You DO Have Control Over Your Website's Rankings!

You’ve done everything you know how to do to get your website to rank well

1. Figure out which key phrases your target markets use.
2. Added those key phrases to your website copy.
3. Made sure your website is coded in a language the search engines can understand.
4. Added your key words to the meta tags of your website.

Then you wait. And you wait. And nothing happens. Then you decide this search engine optimization stuff is baloney. I know how you feel. I’ve been there too. It’s incredibly frustrating to do all that work and feel like the results are out of your hands. But I’m here to tell you there is something you can do. You DO have control over your website’s rankings!

One criteria search engines use when determining how high to rank your website is how many other websites link to yours. When other websites link to your website, it’s called an in-bound link. (An out-bound link is when you link to another website usually on a Resources or Links page.) Search engines figure that if other websites link to your website, it must be important and they rank it higher than one with fewer links. Keep in mind that search engines don’t care how many out-bound links your website has.

Online Directories Are the Key

Improved ranking through links to your website is not a new idea. If you’ve come across it before, you’ve probably heard of “reciprocal linking.” Reciprocal linking occurs when you contact other website owners and offer to link to their websites in exchange for them linking to yours. I don’t recommend reciprocal linking because it’s very inefficient. You can easily send out 100 requests to get one response. Considering that most websites need between 100 and 500 inbound links to be on the first page of Google, you’d have to send out thousands of emails in to get enough links.

A much more efficient way to get links to your website is by submitting your website to online directories. I’ve had tremendous success improving a website’s rankings by using online directories. Even if a website is programmed in a language search engines can’t read or the key phrases are incredibly popular, listings in online directories will make a difference.

Let me give you an example. I have a client that sells high-end real estate. Their 800lb. Gorilla key phrase is “ranches for sale.” They have a lot of competition spending big bucks to rank well for “ranches for sale.” When I started working with them, they didn’t rank in the top 100 in Google. Currently, they rank #3 in Google for "ranches for sale." The only thing I did to achieve that was submit them to online directories.

How to Submit your Website to Online Directories

There are thousands of directories on the internet. Most of them are modeled after the Open Directory Project (aka DMOZ) which is the oldest directory on the internet. DMOZ predates all of the major search engines and has always been a place where search engines go to find new websites.

Before you submit your website to online directories, you need to do some homework. However; if you’ve already written good website meta tags, you have most of what you need inculding a title and website description. In order to know what you need, I strongly recommend reviewing the DMOZ submission criteria because most other directories use DMOZ as the basis for their submission policy.

Although most directories are slightly different, there are some components each will require:

• A list of the key phrases you want your website to rank well for
• A short and descriptive title for your website
• Website descriptions in varying lengths; typically between 20 and 50 words
• An idea of what category your website should go in
• An email address (preferably at the same domain as the website you are submitting) that you check regularly

Many directories are free or have a free option. However, if you choose the free option, either be willing to wait weeks, if not months, for your link to show up or put a link to that directory on your website. If you’re in a hurry or don’t want to link back to the directory, most directories will charge you a one-time or annual fee of $20 or less.

How do you find online directories?

1. Figure out who is linking to websites that already rank well. I use a free program called Backlink Analyzer for this.
2. I’ve also found a list of online directories at SEO Pros. The list is a couple years old and some of the links don’t work, but it’s still a good place to start.
3. I also recommend doing a Google search on “web directories” or industry specific directories such as “real estate directories” or “business directories.”

Of course you can always hire the eMarketing Strategist to submit your website to online directories. I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to craft the components of your listing to maximize your website’s chances of ranking well. I’ve also built customized directory lists and refined the submission process to be as efficient as possible. Give me a call or send me an email and I’ll give you an estimate of what it would take to get your website ranking well in the search engines.

Related Links:
Open Directory Project
DMOZ submission criteria
Backlink Analyzer
SEO Pros list of online directories