Note: Some Links may be out of date.

Blitz Ezine # 170 July 1, 2002
Submitting to web directories

Note: This is an archived issue. Some links and/or content may be outdated

The Blitz-Promotions News Letter.
Issue no. 170, July 1, 2002

************ In This Issue **************
Comments
Food for thought
Guest Article
Search Engine Summer - Lesson 5
The Classifieds
Next Issues
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Food for thought
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"I want to know what good is a web search engine that returns 324,909,188 'matches' to my key word. That's like saying, "Good news, we've located the product you're looking for. It's on Earth." -Bruce Cameron
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Search Engine Summer
Lesson 5- Submitting to the Directories
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Directories are search engines that are built using humans to accept websites. Currently there are two major ones, but there are also numerous niche directories as well. These niche directories are extremely useful, in that they will help with your linking analysis that many of the crawlers do - more about this in a later lesson.

The Main Directories

Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com/
pay $299.00 / year.

Open Directory Project
http://dmoz.org/
Free

Regional / Niche Directories

Some directories of directories can be found below.
http://www.beaucoup.com/
http://www.twics.com/~takakuwa/search/search.html
http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html

More can be found by using your favorite search engine.

Before You Submit

1. Make sure it isn't 'Under Construction'.

2. Make sure all your links work and your pages load fast.

3. Make sure your site has at least 7-8 pages.

4. Take a moment to review your competition. Make sure that your site has something different that makes it unique. Good content and/or a unique product will get you listed. If it isn't unique it won't be listed.

5. Too many banners, webrings will make it hard to get listed.

6. Make sure your contact information (business name, address, email, phone, fax numbers) is listed on all your pages.

7. Make sure that your site looks good (professional, grammar, spelling, easy to read) and loads fast in all the major browsers.

8. Make sure all your graphics load.

9. Make sure your site has a clean, easy to use navigation system.

10. Your site must be open 24/7.

11. Make sure you have a privacy policy.

Best Ways to Submit -

Step 1 - Using your list of keywords make some practice searches on the directory you want to join. Make these searches from the directories main page.

Step 2 - Make some notes of the categories that are popping up first, and how the search terms are located in the search strings.

Step 3 - Visit the categories from Step 2 and visit some of the sites that are listed. Does your site compare well or do sites in the category have nothing to do with yours. If the latter is the case then scratch them off the list and continue to the next category.

Step 4 - Narrow the categories down to two.

Step 5 - Go to the category and click Suggest a Site

Step 6 - Fill out the information requested. Make sure that your title and description include your 'best' keywords one time.

Example -

Using Yahoo, we'll pretend that we have a business that sells used car engines. Our name is Blitz Used Engines. From our previous research we learn that the most searched for terms are -

used car parts
used auto parts
used car engines
used engines

We enter the first term in the Yahoo search box and take a peek at the listings (this was on Friday the 28th - so they may be a bit different, but you'll get the general idea).

First thing we see is the category matches -
Auto parts > used
Automotive engines > used

We save those in our notes. The first listing is -

========= listing ====

Used Auto Car Parts Exchange - locates used car parts, engines, transmissions, and truck body parts via a nationwide network of auto salvage yards. http://www.used-car-parts-exchange.com/
More sites about: Auto Parts > Used

Used Auto Car Parts Exchange - that is the title of their listing. Notice how the keywords are used first. Usually now the title must be based on your actual business / website title.

Next is their listing description - again note the use of the keywords.

Then you find the category - Auto Parts > Used

An important number to pay attention to is also the number of listings. For this search it was 1059. (This information is located in the light blue bar titled Website Matches).

We then do a search for our other terms and find that the categories we want to be listed in are -

Auto parts > used
Automotive engines > used

We click on the category Auto parts > used -

Down at the bottom of the page we click on Submit a Site.

We submit our payment information and create our title and description -

Blitz Used Engines - Used engines for your domestic or foreign car and truck. We ship anywhere.

Tracking your progress and Resubmitting

Yahoo will send you a note within a week or so letting you know if you made it in the directory or why you didn't make it in and what you need to do to fix it.

ODP you need to check after a month or so. If you're not listed in a month then check weekly for four weeks. If you're still not in submit your site again or you can pay a visit to their help pages.

http://dmoz.org/help/submit.html

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Quick Link
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This week while doing some research on Search Engine Summer, I found a great site / tutorial that explains step by step how to write a solid business plan. Enjoy.

http://www.sba.gov/starting/indexbusplans.html

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