Continuing on with our link development we’re continuing on in our quest to use mostly technical methods to build links. In my first post on the subject of link development we discussed checking your competitors backlinks to find places to get links. Now we’re going to discuss directories and other places we can basically automate submissions to.
But first, a message from your neighbourhood Google spam team. Be careful with this type of technique. It can get you ranked. It can also get you penalized or banned. Too much of anything in link development is a bad thing, too much paid link building can be a bad thing. Certainly it’s something the search engines would rather not see so realize too much of it and they’re going to want to slap you somehow.
Step 1 - finding directories.
Like much of link building, we use Google to find the sites we’re looking for. In this case we’re looking for footprints or signs that a website is a directory. For example, most directories would have the words ’submit your site’ on the page. So searching for ’submit your site’ should yield a good list of sites to start looking at. And sure enough it does.
Now I’ll cut to the chase and give you the list of footprints. This list has been passed around the internet for years and the original author is long lost. Whoever they are, thank you. Without further ado, assuming your business is ‘web design’, here’s some searches you can do to find sites.
“Suggest link” “web design”
“Suggest a link” “web design”
“Suggest site” “web design”
“Suggest a site” “web design”
“Suggest URL” “web design”
“Suggest a URL” “web design”
“Suggest an URL” “web design”
“Add link” “web design”
“Add a link” “web design”
“Add site” “web design”
“Add a site” “web design”
“Add URL” “web design”
“Add a URL” “web design”
“Add an URL” “web design”
“Submit link” “web design”
“Submit a link” “web design”
“Submit site” “web design”
“Submit a site” “web design”
“Submit URL” “web design”
“Submit a URL” “web design”
“Submit an URL” “web design”
“favorite links” “web design”
“recommended links” “web design”
“cool sites” “web design”
“cool places” “web design”
“reciprocal” “web design”
“directory” “web design”
“directorys” “web design”
“directories” “web design”
“exchange” “web design”
“exchanges” “web design”
“resources” “web design”
“resource” “web design”
“links” “web design”
“philippines” “add url”
“philippines” “suggest a site”
“philippines” “submit site”
“philippines” “links”
“philippines” “reciprocal links”
“philippines” “directory”
“friends” “web design”
“partners” “web design”
“add your url” “web design”
“submit your url” “web design”
“submit your site” “web design”
“add your url” “web design”
“add your link” “web design”
“add url” “web designs”
“add site” “web designs”
“add link” “web designs”
“add a url” “web designs”
“add a site” “web designs”
“add a link” “web designs”
“submit url” “web designs”
“submit site” “web designs”
“submit link” “web designs”
“submit a url” “web designs”
“submit a site” “web designs”
“submit a link” “web designs”
“recomended sites” “web design”
“links” “web design”
“link exchange” “web design”
“link exchanges” “web design”
“link request” “web design”
“link partner” “web design”
“recip link” “web design”
“link” “web design”
“addurl.html” “web design”
“addsite.html” “web design”
“addlink.html” “web design”
“addaurl.html” “web design”
“addasite.html” “web design”
“addalink.html” “web design”
“submiturl.html” “web design”
“submitsite.html” “web design”
“submitlink.html” “web design”
“submitaurl.html” “web design”
“submitasite.html” “web design”
“submitalink” “web design”
“add-url.html” “web design”
“add-site.html” “web design”
“add-link.html” “web design”
“add-a-url.html” “web design”
“add-a-site.html” “web design”
“add-a-link.html” “web design”
“submit-url.html” “web design”
“submit-site.html” “web design”
“submit-link.html” “web design”
“submit-a-url.html” “web design”
“submit-a-site.html” “web design”
“submit-a-link.html” “web design”
“add_url.html” “web design”
“add_site.html” “web design”
“add_link.html” “web design”
“add_a_url.html” “web design”
“add_a_site.html” “web design”
“add_a_link.html” “web design”
“submit_url.html” “web design”
“submit_site.html” “web design”
“submit_link.html” “web design”
“submit_a_url.html” “web design”
“submit_a_site.html” “web design”
“submit_a_link.html” “web design”
“add-url.htm” “web design”
“add-site.htm” “web design”
“add-link.htm” “web design”
“add-a-url.htm” “web design”
“add-a-site.htm” “web design”
“add-a-link.htm” “web design”
“submit-url.htm” “web design”
“submit-site.htm” “web design”
“submit-link.htm” “web design”
“submit-a-url.htm” “web design”
“submit-a-site.htm” “web design”
“submit-a-link.htm” “web design”
“add_url.htm” “web design”
“add_site.htm” “web design”
“add_link.htm” “web design”
“add_a_url.htm” “web design”
“add_a_site.htm” “web design”
“add_a_link.htm” “web design”
“submit_url.htm” “web design”
“submit_site.htm” “web design”
“submit_link.htm” “web design”
“submit_a_url.htm” “web design”
“submit_a_site.htm” “web design”
“submit_a_link.htm” “web design”
“submitlink.htm” “web design”
“submitsite.htm” “web design”
“add-url.php” “web design”
“add-site.php” “web design”
“add-link.php” “web design”
“add-a-url.php” “web design”
“add-a-site.php” “web design”
“add-a-link.php” “web design”
“submit-url.php” “web design”
“submit-site.php” “web design”
“submit-link.php” “web design”
“submit-a-url.php” “web design”
“submit-a-site.php” “web design”
“submit-a-link.php” “web design”
“add_url.php” “web design”
“add_site.php” “web design”
“add_link.php” “web design”
“add_a_url.php” “web design”
“add_a_site.php” “web design”
“add_a_link.php” “web design”
“submit_url.php” “web design”
“submit_site.php” “web design”
“submit_link.php” “web design”
“submit_a_url.php” “web design”
“submit_a_site.php” “web design”
“submit_a_link.php” “web design”
“submitlink.php” “web design”
“submitsite.php” “web design”
“add-url.shtml” “web design”
“add-site.shtml” “web design”
“add-link.shtml” “web design”
“add-a-url.shtml” “web design”
“add-a-site.shtml” “web design”
“add-a-link.shtml” “web design”
“submit-url.shtml” “web design”
“submit-site.shtml” “web design”
“submit-link.shtml” “web design”
“submit-a-url.shtml” “web design”
“submit-a-site.shtml” “web design”
“submit-a-link.shtml” “web design”
“submitlink.shtml” “web design”
“submitsite.shtml” “web design”
“add_url.shtml” “web design”
“add_site.shtml” “web design”
“add_link.shtml” “web design”
“add_a_url.shtml” “web design”
“add_a_site.shtml” “web design”
“add_a_link.shtml” “web design”
“submit_url.shtml” “web design”
“submit_site.shtml” “web design”
“submit_link.shtml” “web design”
“submit_a_url.shtml” “web design”
“submit_a_site.shtml” “web design”
“submit_a_link.shtml” “web design”
“add-url.cfm” “web design”
“add-site.cfm” “web design”
“add-link.cfm” “web design”
“add-a-url.cfm” “web design”
“add-a-site.cfm” “web design”
“add-a-link.cfm” “web design”
“submit-url.cfm” “web design”
“submit-site.cfm” “web design”
“submit-link.cfm” “web design”
“submit-a-url.cfm” “web design”
“submit-a-site.cfm” “web design”
“submit-a-link.cfm” “web design”
“submitlink.cfm” “web design”
“submitsite.cfm” “web design”
“add_url.cfm” “web design”
“add_site.cfm” “web design”
“add_link.cfm” “web design”
“add_a_url.cfm” “web design”
“add_a_site.cfm” “web design”
“add_a_link.cfm” “web design”
“submit_url.cfm” “web design”
“submit_site.cfm” “web design”
“submit_link.cfm” “web design”
“submit_a_url.cfm” “web design”
“submit_a_site.cfm” “web design”
“submit_a_link.cfm” “web design”
“add your link” + “web design”
“add link” + “web design”
“add your site” + “web design”
“link exchange” + “web design”
“add your URL” + “web design”
“submit your link” + “web design”
“add links” + “web design”
“submit your site” + “web design”
“exchange links” + “web design”
“add new link” + “web design”
“add URL” + “web design”
“add site” + “web design”
“add a link” + “web design”
“add your website” + “web design”
“submit your website” + “web design”
“add a new link” + “web design”
“submit URL” + “web design”
“submit link” + “web design”
“request a link” + “web design”
“exchanging links” + “web design”
“submit a link” + “web design”
“trade links” + “web design”
“submit website” + “web design”
“link requests” + “web design”
“website listed here” + “web design”
“link swap” + “web design”
“add a site” + “web design”
Here’s some other directories you may consider submitting to as well:
www.dmoz.org
dir.yahoo.com
www.botw.org
Those are three of the top directories available. Dmoz is free, but hand edited and hard to get into (I’ll tell you how you can pretty much guarantee a listing in Dmoz in a later post). Yahoo’s directory is $300 bucks a year. BOTW (Best Of The Web) are run by some of the sharpest directory folks out there. If you’re going to do paid directores and focus on quality, those are the three to start at.
In addition to the above list of search terms there are numerous compiled lists of directories. One of the most popular is vilesilencer but there’s plenty of others. Do some searches on ‘paid directory lists’ and things like that; you’ll find the lists.
Step 2: Evaluating the Directory
Now you’ve got hundreds or thousands of directories you may submit to. Some free, many paid. Which ones to submit to? All?
Let me first state that I’ve seen people rank by excessive use of paid directory submissions. But I’m very very concerned about that as a long term plan. I’m pretty sure they’re going to get busted someday. So keep that in mind. My recommendation is be careful where you submit to - let the vast majority of directories go by. Find ones that are relevant if you can. Failing that, find ones that seem to have some trust (like www.botw.org). I recommend you use this link building technique as an initial foundation layer of links, not an overall or even a primary link building technique.
Anyway, try and keep in mind my previous post on judging the quality of backlinks. Most directories are going to have a lot of low end crap as their backlinks, and most will be general non-relevant sites. That’s because in the heyday of the directory site, everyone was setting up directories, building backlinks just to get PR, then selling listings for $10 a pop. But Google has hit directories pretty hard with a decline in PR and what seem to be other penalties.
So first step in judging directories - are they relevant?
Second step - are they trusted?
Next, check how many pages the site has indexed. Using your search status plugin, see how many pages Google has indexed for the site. Lots of pages, good. Not as many as you’d expect, not so good. That means Google doesn’t think the site is valuable enough to index all the pages. You can also try the search ‘mortgages site:directorysite.com’ to see what pages from the directory are in Google that relate to mortgages or whatever niche you’re in. Certainly if you find that the page you’re getting a link from is not indexed in Google you should skip the directory.
Also, look at how the directory pages are ordered and the pagination. If your company name is ZZZ mortgages and the directory lists alphabetically, you’re on the last page. If that’s on page 12 of the mortgage listings, that’s not good. You’re buried deep.
The front page of directories will list the categories in the directory. Directory software also allows them to list subcategories on the front page (i.e. instead of just listing the business category, they might show the main ‘business’ category as a listing, and below it have three or four subcategories, like mortgages and SEO). If the subcategory you want to get listed on is on the front page of the directory, that’s a good thing.
Two other factors to look at as it relates to your submission. Some directories allow rich anchor text. So if your company is Bob’s Mortgages, they will let you set up your anchor text - the text they link to you with - as ‘Shop Mortgage Rates Online’. This practice is good for you, not so good for the directory IMO (most quality directories don’t allow keyword stuffing in the anchor text). In addition, some directories will give you a base link plus another 4 or 5 links to inner pages. This is a GOOD thing, use it.
Price is the last consideration. You need to combine all the above factors and make a decision. Is $10 a good buy? Is $99 a good buy? There’s no right answer, much of this is judgement and experience based. Personally? I’d probably be buying more $50 and $100 directories than I would $10 directories. Again, use directory submission with caution. It’s a technique that’s been thoroughly chewed over and abused for years. Show the search engines your site is about quality, not quantity.
Now for an example. I run a couple niche directories. It uses custom software so I don’t leave footprints. Listings are free - but! All listings require that the website list full physical contact info, I only list ‘real’ businesses. I don’t allow keyword stuffing. And I hand process each and every submission, discarding any I don’t want to link to. The directories still rank a bit in Google for long tail search terms. I believe they pass along some good link juice to people who are listed. And I’ve had people tell me they get referrals and business from the site. That’s the kind of directory you’re looking for, if you can find them.
That’s it! Go forward and find quality directories. Pay some and submit some. Start building the initial layer of your link development. But don’t go overboard.