Sunday 15 July 2007

Directory Submitting

Last month at Munny4Hunny was a frenzy of 'off-page' optimisation if not 'on page' activity. The bulk of my rise in the Technorati Authority rankings was down to the viral tag and favicon schemes, I built up some link-love with a couple of reviews and commenting (on 'do follow' blogs). The other activity I busied myself with, was using a free directory submitting tool called (unsurprisingly) 'Directory Submitter'.

This software allows you to submit your URL to a maximum of 350 web directories.
You set up your project by filling in the data that will be common to each submission eg: your URL, your description, your name and email address etc.. The main screen is split horizontally, with the list of directories at the top and the bottom half behaves as a browser.
My advice would be to start by sorting the directories by 'page rank' first, that way you will hopefully be getting the biggest benefits right away. Double-click on the first directory and their submission page or home page will appear in the browser. For some directories you may have to browse to an appropriate section and then submit your link information, others will allow you to submit straight away. You should find that when you are ready to submit your URL, all the relevant sections are filled out from the data you previously stored. It just remains for you to complete the submission either by entering an encrypted anti-spamming code, or simply clicking on the submit button.

Many of the sites will have similar formats and templates that you will soon get used to, some of the things I learned the hard way were:

Some of the sites will not accept an entry without a reciprocal link though most will. One or two of the sites appear to have stopped offering free links. Some sites have errors on the submission page (a couple of them didn't display the required encrypted code, so submission was impossible). Aside from these quirks, this remains a hugely valuable tool, only slightly overshadowed by it's big brother Directory Submitter Gold.

Directory Submitter Gold

Exactly as above, but this time more than 2,200 links on offer... this is for those who are really serious about building a very significant amount of links to a website. Completing this program should really drive you into the search results and boost your page rank. This version will cost you a few dollars ($67 at time of publication), but compared to the free version you will be able to boost the links you have by up to six times! If you are going to spend any money on getting links, then I seriously doubt that you will get more bang for your buck than investing in Directory Submitter Gold

To learn more about Directory Submitter, click here

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