If you manage a web site which presents quality content, or if you are a writer and would like to expand your reader base, you can benefit substantially from inclusion of your articles or link in an internet directory website.
You may have heard about link farms , free for all link sites and other reciprocal linking schemes used in order to try to gain an advantage of higher positioning in search engine results; however, the major search engines like Google and Yahoo frown upon these and can actually penalize your site s listing position as a result. Here are some suggestions to help ensure the success of your link building campaign.
Begin your search for a directory which targets a specific niche or one which has categories specific to the type of content on your own site. It wouldn t make much sense to submit a link for a Dog Breeding website to an Automotive Mechanics directory website. Directories which cater to specific niches attract internet surfers who are seeking that type of information.
Once you have found a directory site with a potential fit to your content or product, review their submission guidelines to ensure that your link is a good fit to their directory. Reviewing and complying with submission rules saves you time and energy not to mention that it saves the directory s editor time too.
It is also beneficial to submit to a directory which is human edited . A human edited directory means just that, it is a directory in which link and article submissions are reviewed and approved by an actual human editor (or group of editors) and not just simply reviewed and visited by a bot. Human edited directory sites tend to have only quality web sites included.
NOFOLLOW Link Attribute
The NOFOLLOW link attribute was originally intended and implemented as a way of fighting things like comment spam by preventing search engines from following the links placed in those comments. The general idea being that the page rank and relevancy of the the webpage would not be shared with the NOFOLLOW link, indicating a sort of no confidence vote. It has had little to no impact on comment spam.
Google, in particular, has repurposed the NOFOLLOW attribute by suggesting that it be used as a disclosure for paid links. Google has indicated that sites which accept payment for link placements which do not use the NOFOLLOW attribute will be penalized on their search results. It is in that way that you will sometimes see it used on directory websites.
The majority of directory websites who accept free submissions for links and articles will provide you with a regular link . A regular link will not utilize the NOFOLLOW link. But it is worth checking to know what type of link you will be getting from a directory once your link or article has been accepted.
Paying attention to submission guidelines and looking for human edited directory websites is a good way of improving the impact of your link building campaigns.
Author Resource:
Art Conner is the webmaster of SuperLinks Directory. SuperLinks Directory (http://www.SuperLinksDirectory.com ) is a searchable human-edited internet directory of quality content website links and articles, organized by topic for easy navigation.