When submitting to directories, there is no magic formula. All directories are unique, generally having different categories and different rules for submission. Directory submission can be quite time consuming because each submission must be tailored for a specific directory. Some directories permit 15-word descriptions, some permit 30 words, and some permit up to 200 words. Therefore, when submitting your site to the most popular directories, always keep their unique characteristics in mind. Planning an effective directory submission campaign is crucial to your site's search engine visibility. In addition, in some ways, directory submission is even more important than search engine submission because, with directories, you basically have one chance to submit your site correctly. As long as a web site's directory listing is factually accurate, directory editors have no reason to modify the listing. Directory editors' main concern is not how web site owners market their web sites. Directory editors care that the information in their directory is unique, timely , and accurate. Some directory results come from human editors who find sites through their own research and surfing. Although this is not a common occurrence, most companies prefer the opportunity to write their own titles and descriptions. So rather than risk a directory editor finding your site and writing a title and description you don't like, plan and implement your unique directory submission campaign. Planning a Directory Submission CampaignBefore submitting your site to the directories, create a log file to keep track of your submissions. Directories keep records of all submissions and can verify this information very quickly. In the event your submission is rejected or the current listing must be modified due to factual errors, careful record keeping helps your directory submission campaign run more smoothly. Directory editors appreciate your careful record keeping as well. In this log file, keep records of the following information:
Directories generally rank web sites by category, title, and site description. In other words, if your title, description, and category contain keywords that people are typing into search queries, your site might appear at the top of directory results. Therefore, an effective directory submission campaign involves keyword research and copywriting. How many of you truly and honestly spend hours researching the most appropriate directory categories and writing the best descriptions so that both the directories and your site can benefit? Does your site really have unique content or does it contain the same content that all the other sites contain? Web site owners tend to write the descriptions that benefit them most. If you plan on using the directories as part of your online marketing plan, try not to think solely about your web site. Try to imagine how a directory might benefit from your information. That is what directory editors are thinking about when they evaluate your submission. Directories do not benefit from keyword-stuffed titles and descriptions. They benefit from sites with unique, quality content placed in the appropriate categories. Thus, help directory editors reach their goals. Build a good web site and do your research before you submit. Selecting the Best CategoryOne of the biggest mistakes web site owners make during directory submission is not doing the necessary research on each directory. To select the most appropriate category for your web site, type your selected keywords in each directory's search box, and study the results. Remember the 20- to 30-word keyword list you came up with in Part 2, "How to Build Better Web Pages?" These are the words that you should be entering in the directory search boxes. Let's look at the fictional TranquiliTeas site. From our keyword list, we know that we must perform a search in each directory using the following keywords:
You might want to begin with the most generic search term, such as the word "tea." When you begin with a generic search term , categories might appear at the top of the search results. In all likelihood , your site belongs in one of the categories that appear at the top of the search results. Sometimes, you can search for your top keyword phrases and discover that no categories appear in the search results, only web sites. If this happens, look underneath the descriptions of each web site. You can find different directory categories listed there, as shown in Figure 4.1. Figure 4.1. When you perform a search on Yahoo! for the keyword phrase "organic tea," a single category appears at the top of the screen. If you scroll down to the web site matches, you can see the different categories available for an organic tea site.
Do not automatically select the category that appears at the very top of the search results. Your web site must truly be suited to a category to be accepted. Are your competitors listed in that same category? Is the type of information you are offering on your web site similar to the information offered by other web sites in that category? You might find that your site can easily fit in multiple categories. If this is the case, you can select the category that appears at the top of the list. For the TranquiliTeas web site, the most appropriate category in Yahoo! is the following: Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Food and Drinks > Drinks > Tea > Organic The Open Directory displayed multiple categories that might be appropriate for the TranquiliTeas site: Business > Industries > Food and Related Products > Beverages > Tea Shopping > Food > Beverages > Coffee and Tea > Tea Recreation > Food > Drink > Tea Home > Cooking > Beverages > Tea The first two categories contain a large number of tea sites, and the TranquiliTeas site probably will be buried in the search results. It might be better to find less- populated categories. However, based on the types of sites listed in these categories, a submission to either category might be appropriate. The fourth category is not the best category for home page submission because most of the listings specifically mention recipes. Although the TranquiliTeas site contains recipes, the majority of its content is geared toward selling tea. The third category is interesting because when you click the link to this category, the subcategories in Figure 4.2 appear. Figure 4.2. Open Directory page after clicking the Recreation > Food > Drink > Tea link.
Because the TranquiliTeas site is a wholesale distributor of organic teas, "Tea Blenders, Packers, and Wholesalers" appears to be a more appropriate category for this site. After clicking that link, a completely new category appears at the top of the web page (see Figure 4.3). Figure 4.3. Open Directory page after clicking the Tea Blenders, Packers, and Wholesalers link. Notice that a completely new category appears.
Interestingly, the category that appears at the top of this page is the first category in our initial category list. Therefore, the TranquiliTeas web site should be submitted to the first category in the Open Directory: Business > Industries > Food and Related Products > Beverages > Tea Suggesting a New CategorySometimes, after performing several searches, you might not find a directory category that accurately reflects the content of your web site. In this situation, you can suggest an additional category to the directory editors. To be safe, suggest a category that is similar to other categories in the directory. For example, a particular state in the United States might display a specific category, but a different state might not. This situation arose when I submitted a web site from a domestic violence shelter located in Waukegan, Illinois. A domestic violence shelter listing belongs in a directory's regional section. In all likelihood, a person who is seeking domestic violence help in Connecticut is not going to travel to Illinois to seek an emergency shelter. When I performed a search on Yahoo!, I found that there was a category in Woodstock, Illinois, for domestic violence shelters (see Figure 4.4). Figure 4.4. Regional domestic violence shelter category in Yahoo!.
However, there was no domestic violence shelter category in Waukegan, Illinois. In this situation, it was safe for me to suggest an additional category to Yahoo! because there were similar categories in other regions . To be sure that my additional category would be accepted, I also checked other states. I found the same categories existed in Texas, California, Minnesota, and North Dakota regional listings. I even found domestic violence shelter listings for other countries . Types of web sites that belong in regional categories are physician sites, hospitals , landscaping firms, real estate offices, restaurants , local government offices, Chambers of Commerce, and any other organization that does business in a specific area. If you do not see the appropriate category for your type of business and organization, check out categories for other states. In the submission form for Yahoo!, you can suggest an additional category in a field called Additional Information. Other directories might not have this field. If you find yourself in that situation, feel free to suggest an additional category in the Comments field in the submission form, if such a field is provided (see Figure 4.5). Figure 4.5. Yahoo!'s Additional Information field in the submission form.
Writing an Effective Web Site TitleMost of the time, a web site's title is the official company name, and, as mentioned in Part 1, "Before You Build," directory editors are looking for the official company name in one of four places:
The About Us page should always contain the correct spelling of your company name. Even if you use your official company name in other places throughout your web site, it is still a good idea to always make that information available in your About Us section. Do not try to trick directory editors into using a company name that contains keywords if the official spelling of your company name does not contain keywords. For example, suppose the official company name of the TranquiliTeas site is Tranquili Teas Organic Tea, Inc. An unethical search engine marketer might not like the official company name and try to modify it. Why? Because the company name does not contain the plural version of "tea." He or she might change the official company name in the submission form to this: Tranquili Teas Organic Tea, Inc. Directory editors are aware of all the tricks unethical search engine marketers do to artificially inflate directory positions . Not only do they check that you use the correct spelling of the company name throughout your site, but also they check your domain name registration to be sure that your company's information (company name, physical address, and other contact information) matches the information that you typed into the submission form. If you are submitting a page that is not your home page, your title can be a bit more descriptive. Let's say, for example, that the TranquiliTeas site contains information on the history of the Japanese tea ceremony. If site owners were to submit this particular page (or set of pages to Yahoo!), the title might be this: History of the Japanese tea ceremony Notice that the titles in the previous examples are factual and contain no sales and marketing hype. The keywords "organic" and "tea" are in the home page title submission. The keywords "Japanese" and "tea" are in the individual web page submission. Even if your keyword research showed that your target audience typed "teas" more often, the acceptable titles do not use that form of the word. Writing an Effective Web Site DescriptionAt first, it might seem that directory editors and web site owners have conflicting interests. Directory editors want to preserve the quality of their directory results. They want descriptions to accurately describe the contents of a web site without any sales and marketing hype. Web site owners do not necessarily want their description to be objective. If a slogan or a set of keywords has worked for their businesses over the years , they want to preserve that branding and marketing strategy. With these seemingly conflicting goals, how can web site owners have their web sites displayed in directories in the best way possible? In reality, directory editors and web site owners actually have the same goals. As a web site owner, you have complete control over how your pages are displayed and the content that you place on your pages. You would not like it if a complete stranger ordered you to change the content on your site because he or she did not agree with what you had to say or the manner in which you stated the information. No stranger should control the content of your web site. Likewise, directory editors must deal with thousands of strangers telling them, every day, how they should display the contents of their web sites. Directory editors have a tough job. Viewing hundreds of submissions a day for hundreds or thousands of different categories while preserving the quality of the directories is a daunting task. You should be aware that directory editors must deal with thousands of submissions every week. Directory editors are trying to preserve the quality of the information they deliver. By following their guidelines and examples, your submission is less likely to be modified or rejected. After you have determined the most appropriate category for your web site, review all the descriptions listed in that category. How many words, on average, does the directory editor allow on the page? If you notice that most of the descriptions contain 12 “15 words, you know that the directory editor prefers a 15-word description to a 25-word description, even though the guidelines might state that you can submit a description of up to 25 words. What appears to be the writing style within the descriptions that are listed? Even though your description should resemble the description style of other sites listed in your targeted category, your description should be unique. Thus, if your company specializes in three types of services, mention those three services in your description. If your company targets a specific audience, mention the audience in your description as well. Do not write a description that is identical to other descriptions in your targeted category. Directory editors understand that their end users do not want the same information delivered to them over and over again in search results. Editors want to know that with each web site they accept, there is unique and valuable information available. Thus, make sure that one of your unique selling propositions (USPs) is somehow shown in your description. In addition, do not try to stuff too many keywords into the description. Directory editors and people who view search results do not want to read a list of keywords. I tend to follow a basic description format and tailor the description based on directory research. This description format appears to satisfy the needs of both directory editors and web site owners: (Keyword phrase 1) firm specializing in (keyword phrase 2), (keyword phrase 3), and (keyword phrase 4) Using this format, a possible description for TranquiliTeas might be the following: Wholesale organic tea distributor specializing in oolong, green, herbal, decaffeinated, and black teas. (13 words) This description does the following: (a) objectively and accurately describes the contents of the web site, making the directory editors happy, and (b) contains targeted keywords. This 13-word description contains the following keyword phrases:
If you have a specific target audience, you can include that information at the end of a description, as in the following example: Wholesale organic tea distributor specializing in oolong, green, herbal, decaffeinated, and black teas for stores and restaurants. (17 words) Sometimes, you might have more keywords that you would like to target. For example, the TranquiliTeas site might offer its teas as loose tea or in tea bags. This information is important to the target audience of store and restaurant owners. So, another possible description might be this: Wholesale organic tea distributor specializing in oolong, green, herbal, decaffeinated, and black teas. Choose from loose tea or tea bags. (20 words) This 20-word description contains an even longer list of keyword phrases:
Notice that the target audience was eliminated from the 20-word description. If the words used to describe the target audience (stores and restaurants) are targeted keywords, why should they be eliminated from the description? Many directories allow 25-word descriptions. A longer description still follows directory guidelines. When submitting your site to a directory, remember to always follow the lead of the editor. If the current listings in the directory have a shorter description, you know that a longer description has a higher chance of being modified ”and you might not like the way the editor modifies your longer description, especially if the editor eliminates one of your most important keywords. Because I recognized that "stores and restaurants" was not one of the keyword phrases on the keyword list I came up with in Part 2 of this book, I eliminated that phrase to make the description as concise as possible. Because all directories are different and vary in the number of words they accept in their submission forms, you should write descriptions of varying lengths. Write 7-, 10-, 15-, 20-, 25-, 30-, and 50-word descriptions and save them in a text file. When you begin the directory submission process, you can easily cut and paste the appropriate description into the submission form. Important
Paid SubmissionIf your budget allows it, use the paid/expedited submission programs whenever possible. Because most of the major search engines measure popularity, the faster your site can be listed in the directories, the faster your site can receive the popularity boost. Paid submission does not guarantee that your site will be accepted into the directory. Rather, the fee guarantees that your site will be reviewed within a specified period of time, generally within 48 hours to one week. The fee pays for the time it takes for a directory editor to evaluate your title, description, and web site plus the time it takes to add your site to the database ”if your site is accepted. Multiple Listings from a Single Web SiteGetting multiple listings from a single web site in a directory is the exception rather than the rule. Again, web site owners and directory editors appear to have conflicting interests. Web site owners desire multiple listings to increase their site's popularity and overall search engine visibility. Directory editors want to list URLs with unique, quality content. Web site owners' ultimate goal is to sell their products and services. Directory editors' ultimate goal is to find sites that provide information. One way to determine whether a site can be successfully submitted for an additional listing is to ask yourself whether people can benefit from visiting your site without spending money. If your site provides information such as free tips, a how-to section, recipes, a dictionary, or a glossary, your site provides information for the clear benefit of your target audience. Both directory editors and end users like to see this type of information. If your web site has been approved for admission into a directory, your specialized topic web page stands a better chance of being selected for a different category. When your main site is accepted, you know that your site has met the directory's rules and guidelines. The editors found your site's content easy to read and informative. You have to go through the same submission process as outlined for your main site. You have to suggest an additional category and write a unique title and description for each additional URL you submit. A general guideline to follow is not to submit multiple pages from the same site in the same branch of a directory. For example, in the Open Directory, the category selected for the TranquiliTeas main site was this: Business > Industries > Food and Related Products > Beverages > Tea Suppose TranquiliTeas site owners had a collection of unique organic tea recipes and wanted to submit their main Recipes page to additional categories. First, they would have to find the most appropriate category. After performing multiple keyword searches in the Open Directory, the most appropriate categories might be the following: Home > Cooking > Beverages > Tea or Recreation > Food > Drink > Tea Notice that both categories are not in the Business or Business > Industries branch of the Open Directory. Because the sites in the first category contain tea recipes in their descriptions, the first category is probably the better selection. Before submitting the Recipes page, the TranquiliTeas site owner should verify that the following is true: (a) its recipes are unique, and (b) the content is substantial. Some of the sites listed in this category have a single tea recipe that is unique. Other sites have collections of tea recipes. Therefore, if the TranquiliTeas site has a collection of unique organic tea recipes, in all likelihood, the Recipes URL will be accepted into this category. Assuming that the TranquiliTeas site does have a collection of unique organic tea recipes, the site owners can write a unique title and description for this submission. Many of the sites listed in this category mention the company name. Thus, it might be appropriate to submit a title such as this: Organic tea recipes from TranquiliTeas Organic Tea Note that a directory editor might not like that title because of the repetition of the keyword phrase "organic tea." Thus, a better title might be this: Organic tea recipes from TranquiliTeas This title is more concise but still accurately conveys the necessary information. If site owners want to keep the full company name intact without giving the appearance of keyword stacking, another appropriate title might be this: TranquiliTeas Organic Tea recipes Additionally, no web sites in this category specifically highlight organic teas. Thus, another appropriate title might be this: Organic tea recipes Because the sites (in the targeted category) that contain a collection of tea recipes mention the company name in the title, follow the directory editor's lead. Submit one of the titles containing the company name. Now that both the title and category are selected, it is time to write an appropriate description. Notice that in the initial TranquiliTeas site submission that the word "recipes" was not mentioned: Wholesale organic tea distributor specializing in oolong, green, herbal, decaffeinated, and black teas. Choose from loose tea or tea bags. Search engine and directory users do not want the same sites appearing over and over again in the search results. In general, end users and directory editors do not want to see both the TranquiliTeas main site and the individual Recipes section appearing together in search results. Keeping the words "recipe" or "recipes" out of the initial description was a strategic move. If a search engine marketer kept the word "recipes" in this description, the main site might show up in search results for the search query "organic tea recipes," and the additional listing might be rejected. Remember, when people perform searches, they do not necessarily want to go to your home page. Rather, they would prefer to go straight to the information for which they are searching without having to surf for that information. By keeping the word "recipes" out of the main site submission and using that word in the additional submission, the TranquiliTeas site owners are thinking about their target audience by delivering them directly to the Recipe section of their site. Additionally, the site owners are helping to preserve the quality of the directory category. If the TranquiliTeas site offers a unique collection of organic tea recipes, the site provides free information for visitors without forcing them to go to the home page first. Therefore, the additional listing benefits everyone. End users are delivered directly to the appropriate page. The directory has unique and accurate information, and the site owners have an additional listing. Important
Before you submit your site to a major directory, review your entire site using the following checklist to be sure that the site is ready for submission. This avoids rejections from the editors. Directory Submission ChecklistTo save the time and costs involved in directory submissions, use the following checklist to ensure that your site is ready for directory editors to review:
Most of the time, web site owners have only one chance to do it right with directories. Modifying a directory listing is very difficult, if not impossible . However, with proper planning and execution, web site owners can reap the rewards of directory listings years after submission. |