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Theres Major Power In Submitting Your Website To Web Directories!

Webmasters like you and me are always on the lookout to enhance the link popularity of their sites. One method of doing so is to seek out authority sites in your niche sites that are widely known on the Internet through the sheer number of back links and have been around for some time think more in terms of several years. Unfortunately such websites are often at a Page Rank of 6 and as such link exchange or text link ad placement is very very expensive. Luckily there is a cheaper alternative. You can use web directories to not only enhance your search engine visibility through increased link popularity but by targeting niche categories and using sponsored listings where necessary you can get a big jump in your traffic as well. So lets get started.

What is a web directory?
A web directory is a collection of links broken down into relevant categories. Think Yahoo! and their directory the Open Directory Project or even the Google Directory which incidentally is pulled from the ODP. At its most basic level a web directory is a collection of bookmarks made available to the public. In other cases like Yahoo it is a professional resource for people actively looking for information. To get listed in such a directory you can either get listed for free which might take a while or in many cases pay a onetime fee to have your website reviewed and entered in the directory. One major exception is Yahoo which charges a recurring fee for its commercial listings and well look at that later.

The benefits of being listed in a web directory
In theory there are two main benefits of being listed in a web directory:
* Increased linkpopularity due to a oneway link from a highlyrespected resource.
* Increased traffic due to being listed in a directory that is searched by many people every day.

In reality though these benefits are directly related to how popular the directory is itself and how much money you have paid for your listing. Of course if the link is for free there is nothing to worry about. But if you are paying for submission you need to know some very important facts:

Link Popularity
As far as linkpopularity is concerned you need to factor in several variables:
* The Page Rank of the directory
* The Page Rank of the category page on which you are listed
* Where you are listed on the page
* The number of competing websites on that page
* If there are other websites in your niche that can offer you the same conditions for the same price or less very very important.
The last point is very important from the cost/benefit angle. A web directory while being a hub itself is NOT a niche website or an authority site. Even within categories and subcategories the lack of valuable content means that web directories are at the end of the day link pages and nothing more. Where directories win out is the fact that they require onetime fees. In contrast authority sites or most websites with a Page Rank greater than 5 or 6 tend to use text links as a source fo revenue and thus charge monthly fees. A directory listing then becomes a much better option but only for link popularity.

More Traffic
Directory listings are also used as traffic building opportunities. How this works is that many directories are searchable for their visitors so that users can look for information. In theory this is great you can get lifetime traffic for just a nominal payment but you should not expect a sudden deluge of traffic from just one directory listing. Heres why:
* Most directories apart from the top twenty or so are usually used for linkbuilding and not pure searching. This means that while people may use GoGuides or Yahoo for regular searches you should expect that the smaller directories are mainly for linkpopularity and plan your investment as such.
* Many directories offer listings based on an alphabetical ordering or a firstcome firstserve ordering. In both cases your website has quite a big chance of being lost out in the noise.
* Directorysearch algorithms differ greatly. Some directories like JoeAnt base their search on keyword relevancy which makes it more of an exercise of stuffing your directory listing with keywords rather than making a good website while others take a more editorial approach by factoring in editor ratings. And still many directories display sponsored listings first reinforcing the adage that even on the Internet its your advertising budget that talks and not necessarily the quality of your website.

After you factor in the above points you realize that there are only a handful of web directories where it is a definite benefit to pay to be listed. And even then you cannot just rely on just being listed sponsor listings get much more exposure. But before we discuss these dozen or so web directories Id like to tell you how you can make sure your website is accepted.

How to get listed Overview
Getting listed in a web directory is a function of three things:
Time: It takes a certain amount of time before an editor can review your website and approve or reject your request. This is usually anywhere between a week to almost never in huge web directories like Yahoo and Dmoz. You can reduce this to within a week by using the paid listing option.
Money: Apart from Dmoz the big directories usually require a nominal payment for your website to be listed. While you can calculate the benefit of such a listing from reading the previous section know that usually there are several listing options which the better services that give your website more directory visibility obviously costing more.
Quality: In some cases very rarely nowadays directory inclusions can be rejected due to the poor quality of a website. Maybe the editor considered that your website was not useful enough meaning it had little or no useful / original / any content or sometimes there may be moral issues although editors are urged to abide by directory guidelines and not personal beliefs. If rejected you will almost always receive feedback you might have to ask for it on how to improve your website.

In earlier days quality was a big issue. Today it is still a major concern for top directories like Yahoo but this is more to separate the truly atrocious from the rest rather than to separate the best from the rest. Each web directory has their personalized criteria but there are two crucial elements to getting listed:
* Paid Inclusions Apart from Dmoz and some directories where you can signup to be an editor the top directories require payment anywhere from 15 to 299.
* Website Quality By this I dont mean design; Im talking about having truly useful information even if your website is a commercial website simply putting up a bunch of affiliate links will not count as a quality website .

About the writer:  If you would like to learn more internet marketing strategies for optimizing the amount of money you make online you can get a free copy of any of our best selling courses. Just tell us where to mail it and we’ll send it straight to your front door. Go here: http://www.bradcallen.com

The Beauty Of Search Engine Optimization Phobias

It is a common belief among many web business owners that once they submit their website to a search engines theyre on their way to financial success. Yes submitting your site is important. But simply informing the search engines that you exist which is all you are doing is not enough because they reaction you may get is so youre out there so what. Today web pages need to be optimized in order for search engines to take them seriously.

Search engine optimization is the art and science of making your web pages attractive to the search engines.

But mention search engine optimization to some folks and you get winces. Some completely bury their heads in the sand. This in part is because search engine optimization is work. It requires research of keywords content creation producing well written Meta tags enhancing your web pages with a few pictures audio and video to improve the user experience and keeping up to date on the latest trends in SEO. For many webmaster this is more than they want to handle especially since the internet businesses have be synonyms with get rich quick schemes.

An internet marketer recently said I dont understand why I have to do it the search engine will find me eventually. The fact that she was willing to wait around rather than put in a little effort to make things happen for her business puzzled me. Then I thought maybe shes just afraid to get her feet wet. SEO is like anything its scary if you dont know how to go about it.

First you have to ask yourself what are you are willing to lose. If you do not participate in SEO you will lose your business this is a fact. Search engines are still the number one traffic generator and most users who use search engines do not go past the second page of results. If you dont get serious and undertake search engine optimization you will be lucky to see a handful of customers because only a slight few will ever see you. Needless to say you wont become a millionaire with only 5 visitors per day if youre lucky.

Next join a forum that discusses it. There are a lot of masters out there that who are willing to share SEO tips for free. Start asking questions about what you dont know. If youve tried SEO but failed find out where you went wrong.

Another excuse many use is that they want to do SEO but they dont have the time. This may be valid. However a great number of people can spend hours looking for gossip but when it come to their pages they suddenly realize they have something better to do. Ill optimize my page after my favorite show; I cant miss my favorite show! The shed needs cleaning. I dont have the energy for it after I come home from my other job.

It only takes an hour a day to build a successful business. If time spent optimizing your website leads to an increase in sales isnt it time well spent? Take it one page at a time; optimize one page today and move on to the next when youre done. Trying to take on the whole website would make anyone have an anxiety attack especially for a large site.

The beauty of SEO is that it does not take too long to become proficient and once you have the hang of it youll find that run through it quicker.

Its all about increasing the potential for sales. And if search engine optimization is going to increase your profit margin dont you think you should take head out the sand.

About the writer:  Jeff Casmer is an internet marketing consultant and work at home business owner. For more information on search engines optimization please visit his “Top Ranked” Best Search Engine Optimization Products Directory which gives you all the information you need to Work from Home in the 21st century.

The Basic Knowledge To Elite Economical SEO Optimization Sem Process

Once a shop is set up and its identity has been founded in the internet through a web site the next step is to let that be known to the target customers. It is something like a normal day to day process of bringing buyers to buy the products or services which that business can render.

Sometimes simple business goodwill is enough for that. It is presumed the prospects can easily have knowledge about that business and its quality products or services.

At certain point of time that popular business also can face the problem of saturation in this competitive era of marketing. So only goodwill will not help in this regard and a comprehensive marketing becomes necessary.

In case of the internet customers are termed as visitors or the users and the business as the web site. As such a web site needs to concentrate on its goals and specifically it has to entice visitors to come and stay some time in the site to make the purchase. It has been a relentless process by which a site can generate its visitors through successful internet marketing.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is that effective internet marketing process by which one can increase the number of visitors in a site.

Now the question is where will the visitors search for the intended sites in the internet? The answer obviously would be the search engine which acts nothing but a platform where the sites references are stored as per the short site info.

But here lies a problem there can be million sites that may come out in a search result in a search engine and it is abnormal to think the users can see all the sites. Therefore what would be the way out? Cant it be possible that the user first sees your site in the search result? Yes it can be possible and technically that is what an SEO is meant for all. It has been a thorough process to make the web sites rank high in the search results.

So the previous definition needs one important addition: the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine is called an SEO. The higher the site ranks the greater the chance a user can see the site.

Once the marketing niche i.e. the search place in the form of search engine is determined our next step is to know how they would search for a specific site. As you know their searching pattern you can surely know what to target at. It is the keyword that user uses to make a search. Hence you need to know that searching keyword. You need to fit in those keywords tactfully in your site so that search engines can have a track and when any user searches with that keyword your site comes up first.

Following are some effective systematic ways of www.seosydney.net.au to do wonder in the search engine:

1.Research on Keywords: The research for the right targeted keywords is important. The keyword should be specific and work related. Rather than merely describing about the product name it has to reflect which brand it is targeting for.

2.Working on Content: The content in the site must be able to entice the users with proper info of the site nature.

3.Proper Design: Your overall web design should be simple nice and user friendly. Make web pages that are easy to load. Dont make pages with large images if images are necessary; make a thumbnail and must add a description of the image.

4.Be Search Engine Spider Friendly: Try avoiding JavaScript link and menus flash graphics as search engine spiders can not read them.

5.Build incoming links to your site: Links or recommendations from other sites that has a moderate stature in the market would boost up the process; the user can be sure of the usual process.

6.Not fooling the search engines by some unethical techniques: There is a rule in SEO and that has to be followed at any cost. Please avoid cloaking link farms keyword stuffing alt text spamming or other and unethical methods.

It is for sure that one who has followed these processes can easily get user if not faster as it takes time to generate the traffic or the users. Until that moment please be patient and carry on the process with best care.

About the writer:  Joanna Gadel is from an Australian SEO agency that deals with Search engine marketing at Sydney in Australia. His endeavor in the SEO field is really educative and helpful for the beginners who want to be an SEO expert.