Directory Submission For anyone trying to promote their website, submitting to directories can be a great means of getting free or cheap links to their site. Submitting to internet directories can be a valuable tool in your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. If you are in a competitive industry and you don't have a large number of backlinks pointing to your site then the major search engines (Google, MSN and Yahoo) won't list your site high in their search engine results (SERPS). As the search engines are refining their techniques all the time it may be to your advantage to get links from related websites.

Niche Directories The search engines, especially Google are always improving their algorithms. They now provide more weight for a link from a site with the same topic. For example, a travel site will benefit more from a link from another travel site rather than a link from a legal site. For this reason, it is beneficial to have your site listed in directories related to your site. The internet has thousands of directories and there are directories for every niche you can think of. Examples included travel, business, finance, sports, webmaster, SEO, kids, blogs, entertainment, law, games, gambling and web hosting.

You can find listings of 2000 internet directories at web-directoires.ws. This site has 50 categories of well categorized niche directories, including business and financial sites. Listing your financial site in financial directories will improve your search rankings. Remember that the Search Engines (especially Google and Yahoo) like links sites with similar content. Within the niche directories you can find general sites or sites that deal with a very specific topic. .A business directory would be an example of a general niche directory. The Offshore Directory would be an example of a specific niche as the site lists websites related to offshore tax shelters. This site offers specific tax information related to offshore shelters such as tax consultants, legal help, banking and investment. Another example of a specific niche would be the software directory, a site dedicated to software, tools and utilities.

Outsourcing Your Submissions
As I said, directory submission can really help your rankings. It can also be a tedious, mind-numbing task. What directories should you submit to? Which ones will actually list your site? If you would prefer to spend your valuable time building content for your site then you should consider outsourcing e many of your link submissions services. The same goes for any other link building services.

For a small fee, you can have your websites submitted using a service such as this manual submission service. Ensure that the submissions are done manually and not using an automated script. The automated scripts will try to guess at the most appropriate category for your site. Automated submissions are regarded as spam by the directories. The good submissions services keep tract of the directories that approve free listings as well as a large number of factors that ensure that your listing will be SEO friendly. Just like building a house, a specialist can do a better job at completing the task than the handyman.

The above article was contributed and does not necessarily relfect the marketing practices of the SEMGuide author.