How To Submit To Web Directories

The first place your should submit your website to are the popular web directories, such as the Yahoo! Directory, Open Directory Project, and LookSmart.

http://dir.yahoo.com
http://dmoz.org
http://www.looksmart.com

Here are the four main benefits:

1. Listings in the Open Directory and LookSmart index also appear on many of the top search engines, including Google, Yahoo and MSN.
   http://www.google.com
   http://search.yahoo.com
   http://search.msn.com
2. Search engines will have a better chance of finding and indexing your website. Google for example publicly state that they will index your website within six to eight weeks, once your website is included in either the Yahoo! Directory, or the Open Directory Index.
3. Some search engines give a relevancy boost to sites that are already indexed in major web directories, such as the Yahoo! Directory, or the Open Directory Index. Therefore, I recommend submitting your site to the web directories, before you submitting it to the search engines.
4. Web directories themselves can provide a lot of free traffic.

But before you submit your websites, I highly recommend that you spend a bit of time selecting appropriate categories and composing your web directory titles and descriptions. They will ultimately determine the success of your listings in the directories, and can also contribute a major part to the success of your listings in the search engines.

How To Compose Web Directory Listing Titles & Descriptions

Before you even consider submitting your site to the web directories, you must prepare the listing title and description for your site.

If you have already built your website, I assume you know what your most important keyword phrase, right?

If not, visit the '32 Keyword Research Tools' section for tools to help you find out what keywords your customers are entering into search engines.

In the case of the Open Directory Project, which accepts multiple submissions for different topics in a website, you should find the most important keywords for each section of your site you are submitting.

How To Compose Listing Titles

Here are some tips on how to compose good listing titles:

• Only use the most important keyword phrase. The fewer keywords you use, the greater the weight given to each keyword, which increases relevancy.
• Spell the keyword phrase exactly as your visitors would enter into the search engines. Do not use plurals, if your visitors usually enter in the singular version of your keyword phrase, and vice versa.
• Do not include your company name in the title, unless that is the primary keyword you are promoting, or is required by the web directory you are submitting to.
• Do not hype up your title. It's not a classified ad. Web directory editors only want functional titles.
• Do not include any "stop words" (a, an, and, i, in, it, of, on, etc.) in your title. Stop words are usually ignored by search engines to speed up searches, and do nothing for search engine relevancy.

Here are some examples of good titles:

• SEO Services
• Cheap Baby Clothing
• WebPosition Gold

And examples of poor titles:

• John Smith's SEO Services (Remove your name, if possible)
• The Cheapest Baby Shop In The World! (Too much hype)
• WebPosition Gold - Search Engine Software (Too many keywords)

How To Compose The Description

Here are some tips on how to compose the listing description:

• Do not hype up your description into a sales pitch. Web directory editors only want functional descriptions.
• Compose a one sentence description.
• Include the most important keyword phrase as close to the beginning of the sentence as possible.
• Include some secondary keyword phrases.
• Spell the keywords exactly as your visitors would enter into the search engines.
• Use as few "stop words" (a, an, and, i, in, it, of, on, etc.) as possible. Stop words are usually ignored by search engines to speed up searches, and do nothing for search engine relevancy.

Here are some examples of good descriptions:

• Features search engine strategies, news, statistics, optimization tips, resources, and a weekly newsletter.
• Offers baby clothing, toys, diapers, and a free online dictionary of baby names.
• Internet marketing news headlines, statistics and commentary.

And examples of poor descriptions:

• Offers America's best search engine optimization service, with guaranteed top 10 listings within 7 days!
• Features 5,000 different software titles, all low prices and free delivery.
• The Baby Superstore offers baby clothes of all sizes, colors and designs. Plus toys, diapers, and a baby name dictionary.

If you submit an unsuitable description, the editor could either edit it to the point that it no longer resembles the description you submitted, or worse still ignore or reject your submission altogether.

So stick with functional keyword-rich descriptions and you won't run the risk of major edits to your description, which could lose some, or all, of the important keywords you want.

Maximum Number Of Words Or Characters Allowed In The Listing Title & Description

Each web directory has its own set of guidelines as to the maximum number of words or characters allowed.