Website Promotion Guide

How to boost traffic on an website?

2009-08-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to A Promotion Guide. If this is your first visit, you might want to take the time to read through this page. It contains a free step-by-step website promotion tutorial
that also serves as a "User's Guide" to the site.

Reading it will give you a good idea on what you need to do, when you need to do it and how the articles on this site will help you.

This tutorial is split into three phases that each have two, three or four steps. It is highly recommended that you start from the first phase and move forwards only after you have completed all of the steps in it.

We'll begin with the assumption that your site is brand new and that you haven't done any website promotion work yet. However, that doesn't mean that you can't use the tutorial if you have submitted to a few search engines or registered your site with a couple of directories. If you notice that there are some things you have already done, feel free to simply skip over them.

Promoting your site takes a lot of time and may involve waiting several weeks or even months to get into certain directories and search engines. Thus, it might be wise to bookmark this page so that you can return to it later and continue the tutorial from where you left off.

Website promotion, phase one - Directories

You should start your website promotion efforts by listing your site at the most popular Internet directories. Because they can send you substantial amounts of traffic and affect your ranking in various search engines, it is wise to make sure that your site is present in all of the major directories before doing anything else.

Step one - General information

Submitting to directories is easy and doesn't require much effort. It's ensuring that your submission will be accepted that makes this task a hard one.

Step two - The Open Directory Project

Start with the Open Directory Project. While your site has to offer good, unique content to be accepted to the ODP, its editors usually review sites quickly and won't reject them without a good reason for doing so. This, along with the fact that submitting to the ODP is free of charge, makes it a perfect starting point. Completing this step successfully will also provide you with experience that will prove to be very valuable later on.

Read my thoughts on how Google's ranking algorithm works and notice how an ODP listing seems to affect your ranking at Google. Keep this information in mind when you submit.
Take a look at the advice on submitting your website to the ODP.
Finally, submit your site to the ODP.
If your submission isn't successful, consider becoming an editor at the Open Directory and listing your own site.

Step three - Yahoo

After securing a listing at ODP, your next task is to get the folks at Yahoo to notice that your site exists and is worth a place in their directory. This might cost you a fair amount of money if you are running a commercial site, but is usually worth it. Non-commercial sites can get in for free, but might require several submissions and a lot of patience before they are accepted.

Check out the Yahoo-specific guidelines and hints and the article about how Yahoo's search feature ranks sites.
Bite the bullet and submit your site to Yahoo.

Website promotion, phase two - Search engines

Now that your site has been included in ODP and Yahoo, you should already be receiving clearly more traffic than before. The next task is to get to know search engines and use them to bring even more people to your pages. Because you have completed phase one, you have established a good foundation for making your site perform well in the search engines.

Step one - Search engine optimization, basics

In order to gain good rankings, you'll need to learn the basics of search engine algorithms (ranking systems) and adjust your pages to meet their criteria as well as possible. This will take some time and effort, but doing some work now will save you from a lot of trouble in the future.

First, try to make the design of your site as search engine friendly as possible. To read more about the subject, take a look at my article about website optimization.
Next, you'll need to do some keyword optimization. Sounds frightening, but in plain English it simply means choosing the correct keywords for your pages. Using the wrong words is perhaps the most common reason why people don't get satisfying results from their search engine optimization work.
Continue by reading these search engine optimization tips.
Read the article about META tags and add them to all of your pages. The META keywords tag isn't absolutely necessary, but the META description tag is very important.
Learn what link popularity is and how search engines use it to rank your pages.
Unless you have already done so, read about Google's algorithm. Google is among the most popular search services of today, so it is wise to take its requirements into account.
Use all of this information to optimize your pages for the search engines.

Step two - Search engine optimization, advanced

Your site is now adequately prepared to really start bringing in traffic from search engines. But if you want to widen your knowledge about them and increase your chances of success, you still have some work to do. On the other hand, if you're totally exhausted and just want to get this thing over with, you'll be delighted to know that this step isn't absolutely necessary.

Study some of the more advanced things related to search engine optimization. Among them are cloaking, css tricks, doorway pages, themes and how to improve your search engine ranking with click popularity.
Read about the things you should avoid doing from this article that outlines common web site promotion mistakes.

Step three - Submitting to search engines?

Now is the time to make sure that your site has a presence in the indexes of major search engines. Fortunately, they are quite good at finding your site on their own. There are things you can do to help them, though..

Get to know how search engine submission works and how the search engines determine which sites to list.
Read the article "Targeting your search engine marketing" to see which engines are the most popular ones.
If you are running a commercial site, you might also want to consider paying for search engine placement. Take a look at how you can use PPC search engine advertising to buy your way to the top.

Website promotion, phase three - More techniques

After being accepted into the largest directories and having pages of your site come up in answer to searches done at the major search engines, the long hours that you've spent on website promotion have begun to pay off and your daily visitor count is starting to look good. But there is still plenty you can do to help your site attract even more traffic.

In phase three, we'll examine different promotion methods that you might want to try. However, in order to prevent you from wasting your time on things that don't work, we'll also go over a few techniques that have proven to be less than spectacular when I experimented with them.

Step one - Keep these in mind

First, let's take a look at the good stuff. The articles introduced in this step are about the website promotion methods that are at least partially effective. Some of them work better than others, but if used correctly, all of them can produce results that will be worth your while. Of course, most of the articles include advice on what you need to do to obtain the best possible results with the method discussed.

If you sell something on your site, you might want to try banner ads. Usually banner campaigns are seen as expensive and ineffective, but it is partially because advertisers don't know how to design good banners.
Read the article on how to increase traffic with return visitors. Getting people to come back is the secret to why some sites get amazingly many hits per day.
Learn what reciprocal links are and how to get them, then put that knowledge into use. In addition to sending you visitors, reciprocal links will also increase your link popularity and help your site rank higher in the search engines.
Start using E-mail signatures. They might not produce thousands of visitors, but are a great way to promote your site a bit without having to actually do anything.
Evaluate whether your site could benefit from joining a topsite list. These lists have their good and bad sides, but might be at least worth a try.
Consider trying to build traffic with Usenet advertising. It can give you a nice traffic boost and help spread the word about your site, but only if done properly. Read the article to learn why Usenet promotion should only be done with great care.
Writing newsletter articles often works well and can send you large amounts of targeted traffic in a short period of time, for free.

Step two - Forget these

As said, everything just doesn't always work the way it should in the world of promotion. In step two, our attention is focused on website promotion methods that are more trouble than they are worth. They might not be entirely useless, but your time would be better spent on improving your site or spreading the word about your site in other ways.

Click exchange programs are easy, fast, free and will get you a lot of visitors. That's why it might be a surprise to hear that they really aren't good website promotion tools.
A lot has been written about FFA pages and for the past few years, most of it has been negative. The only thing they are good for is increasing the flow of spam to your E-mail address.
Winning website awards can occasionally be useful, especially if the awards are well-known. However, sometimes the winner of the award is not the real winner.

Final words

Congratulate yourself for being persistent, bright and hard-working. Most get frustrated and quit before this point, which is why most sites never become anything. After all, the secret to having a successful site is working hard in both promoting and creating it. You just might have what it takes.
After going through those three phases, you've read just about everything this site has to offer. While there is more to website promotion than what we have discussed here, you now know quite a lot about the subject. If you still desire more information, don't forget to come back to this site every now and then. This tutorial is always incomplete, because I continuously notice things that I want to write about.

I hope that A Promotion Guide has been able to help you to make your site more popular and thus given you the chance to spread your ideas and thoughts to a larger audience. And remember, if you have achieved good results, it's not because I showed you how to do it - it's because you did it.

"Go back to our website"

Boost your traffic with website directories

2009-08-20T10:23:00.002-07:00

Directories are places where users go to find websites, just like they do with search engines. However, there are significant differences between the two.

For people who are trying to boost the traffic to their sites, it is vital to understand these differences in order to succeed.

While search engines normally accept almost any site or page that is submitted to them without looking at its quality, directories usually only accept sites that offer quality information. Because all sites submitted to directories are reviewed by humans, sites that are of low quality rarely get accepted.

This leads us to a logical conclusion: Before submitting your site to any directories, make sure that your site is completely ready for it! I strongly recommend that you read the "Web page design" section of this site for more information on how to prepare your site for the submission. Remember that directories list sites, not pages. In normal circumstances, you should only submit the front page of your site to directories.

Which directories can really boost your traffic?

If you did what I suggested above, your site should now be ready to be submitted to different directories. But how does this happen? Well, first you'll of course have to pick the directories you're going to submit to. The most important ones your site should get into are Yahoo and DMOZ, also known as Open Directory. You can, and should, read more about their individual features from their own sections on this site.

What about the other directories? Well, there are a few other interesting ones you might want to submit to, but they are far less important than the "big two" above. Do submit to them if possible, but focus on Yahoo and DMOZ, since they provide way more traffic.

OK, now you know where you should submit to. But how do you actually submit? It is relatively simple. Nearly all directories consist of different categories and subcategories, each consisting of sites related to the name of the category. You'll just need to find the category (or more often, subcategory) that best fits the topic of your site.

This can be done by either browsing through the directory or by doing a search on the keyword that best describes your site - often the directory will return a few categories that are relevant to your site and you'll just need to choose the one that seems to be most accurate. Usually, it is best to submit to the most detailed category that applies to your site; if your site is about programming in C++, you should submit to >Computers>Programming>C++ instead of >Computers>Programming>.

It is wise to spend some time to search the most accurate category for your site, since submissions done to the wrong categories are usually just thrown out. In addition, the category you submit to will be the category you're going to be stuck with for the rest of your site's life, and getting stuck in the wrong category might cost you some heavy traffic.

The submission process

After you've found the right category for your site, it is time to move on to the actual submitting process. This is an even more delicate part than the last one, so keep on your toes. The first thing to do is to carefully read the directory's rules and instructions on how to submit. They are usually displayed when you are beginning the submission process. Read them over a couple of times and follow them to the letter.

Nearly all directories will ask you to give the title of your site and a description of it when you are submitting. Put some thought in creating these, because they can significantly boost or reduce the amount of traffic you'll get from the directory. When writing your description, don't stuff it with words like 'best' or 'cheapest', and don't use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Write a short (15-25 words) description that accurately describes your site, and try to make it sound like an impartial review.

It would be also a good idea to check how the descriptions of the other sites in the same category are written and use them as a model. If possible, make sure that one or two of your best keywords are included in the description, but don't just stuff them there. Your description should sound like it's a natural sentence. If the editor thinks your description is little more than a list of keywords, he'll reject it and write a new one that may not include even a single keyword. Having one or two of your most important keywords in your description often helps your site to be found when a user searches the directory instead of browsing it.

If you later decide that the description you entered the first time isn't good enough, it is possible to contact most directories and try to get your description changed to a better one. Unfortunately, it is usually very difficult and very time-consuming to get directories to change the description of your site at a later date. Thus, it is heavily recommended that you try and get it right the first time.

Your title should be brief, it is not a place to list all your products and services. If possible, the title should include your most important keyword in it and start with a letter that is near the beginning of the alphabet. 'Automobile World' is better than 'World of Automobiles', because many directories list sites in alphabetical order and getting listed near the top can boost your traffic from the directory.

Since the title MUST be the official title of the site and it must be used on your pages, this might require you to change the name of your site. In addition to this, the title must sound like it just happens to start with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet, or it will get edited. The actual title of this site is 'A Promotion Guide', but Yahoo listed me as 'Promotion Guide, A', since the Yahoo editor thought the 'A' was included just to get to the top of the list. The same rules that apply to the description apply to the title - no promotional hype, no all capital letters.

After you have entered all the information, remember to check it for any possible typos or errors in spelling. Be extra careful with your URL, since a typo in it would naturally result in your site never getting reviewed. Then, say a quick prayer (in the case of Yahoo, at least two prayers) and hit the submit button. Good luck!

You'll usually get an E-mail if your site is accepted, but rarely if it is rejected. It is thus sometimes hard to know whether your site has been reviewed and rejected or if it is still un-reviewed. If you don't get an E-mail after a few days and your site has not appeared to the directory, don't panic. Wait a few weeks until resubmitting your site; many directories are flooded with submissions and will get annoyed if you don't give them enough time to process the submission.

"Go back to my website"

Search Engine Submission

2009-08-20T10:23:00.001-07:00

When it comes to acquiring traffic, a good basic strategy is one consisting of two layers. The first layer is based on links from directories and sites that are related to the content
of your site. These will funnel traffic to your site, but more importantly, they will decide how well your second layer will work.

So, what is this second layer? Search engines. These days, "search engine" is pretty much just another word for Google. A mind-boggling amount of searches is made through Google every day. Your task is to ensure that two things happen. First, Google must find and index your site. This is the easy part - and the one this article will deal with. Second, your site must rank well under the keywords of your choice.

Where to submit and how?

Don't bother. Remember that bit about getting links from directories and other sites? This is a situation where the links will work for you. The fact of the matter is that search engines are constantly crawling the web, chasing after new content. If you have multiple incoming links from different, valuable sources, your site will be spotted and indexed within a reasonable time.

Many search engines offer submission forms, but using them is usually a waste of time - both yours and theirs. Why? The guys running the search engines figure that if a site has plenty of incoming links, it must contain something that is worth looking at and thus deserves to be indexed. On the other hand, submitting a site with no incoming links will not help. If no human judges your site to be worth a link, then it's probably of low quality and doesn't deserve a place in index of the search engine.

Besides, even if using the form would get you indexed, what good would it do to you? With no incoming links, it's very likely that when a search is made, your pages will be buried under all the other results. Forget about submitting, concentrate on links and content. Google and the rest will find you sooner than you think.

If I don't submit, how do I know my pages are included?

Usually, your service provider will give you access to data regarding the visits to your site. It will come in handy often, for example when you are trying to determine the success of your latest promotion efforts. You can also use it to see if a search engine spider has paid a visit - just look for Google or Googlebot. The spiders used by other search engines will also be listed, usually under 'Robots/Spiders'. If your host doesn't offer this service, ask for it - or change to one that does!

This will tell you that you've been seen on the radar. To see if you're in the index, just do a simple search for pages under your domain. In Google, type "site:yourpageslocationhere" into the search box (w/o the quotes, of course). Other search engines usually offer a similar way to search for pages located on a specific domain.

What if the spider has visited, but you're not included? Don't panic. It will take a while for
the search engine to index the content it has found, so be patient. Just keep on adding new content and incoming links from other sites. Instead of worrying, read "Website optimization" on how to ensure that your site is designed in a search engine friendly way.

OK, my pages are indexed. Now I can probably just rest...

Nope. Unfortunately, you've only reached the starting point. The next step is to check how you rank under the keywords of your choice and how much traffic is coming in. Next, you'll need to determine whether you've chosen the right keywords and if so, tweak your pages and get new links so that your ranking will improve.

Of course, you will get some traffic just by having your site indexed by a search engine. However, it's nothing compared to what you can achieve, if your pages are optimized well and target the right keywords.

"Go back to my website"

Improve search engine ranking with click popularity

2009-08-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

While the technology has been around for quite a while, there's still relatively little information available on click popularity and its role in the
algorithms of search engines. Most experts do know which engines are using it and mention click popularity once in a while, but it seems like everyone is having difficulty estimating just how much a good click popularity rating can improve your search engine ranking.

The only thing that is well-known is that in Direct Hit, the success of your site nearly completely depends on how many clicks your listing attracts. Since this search engine delivers results to MSN and several other clients, knowing the basics of click popularity is vital to every SEO.

Just what part click popularity plays in the algorithms of Yahoo, Altavista and FAST is much harder to say. It does have some effect, but search engine optimization experts disagree over whether that effect is a minor or a major one.

So, if you are reading this article because you want to fare better at Direct Hit, then by all means use the tricks listed below. But if you're more interested in Yahoo, AV or FAST, my opinion is that the reward from your efforts to improve the click popularity of your site might not be big enough to make the job worth your while.

In order for this article to make sense, you must be able to understand what the term "click popularity" means. Thus, before you begin, please take the time to learn a little about the way click popularity works before reading any further. Of course, if you're already familiar with the term, you may simply continue reading this article instead.

Ethical ways to improve your search engine ranking

In order to make their click popularity algorithms work, search engines need to be able to identify individual users. If they can't tell visitors apart, they won't be able to properly follow what they do and the whole system will collapse.

The two most common methods used to track user behavior are cookies and IP addresses. Most search engines use both of them for maximum accuracy, but some rely solely on IP-based tracking. With these tools not only can they make sure they get the data they want, but they can also weed out any attempts to manipulate the system. However, later we'll discover that when there's a will, there's a way.

The first thing you should do is to make sure that all of the title and META description tags you use accurately represent the contents of the pages they are on. They should also be otherwise "human-friendly" and tuned to attract as many clicks as possible.

Even if you're not interested in boosting your click popularity, spending some time on ensuring that your META descriptions and titles are in order is a good move. The better your pages look in the search results, the more clicks they will draw and the more traffic your site will get.

Your site should also of course look good and offer content that is relevant to the search so that users will stick around once they have arrived to it. However, the most important thing is that your pages have to load up fast. Most people are still using slow dial-up Internet connections and have very limited patience. If your page does not appear quickly, they'll use the "Back" button to return to the search results and find another site. Because click popularity SE's measure the time users spend on the sites they visit, having your visitors "backing out" on you will seriously damage your ranking.

Bending the rules a bit

Now, ensuring that your site looks good in the search results, loads up fast and is otherwise an excellent place to visit is not manipulation, spam or unethical in any way. However, most of the other things you can do to get a better ranking in a system that uses click popularity are. So, if you feel that you don't want to engage in such activity, I recommend that you stop reading at this point.

Those who wish to continue reading should also note that when you're doing something the search engine feels is unacceptable, you're taking the risk of being banned from said engine. To put it bluntly, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

Now that we have set things straight, let us venture into the dark side. After your page has been accepted into the index of the click popularity search engine, go visit it. Do a couple of casual searches, visit some of the sites for a few of minutes and then come back.

Next, search for your page by using the keyphrase you are trying to get a top ten ranking on. Keep digging until you find your page and then click on its listing to get to your site. When you've arrived there, close the browser window and do not visit the search engine at least for an hour or so.

Because your IP address has been logged, do not try to repeat this process until a couple days have passed. Before doing it again, you should also clear out any cookies the search engine might have installed to your system. In Internet Explorer 5, this can be done by clicking Tools -> Internet Options -> Settings -> View Files and deleting all of the files in that folder.

Notice that cookies are also commonly used to store other information, such as passwords and user ID's of online discussion forums and such. That is why I recommend that you do not attempt playing with these things unless you know what you're doing and have written all of your user ID's and passwords down somewhere or remember them.

Naturally, at the rate of one click every two days it might take your page quite a while to get to the top. So, if you happen to have friends, relatives or other acquaintances that have their own computers and are willing to help you, you can instruct them to follow the above instructions and give your page(s) a click every now and then. Just as long as you are using different computers at different locations and remember to clear your cookies, it's very unlikely that someone at the search engine would notice what you're doing.

Playing hardball

Clicking your own listing and having your friends help you may not be entirely honest, but it isn't a very serious offense either. Too bad that because you have to keep a long waiting period in between clicks, boosting your ranking in that way is a long and frustrating process. There are easier ways than that, but they're more risky as well.

One of these faster methods is using non-transparent proxy servers that are open to the public. They will mask your IP-address, which fools the search engine into thinking that you're someone else than you really are, just as long as you remember to delete any cookies possibly used by the SE and change the proxy server in between clicks.

While the risk of being caught for doing so is minimal, the legality of using proxies without the permission of their owners is unclear and thus I'm not going to discuss this method any further. If you're interested in it, here is a list of open proxy servers.

A second way that some have used, or at least attempted to use to improve their ranking in search engines that use click popularity is preventing users from using the "Back" button in their browsers.

While this may work, it is a medicine that tends to cure the disease but kill the patient in the process. You might be more successful in search engines that use click popularity and get a few additional visitors because of it, but your overall traffic will decline because this "feature" will annoy people and drive them off your pages. Take my advice and leave the Back button alone.

In conclusion

If you want to play nice, you can get fairly good results just by tuning your site and your descriptions a bit. It won't produce fast results, but over time it is the most effective way to improve your search engine ranking.

Those who wish to conquer the top spots promptly and aren't worried about ethical questions or the possibility of being banned might want to look into proxy servers and other ways of artificially inflating click popularity.

However, they should also remember not to get carried away with their "spamming" methods. If a search result normally receives one click per day and suddenly that figure jumps into 10 000 per day, it is the equivalent of calling the SE and begging them to remove your site from the database.

"Go back to my website"

Ranking High At Google

2009-08-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

When Google went online in late 1997, it entered a market that was already filled by several other competitors. To mention a few, Altavista, HotBot, Excite, Infoseek and Lycos had all managed to claim their own share of the searching industry. Despite being
late in the game, in four years Google has managed to secure a place for itself in the search engine world.

While many of the search engines that used to dominate the field have now fallen or become shadows of their former selves, nothing seems to be able to stop the success of Google. After gaining the position of providing secondary results to Yahoo from Inktomi in 2000, Google broke into the big league. Claiming to serve over 70 million searches each day through its own site and its affiliates, Google can arguably be called the most important and powerful search engine of today.

What has made Google grow so fast? Will they be able to continue their outstanding performance? Is it possible that they will be able to reach profitability without having to stuff the pages with advertisements like other search engines have done? Those are interesting questions and I could offer a theory or two to answer them, but I won't.

What you and I are really interested in is how to grab our own small share of the enormous amount of traffic Google sends out to sites that are listed in its index. That is why the only thing I'll try to do in this article is to give you some insight on the ranking algorithm used by Google. Such knowledge is vital, because without it you will be unable to rank highly on the index and shall never receive the amount of traffic you had wished to.

Random thoughts before we begin

The most cautious (or paranoid) of you might have already started to wonder why I'm willing to share my views on the algorithm. After all, detailed information on the ranking methods used by different search engines can rarely be found on the web. Most search engines attempt to protect their secrets as well as they can, but occasionally someone spots a pattern and is able to "crack" the algorithm at least partially and is able to send his sites rocketing to the top.

However, these persons don't usually share their secrets with others. Why should they? In these days, the Internet is not the hippie land of flowers and love anymore. If you know how to secure good positions in the search engines, your site will get hits. If you are able to get hits, you will be able to make a nice amount of money. You'd have to be a fool to tell anyone about your experiences with the algorithms of search engines, because if you did, you'd suddenly find out that someone used your own weapons against you and dropped your pages out of the top ten.

So why the heck am I willing to give you some guidelines without charging you for it, like some of the other sites do? Well, general search engine optimization info is commonly available on several sites for free, but like I said, it is very difficult to find up-to-date information on the algorithms of specific engines. I'm kind of flattered with the thought of doing something fairly unique, offering information that very few others are willing to share.

If my ideas about Google's algorithm are even remotely correct, I have achieved this goal, even while it probably means that I'll have to fight a more difficult battle to rank my pages highly at Google in the future as this information keeps spreading. On the other hand, if I'm wrong, I can always say that you got exactly what you paid for.

In addition to the above, I have other reasons as well. Frankly, I'm sick and tired watching people spend tens or hundreds of dollars to buy books or subscriptions to web sites that promise to reveal all the ranking secrets you could imagine. Don't get me wrong, if the information is accurate, paying for it is a honest deal, but too often you notice that you paid for something you could have (or should have) been able to get for free. And what about those of us who just aren't able to pay? Throughout the history of the web, the search engine optimization game has become more and more difficult for the small guys as the Internet has grown and advanced. This article is my attempt to level the playing field a little.

What makes me the expert on this subject? Who am I to stand up and paint myself as an authority? To tell you the truth, not much. I don't work for the search engines and I don't have any secret contacts at Google that would be willing to give me the details of the algo. But I have achieved Top 10 rankings on competitive 2-word keyphrases with around 500,000 returns, which isn't a bad achievement in my book, especially while some of these words are often targeted by those who do posess fairly strong knowledge about search engine optimization. In any case, I'm not attempting to say that I have the best or most detailed information about this subject. All I can offer is to share what I know and hope that it will be of use to you.

OK, you've probably heard enough talk without any hard facts. Let us begin.

Ranking high at Google - key number one

While there are numerous things measured by the Google algorithm, one thing seems to outweigh every other aspect. I'm talking about listings in the Open Directory Project. Google seems to heavily favor sites and pages that are listed in there. At the very least, you will have to be able to get your root/index page into the ODP. Attempt to include your most important keywords in the title and in the description you submit to the ODP. Having these words in the name of the category you're submitting to or in the URL you submit are also things that might have a positive effect, but I am unsure whether they produce a significant benefit or not.

After you have been able to squeeze your index page into the directory, try to do the same to as many of your subpages as you can. ODP's rules state that in most cases, they will only list one page per site, but I've seen plenty of sites that have at least five subpages listed. Be careful while doing this, because excessive submitting can in extreme cases result in all of your pages being dropped from ODP and your site banned for life.

The minimum requirement is to make sure that each page has plenty of useful, unique content that is relevant to the category you are submitting to. It might also pay off to keep a brief "cooling off" period in between submissions. Never, ever even attempt to get all of the pages on your 200-page site into ODP.

Again, include your most important keywords both in the title and the description you submit to the ODP. For example, if you sell cars in your online store called "Auto Shop", have a subpage about Ferrari Testarossa and you want it to rank highly for those words, the title and description you submit to ODP should be something like:

Title: "Auto Shop's Ferrari Testarossa page"

Description: "Read about the history of Ferrari Testarossa, learn about its driving characteristics, visit a gallery of pictures or buy the thing!"

Got it? For each page, select one unique keyphrase, get it into the title and the description and submit. Choose the keyphrase carefully, because once you've submitted, it can be difficult to change the information you have entered. Repeat this process as many times as you dare, selecting content-rich pages from your site and submitting them into different categories.

This is a case of greed versus fear - if you're too frightened to try, you'll never get anything. But if you let your greed push your brains into the background.. you'll lose everything you already had. Should you want to get further details on submitting your website to the ODP, simply read my article about the subject.

Ranking high at Google - key number two

At this point, you hopefully have at least one, but preferably a couple listings at ODP with perfect descriptions and titles. The next part is to optimize the HTML code of the pages to match Google's algorithm as well as you can. While I believe that the ODP listings are the most important factor in the ranking, a completely unoptimized page that is listed in ODP can certainly be beat by a well-optimized page that is not in it. Of course, the best combination is a page that is both optimized and listed in the directory, what is exactly you should shoot for.

OK, let's take a look at the various areas of page optimization for Google:

Title: The keyword or phrase should be included in the title of the page. However, it is probably best to include other words in addition to the keyword as well. For single keywords or two word phrases, I'd consider a title of 3-5 words in length to be the best choice.

Headings: Placing the keyphrase in a H1 or H2 heading at the very beginning of the page seems to work well. I have seen pages that rank high without headings, but it would seem to me that a good heading makes the job a bit easier. For the heading, I generally use just the keyword or keyphrase without adding any other words into it. If the page in question is a very long one, using a H3 heading with the keyword in it every now and then to retain the focus doesn't seem to hurt.

Density: Google doesn't seem to be too picky about keyword density, just as long as the keyphrase is found often on the page. In many cases, Google seems to tolerate and even like very high keyword densities.

The page should be somewhat "front-heavy", meaning that you should work the first instance of the keyword somewhere very near to the beginning of the page and make it appear once or twice fairly close to this first keyword, scattering the rest across the page.

Special words: Including the keyword in link text or in bold text does seem to give a slight advantage, but is not mandatory in my opinion. If I would have to choose between the two, I'd see using the keyword in link text as more important than using it in bold.

Meta tags: Not useful with Google, but you won't get into trouble for using the standard keyword and description tags either. Include them or leave them out, your choice.

Link popularity: As said, ODP links are gold, but links from other respected sources, especially Yahoo, can be very valuable as well. Links from normal pages, if you have a large number of them pointing at the page you're optimizing, will provide a good edge against the competition.

Click popularity: Not in use. There you have it, the outlines of the Google algorithm as seen by me. Not very complicated, is it? I hope that the information you've read has been detailed enough to give you some ideas on how to improve your ranking and get more traffic to your site.

"Go back to my website"

How to submit to the Open Directory Project

2009-08-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Edited by roughly 7 500 active volunteers, the Open Directory Project is one of the largest website directories around. While it is sometimes called DMOZ or abbreviated ODP, don't get confused - all three names refer to the same directory. As a webmaster, your interest in the directory is probably focused on getting your site listed and thus obtaining more visibility and visitors. If so, good, because that is the topic of this very article.

Why submit to the Open Directory Project?

There are multiple reasons why trying to get listed in the ODP is a good idea. The directory itself produces a trickle of traffic. Not enough to overload your server and drive you crazy from joy, but every little bit helps.

If a handful of visitors doesn't sound attractive enough, remember that the Open Directory is also a major data source for other sites. The Google Directory and over 300 others use information from the ODP to provide directory and search services. Should your site be included in the Open Directory, it will also eventually be visible on many of these partner sites. Note the word 'eventually' - changes to the ODP are not immediately reflected on all sites using ODP data. It may take several months or even longer for some to update their listings. Even so, sooner or later your inclusion in the Open Directory will start producing traffic through these partner sites as well.

Sounds better, but the main reward for being listed is not traffic through the links. Rather, it's the favorable treatment Google will give your site once it is accepted to the Open Directory. Being linked from the ODP will usually boost your ranking in Google and thus provide your site with lots of highly targeted traffic, much more than what you will get through the directory itself.

That being said, is ODP vital to your online success? Should you focus all your energy on making it in, whatever it takes? Probably not, but it is an important part of a good promotion campaign and should not be neglected. However, if you can't get listed, don't despair. Just attempt to obtain as many incoming links as you can from well-known and respected sites that deal with the same topic as your site.

You can submit - or list your site on your own!

As noted, the Open Directory is a volunteer-edited directory. While all applications are not accepted, anyone can apply to become an editor. Obtaining an editor account opens up the possibility to list your site the way you want it, without the uncertainties and delays involved with simply submitting your site. Unfortunately, the editor route also involves numerous hurdles you will need to overcome.

Which path should you choose? Below, we'll forget everything connected with becoming an editor yourself and focus on simply submitting your site. You might want to start with that and only think about applying for an editor account if your submission efforts bear no fruit. On the other hand, those who have had no luck with submitting or simply enjoy doing things a bit differently should check out "Becoming an editor at the Open Directory". It contains a few tips on how you can get that editor account and enjoy the experience of adding your own site.

So, how exactly do I submit my site?

First, take a peek at "Boosting your traffic with website directories". It contains general instructions on how to submit to different directories. While it might seem tempting to skip reading it and simply move on, consider twice before doing so. From this point on, I'll assume you're familiar with the basic do's and don'ts outlined in said article.

Before continuing, I also want to mention the Open Directory Project's submission guidelines. If you don't want to read them now, just keep their existence in mind and get back to them later. The editors reviewing your application will assume that you've familiarized yourself with the directory's submission instructions and obey them. Speaking of the editors, it may also be a good call to browse through the editor guidelines. They reveal how editors determine which sites to accept - and which to reject.

Enough homework? OK, let's move on. When it comes to submitting, one thing you should know about the Open Directory Project is its shortage of editors. As I pointed out in the beginning, they have thousands of active editors, so one would easily assume that no problem exists. Unfortunately however, the directory is huge and editing is unpaid work. Thus, the queues of unreviewed sites can become long, very long. In the worst case scenario, we're talking something from months to years before someone reviews your site.

With the above fact in mind, do select the most relevant category for your site as instructed in "Boosting your traffic with website directories". However, if two or more categories seem equally suitable, lean towards one that has an editor. The user id's of possible category editors are displayed near the bottom of the category page. Should you only find a line encouraging you to volunteer to edit the category, beware - it is the sign of a category that may not have an editor. This means someone editing a higher level category needs to review your submission, which may sometimes lead to a long wait.

When you're ready to tip your toes into the water, start by submitting the root address of your site or in other words, the home page. This is a good starting point, as most sites should aim to simply get their home page listed in the ODP. In some cases, it is possible to get your site included in multiple categories, but let's not get into that yet. Submit your site once - it's enough. Submitting the same site repeatedly will not help.

So, how to fill the submission form? Take a peek at the links mentioned above and things should become fairly clear. Follow the principles, suggest your site to an appropriate category and wait. That's it, not exactly rocket science.

My site didn't make it! Now what?

Now you're in trouble. The first problem is to figure out whether your site has actually been rejected or the suggestion is still sitting somewhere unreviewed, gathering dust. Unfortunately, the ODP does not inform you if they reject your site nor tell you why it has been rejected. There's simply no way to know, unless you can get an editor to check what's going on.

Let's assume that you've been waiting for a reasonable period of time, at least a month, but possibly several. Nothing has happened, you're not in the directory. First, re-read the guidelines. Are you sure your site fills the requirements? Is there anything you could do better, anything where your site might not meet all the demands? If so, make improvements and resubmit.

What if even after that, a month or two goes by and still no word? One possibility is to try contacting the editor of the category you submitted to, or if the category has no editor, the editor of a higher-level category. If you decide to do so, choose your words carefully. Be very polite and explain how you've exhausted all other methods - making sure that you really have done so. Mention all the relevant information, such as the address of your site, submission dates and so on. Also keep in mind that many editors get a lot of mail from desperate webmasters, so they can easily get irritated. Don't expect them to be willing to bend over backwards just to do you a favor.

Yahoo! My site was accepted... but I want more!

As mentioned, in some cases a site can be listed more than once. However, remember that it is an exception, not a rule. If your site really only deserves a single listing, don't start spamming the directory by submitting dozens of individual pages. Being over-aggressive might cost you the listing you already have.

What's that you say? You have zounds of in-depth, unique content on different subject matters? Well then, perhaps you really could deserve more than one listing. Let's say that you run a site about cars, with a section on automobile history, one on current models, another on traffic safety and so on. If your site really is a helpful, quality resource, deeplinking might be within reach. To determine your chances, read this article from the ODP newsletter. It's not an official guideline and is somewhat dated, but gives you an idea on when deeplinking might be possible - and when it is out of the question.

If the criteria for deeplinking seems too strict, don't be depressed. Sites that offer their content in different languages can be listed more than once. Take Google for example. The main site is listed, but so is Google.de under World:Deutsch and Google.fr under World:Français. Naturally, this rule only applies to sites that truly support multiple languages. Babelfish-style crude machine translations will not cut it.

Even if your content is served only in plain old English, there's still hope. Sites that are relevant to a specific region may be listed in the Regional category even if they also have a listing elsewhere in the directory. For example, a store selling used computers through its website but also from an outlet in Ohio, US might be listed under Computers:Hardware:Used and in a subcategory of Regional:North America:United States:Ohio.

"Go back to my website"