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Link Building is one of the most important aspects of the search engine optimization game but it is the hardest out of all of the different aspects but if you can build quality relevant links to your website you can see tremendous success with little on-page optimization. This tip will show you a quick way to build links through directories by finding relevant directory categories that apply to your website and also how to keep up with your competitors who have directory submissions that might already be outranking you.

First lets look at directories…
I think that directories can be a tremendous way to help you get a link building history going and get your trust and page rank up in the search engines. Don’t focus solely on page rank when looking at directories as it can be very deceiving because the page rank you see in the toolbar is out of date as they only update/publish new page rank to the toolbar once a quarter or so. So, just remember page rank is a number that is updated constantly behind the scenes.

The most important factors I take into consideration when looking to submit to a directory is:
- Is the directory indexed? You can check quickly by doing a google search for cache:www.directoryexample.com
- When was the last time the directory was indexed? You can look at the cache date once you run the above search, if it has been more then 7-10 days for the homepage to be indexed this could be a negative thing for me to spend the money to submit to this directory.
- How many pages are indexed? Do another search in Google for site:directoryexample.com and see how many pages are indexed, if there are less then <50 and you know the directory has more than 50 categories this could also be a red flag for you.
- Take the url of the category you are wanting to submit to. If it is the auto accessories page make sure this page is indexed in the search engines so do another search cache:www.directoryexample.com/auto-accessories/ (Some of the deep categories could not be indexed for weeks so don’t look at the date as a huge factor here, although you would like for it to be within the past two weeks)

Most of you will ask well do you have a directory list that you suggest and yes I do. Before I post, I want to say that if a directory is free or does not “reject” listings meaning there is no human-review done I wouldn’t waste your time submitting to it. The search engines have strongly encouraged you to submit to search engines that are human reviewed as they reward them higher. The directory list that I like to follow is located here: http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/top-web-directories.html

Next, lets look at how you can take your competitors who are ranking for keyword you want to rank for and see what directories they are listed in…
Seeing what directories your competitors are in is a great strategy for you to start off by matching the directories they are in. You think, well if they are ranking good right now for the keywords I want to rank for it… then it makes perfect sense for me to mimic what they have and then go the extra mile and write great content and build even better links then they have to beat them.

So, take your competitors domains (ex: bluewidgets.com, redwidgets.com) Do a search in google for:
linkdomain:www.bluewidgets.com submit
linkdomain:www.redwigets.com submit
linkdomain:www.bluewidgets.com suggest
linkdomain:www.redwidgets.com suggest

You are thinking why does he have submit or suggest after the linkdomain command. We’ll most directories all have a submit or suggest link for you to submit your url to there directory. So that is why!

Again, take your time and go through your competitors and do these search commands and you will see some good results when submitting to these directories as a start. Remember though when submitting your website to the directory to not inflate your title when submitting, you should only submit your website/company name as the title. If you try to stuff it with keywords you will more then likely be rejected or they will update it for you.

*I apologize for the delay in this post, it was supposed to be posted on Wednesday! Remember, to keep your eyes out for another great link building tip next Wednesday!