You can jumpstart your link campaign by getting directory links. Building links, by listing your website in the search engines and directories, is one way of increasing your link popularity, especially if yours is a new site or one with no inbound links. However, you should choose your directories and search engines well. But, the shortage of inbound links puts your site at a severe disadvantage because link analysis is an important part of every search engine's ranking algorithm.
So, you can overcome this disadvantage by getting a few quality links. And a good way to start is to get listed in as many directories as you can. There are many directories out there, and the more you can get into, the better. If you have a business related website, and it can’t be accepted by non-for-profit directories, then you should try submitting it into business directories and should be prepared to pay a small fee for it. A good strategy is to contact a site that doesn’t offer advertising or paid listing and offer a small amount of money in return for a link. Chances are that few will be willing to accept your link. A few that you should try and get your site listed in, are Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org), Yahoo(http://www.yahoo.com), LookSmart(http://www.looksmart.com), Zeal (http://www.dmoz.org), Joeant (http://www.joeant.com) and Business.com (http://www.business.com), Discount-Search.com (http://www.discount-search.com) or any other business directory if you site doesn’t qualify for free submission.
And these directories and search engines are gold mines as linking partners, waiting and begging to be mined by an enterprising and prospecting webmaster. The most obvious Internet directory to start with, when beginning a comprehensive link search, is the well-known DMOZ directory. Its complete category and sub-category classification system makes it convenient for any website owner to find numerous sites within their area of business.
With DMOZ, there’s no need to contact them for link exchanges if you’re concerned about loss of visitor traffic to their sites. However, if you’re not listed in the DMOZ directory, you can still find the category where your site would probably be included. And the process remains the same for finding link partners, whether your site is listed or not.
Another directory that is good is The Yahoo! Directory which has many of the same sites in its list as DMOZ. This is inevitable. There are, however, many sites listed in Yahoo! that are not part of the Open Directory Project. And this fact opens up many more possibilities for the webmaster.
When you go to the Yahoo! Directory, you must first go to your category, if you’re already listed. But if you’re site is not listed, you should select the most probable one. However, keep in mind that the listings are in alphabetical order, and may not have the same descriptions as the DMOZ directory. Then, use the same procedure as before, and your list of potential linking partners will grow larger.
A third important Internet directory is the Google Directory. They use listings supplied by the Open Directory Project and the listings are very similar to those found in DMOZ. But, Google is different in that it orders the results from the highest PageRank listing to the lowest, making your sorting that much easier. Though, it should be remembered that some of the PageRanks on display are most probably out of date, and may not reflect the site's current PageRank.
But, if exchanges, for higher PageRank purposes are important to your site, then the Google directory is the answer to what you’re seeking. However, as a general rule, don't let PageRank determine your linking partners. It’s far more important to make your site helpful, for your visitors and customers.
And, since directories are an excellent source of theme related link partners for any website, you should use a major one for the search such as DMOZ, the Yahoo! Directory, or the Google Directory. So, finding potential linking partners is very easy when you use the major directories or search engines.
Find more website ratings directory at www.discount-search.com
