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By Michael Manley

Directory Marketing is a seldom used phrase which gets talked about a lot and can be considered to be something other than what you might think. Webmasters would call Directory Marketing an pathway to earn more by creating many different kinds of niche directories and lacing them with Google Adsense and making money from it. While this is a great wayto do it, there are other ways to look at Directory Marketing. You can create valuable backlinks with web directories and they will help bring traffic to your website by improving your search engine rank and link position.

Directories might look like nothing but another index to quite a few, but in reality, a well put together SEO Friendly directory can be a great weapon in your SEO toolbox. Why? The reason why is a directory which manually handles listings can create a quality website for internet visitors; and Google and other search engines understand this. That is why, when you list your website with a directory, it is instantly percieved as a quality backlink to your website.

What do you think is a high quality or good backlink? By finding out the Pagerank (PR) of the web directories you list with, you can effectiely guage the value of your backlink. The proper method is submitting to a large variety of websites that vary in Pagerank to develope your backlinks in a natural way, not giving them a systematic or formulated look. You want more PR5’s than PR0’s, but there is a definite reason for the procedure.

Variety in your linking plan will help in the long run. Most directory owners are very aggressive about building their own Pagerank and will stop at nothing to reach a higher rank. This is great when you get in on the ground floor of a directory which goes from a PR0 listing to a PR5 in a year. Instant credibility for your listing and a natural enhancement of your site’s status. Plus, you might get in on a site, like the Aviva Directory which only accepts paid listings and has a 14,000 rank in Alexa and a PR6 rating.

Submit your site in as many directories as you can. The essential part here is not to do it too quickly. You do not want to hire a freelancer or submission service and have them list your site to 500 directories in 3 days. Google looks at this like link bombing. Search engines will think you are trying to work the system to get a higher rank and then delist your site, rendering your hard earned backlinks to mean absolutely nothing.

Submit your site mainly to Free Directories, but also use Paid Directories, especially Bid for Position Directories as the value in these types of directories is only starting to be seen. When submitting your site, remember the importance of using anchor text. Identify your site’s specific string of keywords and start with about 5 solid word combinations which fit. Do not just use one word listings. ALway use 3-7 words as this creates keyword doorways to your site via the search engines.

Understand, creatin quality backlinks is simple. Just make sure you have a plan and realize it takes some time. Backlinks are not created overnight, but building them through Directory Marketing will help you create higher quality ones.

 

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