A million dollar question with no satisfactory answers! The responses to the much debated topic differ in variety ranging from “Its crap” to “It has done wonders for my site”! Directory submissions are one of the simplest and most effective means of getting some worthwhile back links for a site and to get it indexed by the search engines. Cost effective but time consuming, the best results can be achieved if the submissions are done manually and by experts.

The trick to rewarding results lies in picking the most relevant directories that are well accepted, indexed and have a high Page Rank. The most important aspect is where exactly you submit to in a directory. Random or general submission to just any page in a directory is not only useless but also dangerous from ranking perspective. Google algorithms are capable of discounting unrelated and illogical submissions. So you don’t just have to land and get accepted by a great directory, but also need to submit to the precise contextual page related to your website. In case the directory does not host an appropriate page, you can either post to the most relevant page you can find; or request the directory to create a recommended page or else simply move on to another directory where you can find exactly what you are looking for.

The quality of submissions also needs to be supplemented by quantity. A good 500 to 1000 submissions over a period of a few months can easily get you a PR of 3 or 4. The results become tough to achieve when you aim higher. That is not to suggest that directory submissions do not work when targeting higher rankings for your website, it just needs more endeavor and some more SEO techniques must be applied concurrently for an overall productive sustainable result.

Some might query about what has altered from a few years back when directory submissions used to work wonders for their website? What changed was that these submissions became hugely popular due to quick effectual results that came up within a short time. Websites were able to get great SERPs with submissions and made good money; and where there’s money, there’s abuse too! Many incompetent directories out to make a quick buck started popping up all over the place. A mind boggling variety for every conceivable purpose was dished out to the gullible. You could not differentiate between a really sound directory and a guaranteed listings directory! People got bewildered between the plethora of choices ranging from free listing, paid submissions, assured or no-guarantee submissions, relevant or immaterial, and the superiority of these directories. Basically directory submissions moved from being something quite relevant to manipulating search engine spiders. A shrewd Google soon wizened up to the trick, made its algorithms exacting and started disregarding worthless directories and directory link farms that distributed links like candies! The result was some directories got banned, black listed and the website listings dropped or became stagnant. Panic spread in the online world and directory submissions lost their sheen.

The truth is, directory listings are still very useful and must be a part of your overall SEO strategy. You just need to pick your directories cautiously, submit to the correct pages and have patience. If the submissions are made by experts who can hand pick the best directories and submit according to the set procedure, then the site rankings are definitely going to get enhanced. But still, with mounting competition, sole dependence on one particular approach is not enough and other SEO tools too must be applied for good measure.

Any website worth its weight courts recognition from the Google Search Engine. What makes Google the best and most coveted, is its ranking algorithm which is the most up to date and as complex as it ever gets. A good Page Rank (PR) blessing from Google can make or break a website’s standing in the online arena. So what exactly is all the hype and excitement about? Why is a high Google Page Rank such an enigma and evasive?

Google trademarked ‘Page Rank’ is an algorithm to determine the relative importance of a particular page among a set of related and complementary pages. In simple words, the better a web page’s Page Rank, higher it ranks and gets top display on the Google search engine results pages. The numerical grading that ranges from 0 – 10, takes into account 100s of millions of variables and billions of terms. Google rules the internet world and pages that seem important to it rank higher and better. Google’s Page Rank algorithm besides being elaborate and complex, cannot be tricked or cheated and is thus accepted as the best and most reliable.

According to Google besides content, the Page Rank of a page mainly depends on 3 crucial factors:

• The relevance and quality/Page Rank of incoming links.
• The amount of link juice that the incoming link simultaneously distributes to other linked pages.
• The amount of inbound links

The basic formula that – more the number of inbound links coming to a web page, higher will be its ranking is easily understood. But what is even more crucial is the factor that the inbound links of the highest PR are useless if irrelevant and out of context. The links received must be contextual, complementary and relevant, or else Google is smart enough to recognize manipulation.

The quality of an inbound link depends on 2 parameters. Higher the PR of the incoming link (i.e. the Page Rank improves in the ascending order with 0 being least, PR 4/5 being good and PR 10 being the best) better link value it provides to the web page. But if a high PR page is also sending out links to multiple other pages besides the page in question, then the link juice evenly gets distributed between all the receiver pages. Thus a PR 7 page with 20 outbound links will provide less PR value as compared to a similar PR page with only 4 outgoing links. In this context, it is sometimes better to receive links from maybe a PR 6 website but which gives very few or no outbound links at all.

Another point worth noticing is the fact that it is hugely believed (although no one knows for sure) that the climb up the ladder from PR 0 to PR 10 gets more and more difficult and treacherous as you move up every step. What that actually means is that the Page Rank model uses a logarithmic grading system instead of a simple one where the move from PR 1 to 2 is as difficult as moving from PR 5 to 6. Instead according to widespread belief, it is simple to jump up from the lower PR rungs but the journey gets tougher as you keep moving ahead with the topmost PR 9 and 10 being almost unattainable!

The relevance of Page Rank gets reflected every time a query is made on the Google Search Engine. Google first compiles all the pages relevant to the query and then displays them according to their PR. Thus higher the PR more is the visibility of your page. Page Rank is also the tool to keep track of your SEO efforts. If your site PR moves up with the current SEO techniques being employed, that means you are on the right track; if not, it is time for a strategy change!

A link directory is a website that contains a list or generally speaking a directory of various links from different categories. This is what people do to search for business listings or for some information on websites depending on the category that they have been looking for. So for interested customers, this can be really helpful since they got all the websites listed in front of their computer.

On the other hand, this can be helpful for web masters and website owners too. If you do submit your website link into one or more of these directories, it increases your chances that your link can be found from a search coming from an interested customer. But, not all directories can be effective in promoting your website. There are some factors that you have to consider in choosing a website directory too.

Here are some of the things that you should look after in order to determine whether it is a good link directory or not.

• The link directory should contain categories depending on the niche. It should not be a mish mash of links. It will be hard to search for these links if that particular link directory is not organized itself. Another thing is that it should be maintained regularly, ensuring that all links are placed in the right category or sub-category.
• Don’t go for a website directory that don’t contain too many links. You won’t benefit anything from it. It should be a well established link directory, that doesn’t ask for any of your website details aside from the URL of course.
• If possible, the link directory should have a contact number or other forms of contact details just in case you need to reach the directory.

Sometimes, you can also start there and search for sites yourself. You may find websites related to your industry and ask in a nice manner whether then would want to exchange links with you. Remember to respect their time and never harass them just to have 2 way links.

Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing experts have by and large always recommended directory submissions as a process for natural and effective link building for your website.

The popularity of your website also gets a tremendous boost when you submit the same to SEO Directories like King Directory.

Before you start the task of link building, it is very important to completely understand the relevance and importance of the data you submit regarding your website for drawing maximum benefits.

Search Engines are known to associate incoming links to a website according to the theme, topic and relevancy of a website. To tap maximum potential always try to navigate down to the best and most relevant category available in that directory for submitting your website to the same. By doing this you ensure that the relevancy of the link created is maintained and gives full value to your website.

Another very important thing to ensure when submitting to directories is to create proper, keyword containing, titles and descriptions to be supplied to directories during the submission process. The importance of this reflects by way of search engines closely associating your website to those keywords.  This also has a direct effect on the search engine positions you enjoy over time.

Try and prepare several variations of the titles and descriptions and submit them randomly, to different directories, so that there is a good mix of keywords in the links to your website.

Search Engine Optimization is all about interpretation and implementation, the more you plan and co-ordinate your activities in advance, the better will be the yield from them.

Link Building is one of the most discussed topic online. Every website owner and teams involved in promoting a website online are introduced to this topic, without fail.

Making a website, hosting it, and expecting an amazing number of traffic and business generated through it is almost every website owners wish. This however is a wish that takes much more than just website design and development in order to be fulfilled.

With the number of websites serving every specialty growing rapidly and millions of websites competing with each other, another major player that has emerged to play an important part in the success of any website is Search Engine Optimization often referred to as SEO.

SEO Experts globally have a famous saying that “Content is King”, which goes to illustrate that the content you publish on your website plays a major role in building and maintaining the popularity as well as the amount of business you generate from your website. Even search engines love original content and are always waiting to index your pages for the same, and the SEO world spares no effort in speaking about the importance of good, original content on your website.

Another major player in this game of generic (from search engines) website traffic generation is Link Building. Industry leaders for SEO spare no efforts in communicating about the necessity of having an effective link building campaign for a website. This importance actually stems from the fact that search engines (for example Google, Bing, and Yahoo) take into consideration the number of websites linking to you and the relevancy of those links, before calculating the importance of your website for a given topic.

In fact each link to your website is counted as a vote towards the importance and the relevancy of your website for a given topic. As the number of links generated online increases and information about this gets recorded by search engines, the search ranking for your website automatically improves.

Done properly, Link Building can make the necessary difference when it comes to getting your website ahead of the competition.

One of the best methods of generating links for your website is to submit it on SEO friendly website directories like King Directory. While submitting in a website directory you should always take care to submit your website in the proper category as this makes the link generated relevant to the topic / specialty your website addresses.

For example King Directory provides one of the most expansive lists of categories and sub-categories that help in choosing the right page where a link to your website is placed. When a search engine encounters your website’s link on a proper page / category, the significance of having your website submitted to the right category comes into play and more points are added to your website’s account than having a similar link from non-related pages / categories.

As a website owner it is very important to know that although Content may be King, it is link building that rules the success of websites globally.