywords are spammy, and
your meta description is spammy, Google might stop right there – even they
probably will want to save bandwidth at some time. Putting a keyword in the
description won’t take a crap site to number 1 or raise you 50 spots in a
competitive niche – so why optimise for a search engine when you can
optimise for a human? – I think that is much more valuable, especially if you
are in the mix already – that is – on page one for your keyword.
So, the meta description tag is important in Google, Yahoo and Bing and
every other engine listing – very important to get it right. Make it for humans.
Oh and by the way – Google seems to truncate anything over @156
characters in the meta description, although this may actually be limited by
pixel width in 2013.

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Meta Keywords Best Practice

A Bastian of crap and unethical search engine optimisation companies – the
meta-keywords tag. How many crap seo companies mention cleaning and
optimising this tag in their presentations? Companies that waste time on these
waste clients’ money.
<meta name="Keywords" content="seo, search engine optimisation,
optimization">
I have one piece of advice with the meta keyword tag, which like the title tag,
goes in the head section of your web page, forget about them.
If you are relying on meta-keyword optimisation to rank for terms, you’re dead
in the water. From what I see, Google + Bing ignores meta keywords - or at
least places no weight in them to rank pages. Yahoo may read them, but
really, a seo has more important things to worry about than this nonsense.
What about other search engines that use them? Hang on while I submit my
site to those 75,000 engines first [sarcasm!]. Yes, 10 years ago search
engines liked looking at your meta-keywords. I’ve seen OPs in forums ponder
which is the best way to write these tags – with commas, with spaces, limiting
to how many characters. Forget about meta-keyword tags – they are a
pointless waste of time and bandwidth. Could probably save a rain-forest with
the bandwidth costs we save if everybody removed their keyword tags?
Tin Foil Hat Time
So you have a new site….. you fill your home page meta tags with the 20
keywords you want to rank for – hey, that’s what optimisation is all about, isn’t
it? You’ve just told Google by the third line of text what to sandbox you for and
wasn’t meta name=”Keywords” originally for words that weren’t actually on the
page that would help classify the document? Sometimes competitors might
use the information in your keywords to determine what you are trying to rank
for, too….
If everybody removed them and stopped abusing meta keywords Google
would probably start looking at them but that’s the way of things in search
engines. I Ignore them. Not even a ‘second order’ effect, in my opinion.

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Page Title Tag Best Practice

<title>What Is The Best Title Tag For Google?</title>
The page title tag (or HTML Title Element) is arguably the most important on
page seo factor. Keywords in page titles can HELP your pages rank higher in
Google results pages (SERPS). The page title is also often used by Google as
the title of a search snippet link in search engine results pages.
For me, a perfect title tag in Google is dependent on a number of factors;
1.  The page title is highly relevant to the page it refers to; it will probably be
displayed in a web browsers window title bar, and the clickable search snippet
link in Google, Bing & other search engines. The title is the “crown” of a keyword
targeted article with most important keyword phrase featuring AT LEAST ONCE,
as all search engines place a lot of weight in what words are contained within this
html element.
2.  Google displays as many characters as it can fit into “a block element
that’s 512px wide and doesn’t exceed 1 line of text”. So – THERE IS NO
AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS any seo can lay down as exact best
practice to GUARANTEE your title will display, in full in Google, at
least. Ultimately – only the characters and words you use will determine if
your entire page title will be seen in a Google search snippet. Google used
to count 70 characters in a title – but not in 2012. If you want to ENSURE your full
title tag shows in Google SERPS, stick to about 65 characters. I have seen ‘up -to’
69 characters in 2012 – but as I said – it depends on the characters you use.
3.  Google will INDEX perhaps 1000s of characters in a title… but no-one knows
exactly how many characters or words Google will actually count AS a TITLE
when determining relevance for ranking purposes. It is a very hard thing to try to
isolate accurately. I have had ranking success with longer titles – much
longer titles – Google certainly reads ALL the words in your page title (unless you
are spamming it silly, of course).
4.  You can probably fit up to 12 words that will be counted as part of a page title,
and consider using your important keywords in the first 8 words.
5.  Some page titles do better with a call to action – one which reflects exactly a
searcher’s intent (e.g. to learn something, or buy something, or hire something.
Remember this is your hook in search engines, if Google chooses to use your
page title in its search snippet, and there is now a lot of competing pages out
there!
6.  When optimising a title, you are looking to rank for as many terms as
possible, without keyword stuffing your title. Often, the best bet is to optimise for
a particular phrase (or phrases) – and take a more long-tail approach. Yes – that
does mean more pages on your site – that’s the reality in 2012. Content. Content.
Content.
7.  The perfect title tag on a page is unique to other pages on the site. In light of
Google Panda, an algorithm that looks for a ‘quality’ in sites, you REALLY need
to make your page titles UNIQUE, and minimise any duplication, especially on
larger sites.
8.  I like to make sure my keywords feature as early as possible in a title tag but the
important thing is to have important keywords and key phrases in your page title
tag SOMEWHERE.
9.  For me, when SEO is more important than branding, the company name goes at
the end of the tag, and I use a variety of dividers to  separate as no one way
performs best. If you have a recognisable brand – then there is an argument for
putting this at the front of titles.
10.  I like to think I write titles for search engines AND humans.
11.  Know that Google tweaks everything regularly – why not what the perfect title
keys off? So MIX it up…
12.  Don’t obsess! Natural is probably better, and will only get better as engines
evolve. As I said – these days – I optimise for key-phrases, rather than just
keywords.
13.  Generally speaking, the more domain trust/authority your SITE has in Google, the
easier it is for a new page to rank for something. So bear that in mind. There is
only so much you can do with your page titles – your websites rankings in Google
are a LOT more to do with OFFSITE factors than ONSITE ones.
14.  Also bear in mind, in 2012, the html title element you choose for your page, may
not be what Google chooses to include in your SERP snippet. The search snippet
title and description is very much QUERY dependant these days. Google often
chooses what it thinks is the most relevant title for your search snippet, and it
can use information from your page, or in links to that page, to create a
very different SERP snippet title.
15.  Click through rate is something that is likely measured by Google when ranking
pages (Bing say they use it too, and they now power Yahoo), so it is really worth
considering whether you are best optimising your page titles for click-through rate
or optimising for more search engine rankings.
16.  Google has been recorded recently discussing an ‘over-optimisation’ penalty. I
would imagine keyword stuffing your page titles could be one area they look at.
17.  Remember….think ‘keyword phrase‘ rather than ‘keyword‘, ‘keyword‘
,’keyword‘… but think UNIQUE keywords when dealing with single pages. That is
– how many single unique keywords can you include on the page relevant to your
main keyword phrase you are optimising for.

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What is Keyword Research? How to use Keywords?

The first step in any seo campaign is to do some keyword research. There are
many tools on the web to help with basic keyword research (including the
free Google Keyword Research Tool and SEMRUSH). You can use these
tools to quickly identify opportunities to get more traffic:
Example Keyword                    Search Volume
seo tutorial for beginners              1900

seo tutorials                                 1600

seo tutorial pdf                             1000
how to seo a website                      880
seo tutorial step by step                720
how to seo your website                720
google seo tutorial                        320
best seo tutorial for novices           260
free seo tutorial                             210
free seo tutorials                           210
on page seo tutorial                       170
seo tutorials for beginners              170
all in one seo tutorial                     170
seo tutorial video                         140
how to seo website                      140
seo tutorial in urdu                         110
how to seo my website                  110
seo tutorial download                    91
joomla seo tutorial                         91
online seo tutorial                           91
seo tutorial in bangla                      91
seo tutorial free                             73
optimizare seo tutorial                    73
best seo tutorial                             58
basic seo tutorial                           58
bing seo tutorial                             58
step by step seo tutorial                46
beginners seo tutorial course        46
seo tutorial google                       46

Getting a site to the top of Google eventually comes down to your text content
on a page and external & internal link profile. Altogether, Google uses this
analysis to determine whether your no1 in Google or number 32, or de-indexed. There’s no magic bullet.
At any one time, your site is under some sort of filters designed to keep spam
sites out and deliver relevant results to human visitors. One filter may be
kicking in keeping a page down in the serps, while another filter is pushing
another page up. You might have poor content but excellent incoming links, or
vice versa.
Try and identify the reasons Google doesn’t link a particular page.
  Too few quality incoming links?
  Too many incoming links?
  No keyword rich text?
  Linking out to irrelevant sites?
  Too many ads?
  Affiliate links on every page of your site, found on a thousand other
websites?
Whatever, identify issues and fix them. Get on the wrong side of Google and
your site might well be MANUALLY reviewed – so seo your site as if, one day,
you will be getting that review.
The key to successful seo, I think, is persuading Google that your page is
most relevant to any given search query. You do this by good unique keyword
rich text content and getting “quality” links to that page. Next time your
developing a page, consider what looks spammy to you is probably spammy
to Google. Ask yourself which pages on your site are really necessary. Which
links are necessary? Which pages are getting the “juice” or “heat“. Which
pages would you ignore?
You can help a site along in any number of ways (including making sure your
page titles and meta tags are unique) but be careful. Obvious evidence of
‘rank modifying’ is dangerous.
I prefer simple seo techniques, and ones that can be measured in some way. I
don’t want to just rank for competitive terms, I want to understand the
reason why I rank for these terms; At Hobo we try to build sites for humans
AND search engines. Make a site relevant to both for success in organic
listings and you might not ever need to get into the techy side of SEO like
redirects and URL rewriting. Of course, to beat the competition in an industry
where it’s difficult to attract quality links, you have to get more “technical”
sometimes.
There are no hard and fast rules to long term seo success, other than
developing quality websites with quality content and quality links pointing to it.
You need to mix it up and learn from experience. Remember there are
exceptions to nearly every rule, and you probably have little chance
determining exactly why you rank in search engines. I’ve been doing it for over
10 years and everyday I’m trying to better understand Google, to learn more
and learn from others’ experiences. It’s important not to obsess about the
minute seo specifics unless you really have the time to do so!
THERE IS USUALLY SOMETHING MORE VALUABLE TO SPEND THAT
TIME ON.
There are some things that are apparent though.
  Don’t build a site in Flash
  Don’t build a site with Website Frames
  Don’t go mad generating thousands of back links
  Don’t hide lots of text from visitors but show to Google
  KISS – Keep it simple, stupid.

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What is SEO Basics?

If you are just starting out in seo, don’t think you can fool Google about  everything all
the time. Google has probably seen your tactics before. So, it’s best to keep it simple.
GET RELEVANT. GET REPUTABLE. If you are just starting out – you may as well
learn how to do it within Google’s Webmaster Guidelines first.
Don’t expect stellar results without a lot of work, and don’t expect them too fast.
Expecting too much too fast might get you in trouble.
1.  You don’t pay anything to get into Google, Yahoo or Bing natural or free listings
(SERPS). It’s common for the major search engines to find your website pretty
easily by themselves within a few days. This is made so much easier if your
website actually ‘pings’ search engines when you update content (via XML
sitemaps for instance).
2.  To stay in Google and other search engines, you really should consider and
largely abide by search engine rules and guidelines for inclusion. With
experience, and a lot of observation, you can learn which rules can be bent, and
which tactics are short term and perhaps, should be avoided.
3.  Google ranks websites by the number and quality of incoming links to a site from
other websites (amongst hundreds of other metrics). Generally speaking, a link
from a page to another page is viewed in Google “eyes” as a vote for that page
the link points to. The more votes a page gets, the more trusted a page can
become, and the higher Google will rank it – in theory. Rankings are HUGELY
affected by how much Google ultimately trusts the DOMAIN the page is on.
4.  I’ve always thought if you are serious about ranking – do so with ORIGINAL
COPY. It’s clear – search engines reward good content it hasn’t found before. It
indexes it blisteringly fast, for a start. So – make sure each of your pages has
content you have written specifically for that page – and you won’t need to jump
through hoops to get it ranking.
5.  If you have original quality content on a site, you a lso have a chance of
generating inbound quality links (IBL). If your content is found on other websites,
you will find it hard to get links, and it probably will not rank very well as Google
favours diversity in its results. If you have decent original content on your site,
you can let authority websites, those with online business authority, know about
it, and they might link to you – this is called a quality backlink.
6.  Search engines need to understand a link is a link. Links can be designed to be
ignored by search engines (the attribute nofollow effectively cancels out a link, for
instance)
7.  Search engines can also find your site by other web sites linking to it. You can
also submit your site to search engines direct, but I haven’t submitted my site to a
search engine in the last 10 years – you probably don’t need to do that.
8.  Google spiders a link to your home page, finds your site, and crawls and indexes
the home page of your site, and will come back to spider the rest of your we bsite
if all your pages are linked together (in almost any way).
9.  Many think Google will not allow new websites to rank well for competitive terms
until the web address “ages” and acquires “trust” in Google – I think this depends
on the quality of the incoming links. Sometimes your site will rank high for a while
then disappear for months. This is called the “honeymoon period”.
10.  Google WILL classify your site when it crawls and indexes your site – and
this classification can have a DRASTIC effect on your rankings – it’s important for
Google to work out WHAT YOUR ULTIMATE INTENT IS – do you want to
classified as an affiliate site made ‘just for Google’, a domain holding page, or a
small business website with a real purpose? Ensure you don’t confuse Google by
being explicit with all the signals you can – to show on your website you are a
real business, and your INTENT is genuine. NOTE – If a page exists only to
make money from Google’s free traffic – Google calls this spam.
11.  To rank for specific keyword searches, you generally need to have the words on
your page (not necessarily altogether, but it helps) – ultimately it is
all dependent on the competition for the term you are targeting) or in links
pointing to your page/site.
12.  As a result of other quality sites linking to your site, the site now has a certain
amount of PageRank that is shared with all the internal pages that make up your
website that will in future help determine where this page ranks.
13.  Yes, you need to build links to your site to acquire more Google Juice. Google is
a links based search engine – it does not quite understand ‘good’ content – but it
does understand ‘popular’ content.
14.  When you have Google Juice or Heat, try and spread it throughout your site by
ensuring all your pages are linked together
15.  I think your external links to other sites should probably be on your single pages,
the pages receiving all your Google Juice once it’s been “soaked up” by the
higher pages in your site (the home page, your category pages).It’s not JUST a
numbers game, though. One link from a “trusted authority” site in Google could
be all you need. Of course, the more “trusted” links you build, the more trust
Google will have in your site. It’s pretty clear that you need MULTIPLE trusted
links from MULTIPLE trusted websites to get the most from Google.
16.  Try and get links within page text pointing to your site with keywords in it – not,
for instance, in blogrolls or sitewide links. Try to ensure the links are not obviously
“machine generated” i.e. site-wide links on forums or directories. Get links from
pages that in turn, have a lot of links to them.
17.  Internally, consider linking to your other pages by linking to them within text – I
usually only do this when it is relevant – and recently, I’ll link to relevant pages
when the keyword is in the title elements of both pages. I don’t really go in for
auto-generating links at all. Google has penalised sites for using particular auto
link plugins, for instance.
18.  Linking to a page with actual key-phrases in the link help a great deal in all
search engines when you want to feature for specific key-terms. i.e. “seo
scotland” as opposed to http://www.hobo-web.co.uk or “click here“.
19.  I think the anchor text links in internal navigation is still valuable – but keep it
natural. Google needs links to find your pages. Don’t underestimate the value of
a clever internal link keyword-rich architecture and be sure to understand for
instance how many words Google counts in a link, but don’t overdo it.
20.  Search engines like Google ‘spider’ or ‘crawl’ your entire site by following all the
links on your site to new pages, much as a human would click on the links of your
pages. Google will crawl and index your pages, and within a few days normally,
begin to return your pages in search results (SERPS)
21.  After a while, Google will know about your pages, and keep the ones it deems
‘useful’ – pages with original content, or pages with a lot of links to them. Ideally
you will have unique pages, with unique page titles and unique page
descriptions if you deem to use the latter – most search engines don’t use the
meta description when actually ranking your page for specific keyword searches
if not relevant –  I don’t worry about meta keywords these days.
22.  Google chews over your site, analysing text content and links
23.  If you have a lot of duplicate crap found on other websites Google knows about,
Google will ignore your page. If your site has spammy signals. Google will
penalise it.
24.  You don’t need to keyword stuff your text and look dyslexic to beat the
competition. Generally it’s good to have keywords in links, page titles and text
content. There is no ideal amount of text – no magic keyword density. Keyword
stuffing is a tricky business.
25.  I prefer to make sure I have as many UNIQUE relevant  words on the page.
26.  If you link out to irrelevant sites, Google may ignore the page, too  – but again, it
depends on the site in question. Who you link to, or HOW you link to, REALLY
DOES MATTER – I expect Google to use your linking practices as a potential
means by which to classify your site. Affiliate sites for example don’t do well in
Google these days without some good quality backlinks.
27.  Many SEOs think who you actually link out to (and who links to you) helps
determine a topical community of sites in any field, or a hub of authority. Quite
simply, you want to be in that hub, at the centre if possible (however unlikely), but
at least in it. I like to think of this one as a good thing to remember in the future as
search engines get even better at determining topical relevancy of pages, but I
have never really seen any granular ranking benefit (for the page in question)
from linking out.
28.  Original content is king and will attract a “natural link growth” – in Google’s
opinion. Too many incoming links too fast might devalue your site, but again.
I usually err on the safe side – I go for massive diversity in my links – to make
them look more natural. Actually, I go for natural links in 2013 full stop.  Google
can devalue whole sites, individual pages, template generated links and
individual links if Google deems them “unnecessary”.
29.  Google knows who links to you, the “quality” of those links, and who you link to.
30.  Google decides which pages on your site are important or most relevant. You can
help Google by linking to your important pages.
31.  It is of paramount importance you spread all that Google juice to your sales
keyword / phrase rich sales pages, and as much remains to the rest of the site
pages, so Google does not “demote” starved pages into its reserves, or
“supplementals”.
32.  Consider linking to important pages on your site from your home page, and via
the template navigation on the site.
33.  Focus on RELEVANCE first. Then get REPUTABLE. The key to ranking in
Google is actually pretty simple.
34.  Every few months Google changes it’s algorithm to punish sloppy optimisation or
industrial manipulation. Google Panda and Google Penguin are two such
updates, but the important thing is to understand Google changes it’s algorithms
to control its listings pages. The art of SEO is to rank high without tripping these
algorithms – and that is tricky! 

Read More

What is SEO?

There are a lot of definitions of SEO (Search engine optimisation) but let’s
face it, SEO in 2013 is about getting free traffic from Google, the most popular
search engine in the world.
SEO is about KEYWORDS and LINKS. It’s about RELEVANCE and
REPUTATION.
Search engine optimisation is about a web page being relevant enough for a
query, and being trusted enough to rank for it. It’s about ranking for popular
keywords for the long term, on merit. You can play by ‘white hat’ rules laid
down by Google, or you can choose to ignore those and go ‘black hat’ – a
‘spammer’. But MOST SEO TACTICS still work, for some time, on some level,
for a period of time, depending on who’s doing them, and how it’s deployed.
Whichever route you take, know that if Google catches you trying to “modify
your rank”, then they will class you a spammer, and your site will be penalised
(you won’t rank for important keywords). Google does not want you to try and
modify your rank. They would prefer you paid PPC to do that. The problem is
– traffic from SEO is valuable. VERY valuable. And FREE, once you’ve
pleased Google enough.
In 2013, you need to be aware that what works to improve your rank can also
get you penalised (faster, and a lot more noticeably). In particular, Google is
currently waging war on unnatural links and manipulative tactics if it detects
them.

Read More

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Algorithm: 

An algorithm is a complicated mathematical formula or process that can be used 

to solve problems or make decisions. In the context  of SEO, an algorithm 

generally refers to the rules which apply to search engines and other software 

when assigning a rank or a particular value to a site. Google follows it’s own 

algorithm for PageRank, while Alexa follows its own algorithm for the Alexa 

ranking. 

Anchor text: 

Anchor text refers to the text used in a link, withwhich one site links to another. 

The anchor text is usually underlined, and when clicked on, takes the visitor to 

another page. 

Automated submission(s): 

Automated submissions are directory submissions that are made using some 

software rather than being made manually. With automated software, thousands 

of submissions can be made at the same time. This is not recommended since 

categories are best selected manually. 

Backlink(s): 

Backlinks very simply mean links pointing to a site from external sources, not 

from pages within the site. 

Ban/banned: 

A 'banned' site is one that has been blocked by the search engines. If a site is 

found to have disregarded certain search engine guidelines, it would be banned, 

thus eliminating it from search results. A further consequence of this ban is that 

the site will not receive any traffic from that particular search engine that has 

banned it. 

Blog: 

Blogs are online journals or diaries. Blog entries, like journal entries, are made 

with the corresponding dates.

Captcha: 

A 'captcha' is a visual identification code made up of either numbers or alphabets 

and usually presented in a distorted way, to make it hard for automated software 

to decipher. Captcha are usually contained in small boxesand placed below sign-up forms, to ensure that details are entered by humans  and not through 

machines. 

Conversion: 

A conversion refers to the process of converting a website visitor into a client. 

Crawler(s): 

A crawler is a type of software program sent out by thesearch engines that 

'crawls' or navigates the web through links, visiting  websites and storing bits of 

information about each site. Search engines value and categorize sites based on 

these bits of information collected by the crawlers.Crawlers are also referred to 

as 'robots', 'bots' or 'spiders'. 

Database: 

A database is an index or a store of all records. When used in SEO, the term 

‘database’ is used to refer to a search engine’s index,  which contains information 

collected by its search spiders. 

Deep linking, Deep submitting: 

The process of submitting an inner page URL of a website, rather than just the 

homepage URL. Most directories only accept the homepage URL, however, there 

are a few that also allow deep linking. For example, if deep linking is allowed in 

a directory, instead of just entering the homepage URL(http://www.abc.com) 

you will be allowed to enter an inner page like 

http://www.abc.com/category/deep-linking. 

Directory: 

A directory is a list of businesses, individuals or  services, usually arranged by 

categories. Web directories or online directories are  those directories that list 

websites according to a few broad categories. Some of these categories include 

arts, business, computer, internet, home, shopping and travel. 

Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories. 

Hit(s): 

The number of times a website or a web page has been accessed for downloads 

or retrieval of files, images, etc. from a web server. 

Homepage: 

A homepage is the main page of a website from where onecan navigate to other 

pages of the site, if any. 

HTML: 

Stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML is the coding language that is 

used to create websites or web pages. 

Hyperlink(s): 

A hyperlink is a technical name given for a link. Hyperlinks connect web pages 

or websites to one another. 

Inbound link(s): 

Inbound links are those links that come to a site fromexternal sources. They are 

also known as backlinks. Links to a page from within thesame site are not 

considered to be inbound links. 

Index: 

A search engine's database in which information about each site as collected by 

the spiders or crawlers are stored, is known as its  index. Indexing is the process 

by which these crawlers navigate and collect informationfrom each site they 

visit. 

Internal link(s): 

Internal links are all the links that are found within a site, connecting one page to 

another. A well-developed internal linking system is  not only beneficial to web 

users, but also to the search engines as it makes the  website user-friendly and 

easily navigable. 

Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories. 

JavaScript: 

JavaScript is a type of programming language. Search engines cannot read 

JavaScript and thus will be unable to index a site if the links are JavaScript 

generated. 

Key phrase(s): 

A phrase made up of specific keywords is known as a key phrase. 

Keyword(s): 

A keyword or key term is one that is most likely tobe used when a user searches 

for a site. Basically it is a term that can be instantly associated with a site. 

Keyword density: 

Keyword density refers to the frequency with which a  particular keyword is 

repeated in a single page or website, usually represented as a percentage. For 

example if there’s a total of 1000 words in a page and a keyword is repeated 100 

times, the keyword density of that page would be 10%. 

Keyword stuffing: 

Keyword stuffing refers to the excessive use of keywords within the content of a 

page or website, such that the content loses its meaning. 

Link building: 

Link building is the process by which backlinks to asite are obtained. The higher 

the number of quality backlinks from relevant sites, the higher will be the 

PageRank of that site. 

Link farm(s): 

A link farm consists of thousands of links to websites, with no kind of editorial 

review in place when links are submitted. Link farms existed solely for the 

purpose of increasing the number of inbound links toa site, however, at present, 

links farms are given no value by the search engines. 

Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories. 

Link popularity: 

Link popularity refers to the number of links pointing to a site. The more the 

number of links from other sites, the more will be the value attributed to the site 

by the search engines. However it's not just the quantity but also the quality of 

the links that matter. 

Link(s): 

A link is any part of a web page - either an image, a word, a phrase or graphics 

which when clicked on, takes the user to another page  or another site. Links 

connect websites and web pages together. 

Manual directory: 

A manual directory is one where a human editor goes through the sites that have 

been submitted to ascertain whether or not they fit the directory's criteria for 

acceptance. 

Manual submission(s): 

Manual submissions refer to the task of having a website, blog or article 

submitted to an online directory by a human being as opposed to automated 

submissions which are made by machines. 

META tag(s): 

A Meta tag is a part of the HTML code of a website. These Meta tags are included 

in the code for search engine spiders that read and assess the relevance of the site 

based on these tags. They are not visible to general website visitors, unless 

viewed in the HTML code. The importance of having Meta tags has declined in 

recent years. 

Mirror site(s): 

Mirror sites are sites that have the exact same structure and content of another 

site, although these sites may be hosted on differentservers. These kinds of sites 

cannot be submitted to directories. 

Outbound link(s): 

The opposite of inbound links, outbound inks are links that are sent out from a 

site to another. 

Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories. 

PageRank: 

PageRank (PR) is a method devised by Google to assess the importance of a web 

page based on it’s inbound links. The PageRank is assigned on a scale of 1 - 10. 

Page view(s): 

The total number of times a web page has been viewed,  including repeat views 

by the same visitor. 

Query: 

Queries are the words or phrases entered into the search box of the search 

engines in order to find relevant results. 

Reciprocal linking: 

Reciprocal linking also known as link exchange, is the process by which two sites 

link to one another, i.e., site A links to site B and site B links back to site A. 

Redirect: 

A redirect is the process whereby a website visitor  is automatically sent to 

another web page or site, without having clicked on anylink. 

Resubmission(s): 

The process of submitting a website again either to an  online directory or to a 

search engine, is known as resubmitting or resubmission. Resubmitting a website 

is not encouraged since directories and search engines maintain a permanent 

record of the sites that have been previously submitted. 

Search Engine: 

A search engine is a software program that searches for the specific keywords or 

queries entered by a user and returns relevant results.A few of the most popular 

search engines are Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Lycos. 

SEO/Search Engine Optimization: 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of creating a website in such a 

way that it achieves a high search engine ranking. 

Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories. 

A very complicated process, it involves both on-page  optimization, i.e., making 

the website user-friendly and search-engine friendly, as well as off-page 

optimization which involves building relevant links tothe website. 

SERP: 

Abbreviation for Search Engine Ranking Position, i.e.,the rank of a website on a 

search engine. 

Spam: 

Spam could refer to a large amount of unsolicited junkmail or messages, or to 

excessive repetition and irrelevant content on a web page. 

Spider(s): 

Another term for 'crawler'; a software designed by search engines to navigate the 

web and gather information about each site visited. 

Submission(s): 

The process of submitting a website to a directory or search engine. 

Target audience: 

A particular segment of web users that a product or service specifically targets. 

Theme: 

The main focus or essence of a website or a web page. 

Title: 

A title is a small description about a website. Usually not more than 4-7 words 

long, a title should always be a meaningful phrase, not one that is stuffed with 

keywords. 

Traffic: 

Traffic is a term used to refer to the visitors to a website. 

Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories. 

URL: 

URL stands for Universal Resource Locater. In simple terms the URL is the 

domain name of a website 

Visibility: 

Visibility refers to online presence, especially onsearch engines. A website with 

good visibility is one that ranks high on the search engines. 

Visitor(s): 

Visitors refer to the people who have stopped by or ‘visited’ a website.

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TYPES OF DIRECTORIES

TYPES OF DIRECTORIES 

There are all kinds of directories available online, some that cater to specific
websites and other that cater to just about any website under the sun. Depending
on the service or product you provide and also on theaudience you want to
target, you can choose a particular or a few directories into which to submit your
site. The choices are plenty. The most popular types  of online directories are
listed as under:

General Directories: 

General directories are those web directories that accept all kinds of sites. They
have a wide variety of categories and sub categories under which websites can
be listed. Common categories that can be found in these directories include art,
business, computers, finance, Internet, health, home, shopping, sports and travel
among many others. The categories are listed in alphabetical order.

Niche Directories: 

Niche directories as the name suggests are topic-specific directories that are
created for the purpose of listing only those websites that cater to the main theme
or topic of that directory. For example, a shopping directory would list only
those websites that offer products or are eCommerce websites.
It is always a good idea to have your site submitted to a niche directory if it is in
keeping with the theme of your site, as you could receive extremely relevant
backlinks, thus adding to the value assigned to your site by the search engines.
Screenshot example of a niche directory - a shopping directory:

Regional Directories: 

Regional directories are those directories that combine some of the features of
general directories with some other features of nichedirectories. Since regional
directories are area-specific, pertaining only to a particular geographic location,
they could be considered to be ‘niche directories’  while at the same time, since
they accept different kinds of websites and comprise  a wide range of categories,
they could also be considered ‘general directories’.
Regional directories allow only those sites to be listed that deal with products or
services pertaining to a particular area or region. Hence, if your business or
website caters to a particular geographical area, it would  be wise to have the
same listed in a regional directory for that area. This would not only provide
relevant backlinks to your website, but it will also allow you to get directly in
touch with your target audience.
Below is a screenshot of a regional directory – a directory of Singapore listings:

Blog Directories: 

One of the newer types of web directories available online is the  blogdirectory
which lists blogs instead of websites. They could begeneral, niche or regional in
nature depending on the types of blogs listed under them.
The growing popularity of blogs and blogging in recent years lead to the creation
of blog directories that mainly act as a resource for bloggers.
Screenshot example of a blog directory:

Bid or Bidding Directories: 

Bid or bidding directories are those directories which require website owners to
place bids in order to get sites listed in these directories. The bids usually start
from as low as $1 with which one can expect to get listed in these directories.
However, in order to be listed on top of a particular category in a directory, you
would have to make the highest bid.
Often, high expenses are incurred on getting a website to be listed on top of a
particular category in a bidding directory. These directories aren’t very popular
for the same reason. However, they do continue to be used by some who believe
that the exposure gained as a result of submissions tosuch directories is well
worth the money spent.
Screenshot example of a bidding directory:

Article Directories: 

Article directories are unique type of web directories that list articles rather than
websites. These directories normally include a wide  range of general topics
under which articles can be submitted. Any article may  be reproduced on
another website, free of cost. However it must be ensured that the bio box or
resource box details including the name of the author,his company and his
website, are also mentioned wherever the article is reproduced.
The main aim of article directories is to provide relevant and free content to
webmasters rather than providing links. Article directories can be of two types:
general article directories or niche article directories.
Screenshot example of an article directory:

Podcast Directories: 

The great advances made in the field of technology are reflected in the many
newer types of directories that are just beginning tomake their presence felt over
the internet. The latest type of web directory that is fast catching on is the
Podcast directory: a type of directory that lists multimedia files rather than
websites. These audio and video files can be downloaded from these Podcast
directories directly onto iPods, personal computers and other mobile devices.

Read More

How To Find Your Directory Links ?

There are two methods you can follow to find your links. Both these methods
involve searching for your links using the search engines.
If you want to see whether you're site appears in a particular directory, you
could use the following command in the Google or Yahoo search box:
+"abc.com"<space>site:xyz.com
where abc.com is your domain name and xyz.com is the directory’s domain
name.
If you want to get a general idea as to how many links you may have received
from various directories, you could enter this command into Google’s search
box:
+"abc.com"<space>+directory -site:www.abc.com
With this command you are conducting a search for all the web pages where the
word 'directory' and your website URL (abc.com) appear together, excluding the
pages from your own site, i.e.,  www.abc.com. The results will not give you an
exact figure but just a rough estimate, as Google may have not indexed all the
directories’ pages as yet.
Note: since directory links take a while to appear and then be indexed by search
engines, it would be futile to conduct such a search  unless sufficient time has
elapsed after the submissions were made.
OUTSOURCING DIRECTORY SUBMISSIONS

By now you must have a clear understanding of what directory submissions are
and how directory links can greatly improve your searchengine ranking
position, besides putting you in direct contact withthe audience you target. You
also know, the long and arduous process that needs to be endured to have your
site submitted to directories. There are several directory submission services that
exist to lighten this burden for you.
One such submission service is that of Directory Maximizer. With a compiled list
of over 800 quality SEO-friendly directories, and with constant additions made to
that list, you can have manual directory submissions madefor your site on a
regular basis.
Apart from this, there are several other benefits youcan derive:
•  You can enter up to 5 different titles and descriptions with which to have
your site submitted. This would help as the links that you get from the
submissions you make will vary from one another eliminating the
possibility of their looking like duplicate links.
•  If you have made submissions previously, you can uploadthe list of
directories to which the submissions were made and Directory Maximizer
would avoid submitting your site to these directories.
•  You never again have to worry about maintaining a record  of the
directories to which your site has been submitted. This service maintains a
track of all submissions to ensure that duplicate submissions are never
made.
•  You can keep track of each of your submissions live! You will also receive
a comprehensive submission report after your order hasbeen completed.
•  You get great value-for-money with this service that costs just 14 cents per
directory submission.

RECOMMENDED DIRECTORY SUBMISSIONS 

Yahoo! Directory: 

Yahoo Directory is the oldest directory in the world. Today’s hugely popular
internet portal had its humble beginnings in this directory, established in 1994.
Yahoo directory continues to exist even today and is now one of the most
powerful directories available online.
There are two ways by which you can submit your site to the Yahoo directory.
You could either choose the free option or the paid  submission option. The free
listing options are reserved for non-commercial sitesand do not come with any
guarantees. However, the paid listing, which costs US$ 299 annually, comes with
a guarantee that the site will be reviewed within 7 days.
Provided you have a quality business site and have followed the directory’s
stated guidelines, there should be no reason why yoursite would not be listed. If
your site does get listed it will also be featured inthe ‘What’s New’ category of
the directory that should drive plenty of traffic to the website.
Hence, submitting to the Yahoo directory is definitely recommended.

Best of the Web Directory: 

This directory like Yahoo Directory was also established as early as 1994 and has
since maintained one of the strictest editorial reviewpolicies, accepting only
content-rich, high quality sites. This commitment toquality has made it one of
the most highly regarded directories on the web. A link from Best of the Web
directory would immensely benefit a site, substantially increasing its search
engine rankings.
Best of the web directoryis a paid directory currently offering two listing
options: one for an annual review of the website whichcosts US$ 99.95 per year
and one for a one-time review which costs US$ 249.95.

DMOZ: 

Also known as the open directory project, DMOZ is probably the most well
known free directory online. Like Yahoo and Best of the Web, DMOZ is also
known for its very high standards when it comes to website listings in the
directory. It is best to submit your site to DMOZ on your own.
Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories.
Considerable effort needs to be spent on making the right submission, according
to the guidelines mentioned. You only get one chanceto have your site listed in
DMOZ, hence it must be ensured that the submission is made properly.
DMOZ offers several category choices so that you can submit your site under the
most relevant category. Sites submitted to unrelated categories would in all
probability be rejected.
The time taken for your site to be reviewed depends  entirely on the volume of
pending reviews. A DMOZ editor will then review your site to see whether it is
suitable for inclusion in the directory. Note: If you have already submitted your
site once, you should not try submitting it again, as  this would result in an
exclusion of the site.
There are several advantages of being listed in the Open Directory project, as the
website will also appear on DMOZ’s partner sites like Yahoo Search, Google,
Netscape search and AOL Search, all of which make use ofDMOZ’s resources.
Hence, if you have a website it should definitely be  a priority to have it
submitted to the Open Directory Project. 

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WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A SITE HAS BEEN SUBMITTED?

Email notifications: 

One out of three directories send out emails as soonas a site has been submitted
confirming that a submission has been made, stating the category into which the
site was submitted and the details that were entered. A few directories also send
out email confirmation requests. These emails will contain a link that must be
clicked on, as confirmation that you have indeed made the submission to the
directory.
It is not necessary for you to open each and every email that you receive after
submitting your site to directories. However, it isimportant that you follow up
on all confirmation requests. Judging by the subject lines of the emails that you
receive, you can decide whether you need to open an email or not. The subject
lines of emails that require confirmation would read ‘Confirmation Required’,
‘Confirmation Request’, ‘Confirm your Listing’, ‘EmailVerification’ or something
along these lines. You only need to open these emailsin order to complete your
directory submission.

Keep a record of your submissions: 

It is very important to keep a file of all the directories to which submissions have
been made in order to avoid submitting to the same directories in the future. All
directories anyway maintain a permanent record of the URLs that have been
added to their database thus preventing resubmissions. However if some sites do
manage to get submitted to the same directory again, it  would not be of any
purpose. It is best to avoid this by maintaining a record of all the submissions
made so far.

Link approvals: 

The time taken for directory links to start arriving  will vary depending upon
each directory as well as the listing option you have chosen. Most paid listing
options promise to provide links within a specified period of time.
However, if you have selected the free listing option or have submitted your site
to a free directory, the directory links may take anywhere between a week to
three months to arrive. This is because each site that  has been submitted has to
go through a thorough editorial review before being  approved. Also, free
directories usually do not guarantee links and provide  links only to those sites
that follow all the guidelines and have relevant and unique content.
Some directories send out emails informing you about  your site’s approval. This
email normally contains the following information: the  name that was entered
during submission, the date of  submission, the password used during
submissions (if any) and the category in which the link is placed. This email is
definite proof that your site has been accepted into a directory.

Results of your submissions: 

After you receive links from the directory it couldstill take more time for search
engines to find and index these new links. Hence, you should not expect to see a
dramatic increase in your rankings immediately after receiving a few directory
links. Remember that this entire process is a gradual one.
It’s important to keep submitting to new directories.  Link buildingis a
continuous process which when stopped, would resultin a decline in rankings
and consequently, a decline in website  visitorsas well. Although directory
submissions are not the only means by which to build relevant links, they are the
most convenient and effective method. Hence, this process should be continued
and the results you see over time will speak for themselves.

LINK PLACEMENT 

As mentioned already, most quality directories have a manual screening process
to determine whether the sites that have been submitted actually match their
criteria for approval. If the sites are approved, the directory will place the site’s
link under the most relevant category (in all probability the category you have
picked to have your site submitted under).
Finding a site’s link after it has been accepted into a  directory can be quite a
difficult task. No one can know for certain where a site’s link will be placed in a
directory since each directory has its own set of factors to consider. There are a
few factors that have been observed to influence the placement position of a
listing. They are:
• Hits
• PageRank
• Alphabetical order
• Date and Time of Approval in the Directory
In many cases, one factor alone does not determine linkplacement. For example,
if several sites approved by the directory under thesame category have the same
PageRank, there would most certainly have to be another criterion used to order
them. For this reason, they could perhaps first be sorted on the basis of PR, then
alphabetically, and then according to the number of hits, or the date and time at
which they were approved, if need be.
There could also be several other as-yet unknown factors that influence link
placement.

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HOW TO MAKE DIRECTORY SUBMISSIONS YOURSELF?

Making directory submissions on your own would require a huge amount of
time and dedication. There are several steps that need to be followed in order to
submit a site to a directory. Each of these steps is explained in detail:
Compile a List of Directories:
To begin with, you would first need to compile a list of directories to which you
would like to submit your site. There are thousands of web directories available
online and you would have to make a reasonably large listof directories to
which you would like to submit your site. You couldconduct general searches
on Google or Yahoo or browse through sites like
http://www.directorycritic.comto compile your list of directories.
Check for SEO-Friendly Factors:
From the list of directories you have compiled, you  would then have to narrow
down on the ones that are search engine friendly. By this we mean a directory
that will return links that are counted and valued by the search engines.
There would be no purpose in getting a directory link to your site if the links
weren’t search engine friendly or ‘SEO-Friendly’. Ifthe links you get don’t matter
to the search engines, they won’t matter to your website either! There are several
things you should do to ensure that your links are SEO friendly:
Ensure that there are no META nofollow or noindex tags on thelink pages:
To do this, you would have to view the page source ofone of the link pages in
the directory. The page source can be viewed simply by right clicking your
mouse. You would see an option that reads ‘View Source’ or ‘View Page Source’.
Click on the option to view the source code of the entire page. Within that page,
look closely for the following code:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,nofollow”>
If you do find this code mentioned on the page, don’t bother submitting your site
to that particular directory, as the search engines would not count the links it
gives out. When ‘noindex’ is written in the code, itbasically tells the search
engines not to index the page, while ‘nofollow’ tells the search engines not to
follow or count the links on the page.
Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories.
Therefore, even if only one of these parameters existin the  META tagsof a link
page, avoid submitting to that directory.
Ensure that the links do not have a ‘rel=nofollow’ tag onthem:
You should also make sure that the links on a page do not appear in the
following format as this also commands the search engines not to follow links:
<a href=”http://www.domain.com” rel=”nofollow”>Domain</a>

The directories that give out such links would be worthless to submit to, hence it
is important that you first view the source code of each directory to ensure that
the links you may receive from them will be valued andcounted by the search
engines.
Ensure that the links are not JavaScriptgenerated links:
When the source code is viewed, the links should appear only in the standard <a
href=”></a> format. If any other coded format is used,  you can be certain that
the links are not SEO friendly links and would hence,be ignored by the search
engines.
Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories.

Some directories give out links that  redirectto a page other than the home page.
These links are not valuable as they are not direct links to the site.
URL of the link pages should not contain too many parameters:
You have to ensure that the  URLof the link page does not have too many
parameters. An example of such a URL is:
http://www.webdirectory.com/link.php?u=23&as=2323434324&as=23423asfsfa
s&pw=32433.
Although this factor alone may not make a directory non-SEO friendly, it is
believed that search engines either don’t index or don’t place too much value on
those pages that have too many parameters in the URL.
Only if a directory passes all these criteria, will it be considered an SEO-friendly
directory. Before getting down to the actual task of making submissions, you
would first have to compile a list of several such SEO-friendly directories to
which it would be worthwhile to submit your site. This would involve the
laborious task of having to go through several hundredsof directories
independently to see if they match the criteria for SEO-friendliness. This is where
a submission service, like Directory Maximizer, comes in handy since they do all
these checks for you before starting with your submissions.
Choose the Right Category:
Probably the most important aspect of making a directory submission is
choosing the right category under which to submit your site. Some directories
offer a wide range of category and sub-category choices  and it is important to
first browse through all the options and choose as specific a category or sub
category as you can find that will be most suitable to list your website.
Remember that directory links would not be of any useif they come from
irrelevant categories that are not related to the theme  and content of your site.
Hence choice of category is very important. If you donot find a category that is
suitable for your website, some directories also offer the option of suggesting a
category. If the directory editor approves your suggestion, a new category would
be created.
To make this process simpler, let us take you step-by-step through the actual
submission process. The website we will be submitting as an example, is a site:
http://www.statisticalforecasting.com.
Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories.

We would like to ideally submit this site under the main category of Reference
and the sub-category of Statistics. For this we would  first have to go to the main
page of a directory and browse through the category choices for the ‘Reference’
category.
Below is a screenshot showing the homepage of a directory with the cursor on ‘Reference’:

When you click on the main category, you will be takento that category page
where you will have to then choose your sub category.The sub category chosen
for this example is ‘Statistics’.
A screenshot of this is shown below:

Submit Website Details:
After you have made the proper choice of category, your next step would be to
submit your site. To do so, you would first need tolook for the option in the
directory that says ‘Add Listing’, ‘Add URL’, ‘SubmitSite’, Submit Link’,
‘Suggest Site’, ‘Suggest URL’ or ‘Suggest Listing’.These are the common terms
that can be found on the homepageand category pages of a directory. The option
to add or submit a site is usually found right at the top or right at the bottom of
the page.
In this particular directory, the option is found at the top as shown in the following
screenshot:

When you click on this ‘Add Site’ link, you will be  taken directly to the
submission form page.
Read and Follow Directory Guidelines:
When you arrive at the form page, the first thing you need to do is read
the submission guidelines carefully.
An example of this is represented in the screenshot below:

The guidelines of a directory are basically rules and regulations that need
to be adhered to while submitting a site to. Some directories are very strict
when it comes to accepting sites to be listed in them and if you ignore the
guidelines mentioned for each directory, you could well be wasting your
time, as the directory editor would instantly reject your site when it comes
up for approval.

Choose Your Directory Listing Option: 

There are all kinds of directories available online - some are free to submit 

to, while others come with a listing fee. All directories have various 

pricing features and listing options mentioned, offering at least a few, if 

not all of the following: 

Paid Listings: 

Some directories require payments to be made in order  for websites to be 

listed. These directories are also commonly referred  to as ‘Paid 

Directories’. The amount that needs to be paid for eachlisting varies from 

one directory to another. 

While some directories charge a one-time fee for a site to be listed, others 

require payments to be made annually, monthly or after determined 

periods of time. 

Most paid directories offer various payment packages, the most expensive 

package offering the most benefits to the website in terms of quick review, 

guaranteed back links, featured listings, advertisements and attractive 

placements. 

The paid listings or ‘Featured Links’ will be given a  special place on the 

website above other listings, often highlighted in a different colour, so that 

they attract more attention. 

Below is a screen shot of the listings displayed in a directory. As you can see, 

‘Featured Listings’ are given importance over and displayed above, the ‘Regular 

Listings’. 

Free Listings: 

Directories that offer free website listings are also  known as ‘Free 

Directories’. Free listings are often referred to as  ‘Regular Links’ or 

‘Regular Listings’. No payment whatsoever is required in order to get a 

site listed in these directories. However, each sitethat is added free of cost 

will most likely have to undergo a review process. This could take 

anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, and link approvals from 

these directories are usually not guaranteed. 

These listings when approved appear within the category under which it 

has been submitted. It is often difficult to find a specific listing in a free 

directory, as that would involve manually going throughseveral pages, 

looking through several thousands of undifferentiatedlinks. 

Reciprocal Listings: 

Some directories require a link exchange with the sites that are to be listed 

in them. Only when these directories find a link pointing to them in a 

website, will they give a link back to that website. This process of 

exchanging links is known as  reciprocal linkingand directories that 

demand reciprocal links for a listing are also known as  reciprocal 

directories. 

All web directories would offer at least a few of these listing options, if not 

all. Some directories offer a combination of these listing options, such as a 

free listing with reciprocal links or a paid listing with reciprocal links. 

Fill up the Submit Form: 

A submit form is the form into which basic website details need to be 

entered. These will be the details with which your site gets submitted into 

a directory. 

Below is a screen shot of a typical directory submissionform: 

Pricing: 

Starting with the pricing you would first have to select the listing you 

prefer for your submissions. Mark your preference inthe space provided 

at the side of each listing. 

For example if you choose the regular link, you wouldhave to indicate 

your choice by clicking on the circle provided on the left of the option. 

Screenshot:

Title: 

Titles entered for a site should be short but meaningful phrases that in a 

few words, capture the essence of the site. Limit the title to 4-6 words 

comprising not more than 45 characters. 

Tips 

•  Each title entered should not consist of more than 45 characters 

•  Titles should not be all upper case 

•  Avoid over-stuffing and repetition of keywords

•  Avoid the use of exclamations (!) or superlatives like‘best’, 

‘cheapest’ or ‘greatest’ 

•  The titles entered should sound objective and not too promotional. 

Do not use offensive or vulgar words. 

•  Some directories may insist on just an ‘Official Title’, i.e., the either 

the company name or the website name. In such cases, besure not 

to enter any keywords in the titles. For example, if  to submit a site: 

http://www.statisticalforecasting.com, we could use either of the 

following titles: 

o  StatisticalForecasting.com – the domain name of the website 

o  Statistical Forecasting – the official website title 

Screenshot:

URL: 

The URL that needs to be entered while submitting a site should always 

be that of the site’s homepage and not of inner pages or folders. Most 

directories do not allow inner pages to be submitted;hence it is always 

better to stick to entering the homepage URL, unlessotherwise specified. 

Tips 

•  Do not submit parked domains, domains with no content,those 

that are still under construction or those that re-direct to another 

site 

•  Avoid submitting unregistered domains and those that are hosted 

on free hosting services 

•  Submit the URL in the correct format, i.e., with or  without the 

‘http://’, as may be specified 

•  Add a forward slash (/) at the end of the URL, if required by the 

directory 

Screenshot: 

Description: 

The descriptions entered for a site should, in a few meaningful sentences, 

state what the site is all about and what it has to offer.Descriptions 

entered for a site should preferably be limited to 200-250 characters unless 

otherwise specified. 

Tips 

•  Avoid including pricing or any other details that are  likely to 

change with time 

•  Do not mention contact details such as an address, email or a phone 

number 

•  Do not capitalize the first letter of every word of the description 

•  Avoid ending the descriptions with ‘etc’, ‘and so on’ or ‘and much 

more’ or even ‘…’ 

Save time in having your website manually submitted to a hand-picked list of quality web directories. 

Page 26 of 53 

•  Avoid using controversial words like ‘sex’, ‘sexy’ or ‘cialis’ or 

‘viagra’ as part of your descriptions 

Screenshot: 

Keywords: 

The keywords entered for a site are the words with which you expect your 

site to be searched. Targeting specific keywords withyour directory 

submissions could help you gain high search engine rankings for the 

same. This field may be altogether absent in some directories; however, 

most directories offer this as an optional field. 

Tips 

•  Do not repeat a single keyword more than once 

•  Pay heed to the format required – whether the keywords should be 

separated by a comma, a space, or both 

•  Make sure that the spellings entered are right

Name: 

Enter the name of the person associated with the website. Some directories 

display listings along with names. The name entered in  this field may 

therefore be displayed along with the website’s listing in a directory.

Email: 

Very few directories are particular about the kind of email address 

submitted, so this should not be a cause of worry. However, as a 

precaution you might want to enter the email address that is associated 

with the site domain, as some directories do not accept email addresses 

from free accounts like gmail, ymail, hotmail, and so on. 

Tip 

•  Refrain from entering your regular, business email address as you 

could expect to get a whole lot of emails from directories. Hence 

you could perhaps maintain a separate email account only for the 

purpose of directory submissions. 

Category: 

If you have already selected the category into which you want to submit 

your site, this field of the form will be filled with the category of your 

choice. If however, you come to the form page without choosing a 

category, you can do so simply by clicking on the drop down arrow, 

which will reveal all the categories and sub categoriesfrom which you 

could make your choice. 

Screenshot: 

Enter the Code and Submit the Form: 

Most directories do not allow  automated submissionsand thus include 

verification codes known as ‘captcha’ codes on to directory submission 

forms. These codes can only be entered manually. Several thousand 

submissions could be made at a single time if the process is automated. It 

would not be possible for human editors to review somany submissions. 

For this reason, visual codes are attached at the bottom of the form page. 

Tips 

•  Enter the code exactly as it is shown unless it is mentioned that the 

code is not case sensitive 

•  Wherever necessary you will have to accept the terms ofagreement 

by checking the space provided 

•  Submit the form after double checking all the details entered 

For the Reciprocal listing option: 

If you have selected the reciprocal listing option, you will have an 

additional field of the submission form to fill. 

Reciprocal URL: If you have chosen the ‘Regular Link with Reciprocal’ 

option you will first have to copy and paste the link given below the space 

provided for ‘Reciprocal URL’ on to a page on your website. Then you 

would have to copy the URL of that page where this link exists and paste 

it within the ‘Reciprocal URL’ box given in the form. 

If you have not chosen the reciprocal option, you DO  NOT need to fill in 

anything in the ‘Reciprocal URL’ box. 

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