Hints & Tips
You may be among those asking this question, "Why would I even list my website with web directories when all I am concerned is how to become number one with the big search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN".
Good question, have you considered that many people search web directories when they are looking for a specific type of site. And, being the number one result with the big search engines is a difficult task that never ends considering the level of competition available online today. So, what so many webmasters do today is to submit to web directories in order to increase their traffic. The traffic from web or online directory does not just come from visitors that browse the directory looking for one information or the other just like they do in the hard copy of paper directories, rather traffic is also generated directly or indirectly through increase in the quality and credibility of the website, this affects how a website is ranked (the position) in search engines like Google - a term known today as Page rank, this will be explained later in this article.
Directories are great because often times, people do not necessarily have to know exactly what they are looking for. Instead, they can have a broad idea and simply search the directory to try and find a website that meets their interest. Websites in directories are listed under categories and web categories as well, this makes information search easy. For instance those looking for websites on business can simply click the Business category and see the websites listed. Under the business category, there could be subcategories like online business etc.
Websites within the directory are also ranked in the same manner . They may be ranked in alphabetical order, according to the number of hits they generate or even in the order they were submitted. Some web directories even rank sites by their page rank. Just keeping this in mind is important to ensure you get the best results.
There are three kinds of traffic that you can get from the directories where you are listed. The first is click-through traffic, meaning that anyone who ends up on the directory page will be able to see your web site and information and possibly visit your website. The second is indexing your site. As the spiders crawl the web, they will begin to index the pages of your web site once they find the links to it. After that they can come back again and again, bringing you traffic as they do. The last way that the directories will increase your traffic is increasing your ranking on the search engines themselves as they find the volume of links and references to your web site.
Let us discuss the last one. Directories are very beneficial because they allow webmasters to increase their websites page rank (PR) with the big search engines thanks to the back links or inbound links. Backlinks (or back-links [UK]) according to wikipedia are incoming links to a website or web page. In the search engine optimization (SEO) the number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page (though other measures, such as PageRank, are likely to be more important). The more you have websites or webpages linking to your website, the more likely you will rank in the search engine, however this will also depend on the page rank of the websites linking to you.
So, web directories will not only increase your traffic, allowing people searching for your particular product or service to find you, but it will also increase your ranking with the search engines and benefit your site overall.