Haydon Rouse

Every now and then people ask me about programs that are claimed to increase their web site rankings in the search engines. A friend sent me an email today telling me about a new bit of software by Brad Callen, an internet marketer, called “Directory Submitter“. It’s designed to make the process of getting links to your site easier and quicker. Remember, in general, the more links to your web site the better. Reciprocal links (sites that link to each other) are good, but one-way links are better. In general, the search engines will rank your site higher if you have a higher number and more relevant links than your competitor.

The internet is full of directories that list web sites in categories (think Yellow Pages). Some of these directories require you to pay to get listed whilst some are free. The Directory Submitter software enables you to submit to some 1800 free directories getting you those all important links.

What makes the submitter software useful is it takes you directly to the submission page of each directory. That will save you a load of time. The other main benefit is that it fills in a lot of the submission form for you. Again, saving lots of time.

When using the Directory Submitter you must make sure you select the right category relevant to the subject of your web site. If you don’t, you’ll annoy the hell out of the owner of the directory and he/she will just delete your application.

The marketing blurb for the software says that you can “Instantly get quality, 1 way links, in as little as 1 mouse click!” I don’t think it’s quite as easy as it sounds.
You still have to find the right category and I often find directories don’t make it easy to find the right one for your particular subject/product (if there is a relevant category at all). You still have to squint, work out the anti spam captcha codes and enter them in.

When submitting you should also vary the title and description you use. The software allows you to enter in more than one, but it’s a little fiddly switching them over.

In theory you could do everything that this program does yourself. You could do it manually by trawling your way around all the directories or you could try and automate the process. Here’s how…

There are several sites and online tools that list directories you can submit to. eg…
http://www.onewaytextlink.com/
http://www.123promotion.co.uk/directorymanager

You could then set up an auto form filler piece of software (http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/auto_fill-form.html) to auto fill in the submission forms yourself.

Doing it that way might not be as slick, but it’s still an option. Overall though, the Directory Submitter software will save you load of time. There is a free version allowing you to submit to 200 directories. Upgrading costs $47 which allows you to submit to over 1,800. $47 - what’s that? Like £24. Well worth the time saved.

Download your free copy

Share This

Yes, that is what you should do if you have a web site. Do I do it? No, not as often as I should. The search engines love new, fresh, unique content so you should update your web site as much as possible. Unfortunately, it’s down to time though and www.haydonrouse.com isn’t a priority for me. So do as I say and not as I do!

If you update your web site regularly the search engine robots will keep coming back for more. The more you update the more often they will visit.

By “updating” I really mean adding new content/web pages. A blog is an ideal tool for adding new content to a web site. Once set up, a blog is really easy to use. For the most part it’s just like using a word processor. Bear in mind however that a blog is software and software needs updating. If it’s not updated then the nasty people out there will hack your blog and wreck havoc.

Consider adding a blog to your web site so that updating your web site becomes a breeze, but remember it’s quite a commitment.

Share This

I wrote back in January about my entry into the SEO World Championships. To remind you, it’s basically a competition to get a new web site to rank top on the major search engines for the phrase “globalwarming awareness2007“. I managed to get the site listed in Google within about 2 weeks of launch. Not bad. Yahoo listed it shortly afterwards. MSN on the other hand is being a pain in the digital backside.

Anyways, the site was listed in about 197th position on Google yesterday when I checked. Hehe, a long way off the leaders. It’s not surprising really, as I haven’t done any work on it.  There is only the one page with little text.  However, I have a master plan, which I’ll soon be unleashing on the World. There is no guarantee that it will work but I do reckon it will get some attention.

If you’re feeling generous, own a web site and would like to help, then please link to my web site http://globalwarmingawareness2007comp.com using the wording Globalwarming awareness2007.

Share This

If you have a web site you should think about creating linkbait!

If you’re somehow involved with online marketing you’ve probably heard the term “linkbait” before. However, for many people who don’t “live online” they probably haven’t. So this post is for you if you haven’t heard of it before.

The term linkbait is used in the online marketing industry to describe content on a web site that encourages other web site owners to link to it. We all know that getting others to link to our site is good. Not only does it produce more visitors as they click through, but it helps with the search engines. The search engines see a link to your web site as a vote of confidence. Generally, the more links to a site, the more it’s trusted and hence the higher it appears on the search engine results pages. So therefore we all should all try and create linkbait to attract attention/visitors. Whether you call it linkbait or just good content is up for discussion. Linkbait is nothing new then, just a new phrase! However it should get you thinking about how you can create your own linkbait.

Linkbait is simply great content that makes others want to share it with the world. Linkbait should make it as easy as possible for others to create a link to that page. On a linkbait page/site you will therefore often see buttons to enable visitors to add the site to social bookmarking sites like del.icoi.us.com or social news sites like Digg.com. Getting your site featured on these sites can create huge amounts of traffic.

It could be a top ten list, a collection of web sites, breaking news, a controversial comment or opinion. Anything really that is going to get others to link to it. Get thinking!
If any of my existing, or new customers would like help in implementing a link bait campaign please get in touch.

Share This