Wednesday, September 5, 2007
World Wide Web searches are of two kinds: web directories and search engines. Web directories are extensive catalogues of web addresses that are indexed by subject and relevance. Experts review the sites, categorize them, and organize the information.
Searches can be made by category or keywords. And, vast numbers of websites can be sorted through to locate what is required. Sites are included either by submission by the owner or by the directory's editors when they come across sites.
Web directories are mainly of two kinds:
General directories that are automated indexes of pages not vetted by any reviewer or editor. They are a compilation of web sites and internet documents classified under different categories or subject indexes. Each listing carries a brief summary of the content contained within. Examples of popular general directories are: Google, and Excite.
Selected directories contain web sites and pages that have been vetted. These are of a certain quality and standard. These directories also provide links to other sites and documents pertaining to a particular subject or theme. They lead you to links that provide authoritative material written by experts in each field. Examples are: Librarians Index to the Internet, About.com, Virtual Library, and more.
Internet browsers can type queries into the directory and the directory will look for matches. Alternately, a searcher can view the indexed categories of the directory. Major categories would include: education, computers, business, sports, family, entertainment, arts, and so on. Within each category are subcategories that pertain to different aspects of the main category.
Links in directories are free, paid, or free but need a reciprocal link. Links are provided on pages with similar or relevant content. Most beneficial are high traffic directories that have numerous web sites listed under each category and sub category.
Characteristics of a quality directory are: numerous quality web sites are present in each category; there are editors who vet sites submitted; large number of pages in MSN, Google, as well as Yahoo; has a low Alexa rating; has a page ranker on pages; and pages are present in DMOZ and Yahoo directories.
The Alexa rating is calculated by the number of visitors to the site. While PageRank is a rating system of 1-10 for web pages devised by Google.
Submitting a web site to a directory will: increase click through traffic; have the site indexed by search engines; get higher rankings for targeted keywords; and get the site indexed by spiders.
Advantages of directories are:
Substantial staying power.
Marketing avenues.
Exponential growth and popularity.
To be accepted by a directory one must ensure that your site:
Content is comprehensive, unique, and plenty. Be sure to add new content regularly.
Is stable at all times and quick to load. There should be no broken links.
Works with multiple browsers as also with the most recent versions. Test your site accessibility with different browsers.
Is placed in the most appropriate or applicable category. Be sure it is distinct from other competitors. It should add value to the directory.
Submission details comply with directory guidelines.
Choose a search engine friendly directory rather than one with outlinks.
Directories must be selected with care. Due consideration must be given to one-time as well as recurring costs. The pros and cons of being a part of a directory should be studied before any steps are taken. Understand completely the world of web directories and their uses.
About the Author: Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for http://www.1866Webdirectory.com/, the premier website directory provides human edited categorized website listings including business websites, news websites, gaming websites, shopping websites, travel websites and more. He also freelances for the premier Submit Article Services site http://www.Submit-Article-Services.com
What is a Web Directory?
Do you have a website and are looking for more traffic? If so you don't have to despair trying to figure out how you will direct traffic to your site because there is a tried and true way to increase your traffic in no time! The best method to get more traffic is with one way links. You may have heard of reciprocal links in the past, but that requires you to host a link on your site as well. With one way links there is a link to your site, but you don't have to host a link as well! You might be wondering how you can possibly get other sites to host a link to your site without you having to host a link back, but fortunately it is not only possible but really easy with web directories!
One Way Links and Web Directories
Website directories are simply directories that focus on compiling links to other websites and then categorizing them. There are thousands of web directories on the Web that will allow you as a website owner to submit your website information and link to have included in the web directory. Then, a human will review the submission to approve it for the web directory. Then, your site will have a new one way link in the web directory that will help you reach more people and ultimately get more traffic. Since there are so many web directories you can spend a lot of time submitting your information in order to receive those important one way links. Or else you could hire someone to do it for you. Amazingly, there are many online companies that focus on submitting your link to website directories and since they already know the web directories and how to go about the process they can do it fast and cheap!
Since there are so many directories out there and you want as many links as possible then this might be the best bet for you. Trying to link your site with all of the web directories on the web will take a lot of your time and you won't be able to focus on other projects or business. Of course, if you have a lot of free time then you can visit all of the web directories you want to submit your website to get a one way link. That is completely up to you, just know there are companies that offer this service for a very reasonable rate.
Some of the most famous web directories are Yahoo! Directory, Open Directory Project, as well as LookSmart, so you will want to start with these. Of course, there are plenty of other web directories to choose from and you might need to do a little online research to figure out which ones are best. Just remember, if you want more traffic for your website start placing some one way links to your site in web directories and watch the visitors come.
Article supplied by Ian Walsh, owner of Villas2u - Orlando Villas as well as editor of the Categorized Web Directory and Directoree Website Directory.
Want to know more about one-way links? Visit http://www.categorizedweb.com or http://www.directoree.net
Importance of Web Directory for Search Engines by www.itsallaboutlinks.com
In the old days of world wide web, users preferred to visit web directory to find the site they are looking for. As a matter of fact, Yahoo!, one of the preferred destination for online users, started as a web directory. Nowadays, most online user base rely on search engines too along with link directories, to find what they're looking for.
When search engines started to become popular, they were heavily relied on KEYWORDs and METATAGs of the web page to determine the topic and relevance of the page. Webmasters discovered that by keyword stuffing into METATAGs and webpage content, they could improve their website position in search results for verious keywords. But search engines are smart!. Search engines caught up to the abuse and decided to ignore the METATAGs and rely instead on text content of web page. Webmasters then started to keyword stuffing in the webpage content, often writing them in the same color as the web page's background so for webpage visitors as well as search engines that content is invisible.
Again, search engines worked on that area and discovered the trick and decided that the best way to rank a web page's content and its topical relevance was to rely on inbound links from other web pages. The rationale behind this is that it is much more difficult to influence other people to link back to your website than it is to manipulate your own web page elements. In fact, inbound links are the foundation of Google's Pagerank algorithm.
There are several ways to get inbound links, among them writing articles that include your bylines with a link to your page, link exchange, and add link to web directory are the poupler techniques.
Listing your sites in good link directories is probably the best way to get quality links that are highly valued by the search engines. Since web directories rely on human editors who enforce strict criteria to list a web site, and since directories organize the information in highly focused categories, they are an invaluable resource for search engines to measure the quality and the relevance of a web page.
In summary, web directories are important not because they generate significant traffic, but because they are given great importance by the search engines to qualify and rank web pages, and to determine their topical relevance.
So the bottomline is, you should definitely list your websites with quality web directory such as www.itsallaboutlinks.com, if you want to increase your chances of success with the search engines.
Paras Shah
www.itsallaboutlinks.com : Web Directory - Add Link - Submit Article - Website Design - SEO Services
