SEO is surrounded by myths and common misconceptions. For example, some SEO practitioners feel like they are waging a campaign against the search engines, desperate to sneak in as many keywords as they can, perhaps by way of hidden text. In reality, whilst Google has a problem with hidden text, it most certainly doesn’t have a problem with SEO! And therefore all your search engine optimization activities should be done in tandem not only with the search engine, but with the internet as a whole – never take advantage!

The benefits of ethical SEO content creation are well expounded elsewhere, and should be the foundation stone of any serious SEO strategy. Link building strategies, on the other hand, you might assume requires a “gloves off” and dare I say it borderline unethical approach to optimization, this, however, is certainly not the case, and in order to be successful, link building must be matter of quality and relevance.

Nowhere is this clearer than in regards to directory submissions. Essentially directory submissions are some of the most popular pages on the web, and are therefore one of the most fertile beds for SEO link building. For many SEO practitioners, therefore, directory submissions sites represent the sangréal of potential backlinking and they feel obliged to submit as many articles as they can possibly muster; this, of course is a grave mistake and the most popular submissions sites are inundated with thousands of submissions, many of them keyword stuffed, which is why they have evolved a clear set of rules and guidelines.

Quality over Quantity

Especially in terms of SEO, a writer is often tempted to write as much as possible with a view to masking any SEO intention is a dense cascade of wordliness, this however, can have a negative effect on the overall quality of a piece; remember, it is much better that your piece contains a couple of obviously repeated keywords, than waffles on for so long that it becomes unreadable.

Also, with the best directory submission pages (and therefore the most difficult to get into) your piece will be read by a human editor, who will be looking to see not necessarily if your piece is well SEO’d, but whether it offers some unique and informative content. A good SEO company can help you find the right and most worthwhile directories for your website.

Topic

On a similar note, it is a feature of directory submission page that they are organized by topic; it is therefore advisable that your piece is focused on a single, perhaps even niche, area; this way not only is you piece more likely to be found in its right place, but it is more likely to be accepted to begin with.

Don’t Forget to Optimize

Of course quality isn’t the only concern when submitting to a directory, and there are a few great search engine optimisation techniques you can use to increase your hits and effectiveness, e.g:

Try inserting a keyword phrase after your company name at the end of an article.

Deep link: i.e. don’t always link to your front page, but link to a relevant subpage on your site – search engines like this!

Off page search engine optimization essentially means the enhancement of your website through external sources; e.g. links to your website from other websites. In comparison with on-page search engine optimisation, off page SEO is harder to establish, as the optimisation of your own site is easier to do with your own web pages. Off page SEO involves the contribution to other sites either through online groups and communities or having to purchase the link for your site.

As each website is unique, the off page search engine optimisation for each website will differ dramatically. You have to establish the needs of your website and decipher what other types of websites your clientele will be visiting. Here are a few tips to help benefit your off page SEO:

•    Think further afield. Don’t just rely on placing links in websites within your own country; try and think of any other countries you could gain customers from and try to build links there. You might be surprised at how many online communities or blogs could reach out to customers in foreign countries. Equally, you could make your website accessible to different languages if you know that you could be receiving clientele from different countries.
•    Don’t be automated. When placing your links in various places, don’t use the same text for all of your links. Instead, try to use things like the URL for your website, your company name/brand and so forth to enhance your creativity and attraction to customers. Using relevant but different anchor text is a more natural way of linking and won’t look spammy to search engines.
•    Vary your links. You may have the luxury of being able to obtain links on several different websites, but if you direct all of these links to your homepage it can make your website look as though it has no depth. If you assess other parts of your websites which will be just as informative and attractive to the customers you are aiming this link at then create the link there. This doesn’t just allow your inbound links to look less automated, but it also guarantees that your customers will be accessing different areas of your website. If they are directed solely to your homepage they may only read the information on that page before exiting your website; so direct them to something that is going to really grab their attention.
•    Search Engine Optimization Companies. Some people choose to employ search engine optimization companies who can enhance your website for you, writing blogs and articles, creating better links and much much more. They are trained in this expertise and whether you used them once or monthly to create blogs, they can be a great investment for your website.

These are just a few things to get you on your way to achieving maximum off page search engine optimisation. Follow these and you should be well on your way to generating even more customers to your website. Our website and SEO blog offers fantastic tips and information on many different search engine optimization tools. It’s a fantastic way to generate customers to your site, and is quite simple once you know how. Happy linking!

We all know that link building strategies are an important part of SEO, but the link quality is as important as quantity if not more so. Directories are distinct from search engines in that they are created and maintained by real people. Essentially a lot of lists arranged by topic, most of the entries have a link and a little bit of page description, maybe an icon but usually not. It’s estimated that Yahoo’s directory services only gets about 1% of the traffic that Yahoo search gets, but that’s still a million or so searches a year and not to be dismissed lightly.

The quality of the directory is an important determinant in the question of whether it’s worthwhile submitting your link. Remember that links from sites with high authority are great for SEO, but any linkage with a shady or low quality website can do you harm. If the directory is just a list of links to pages without proper organization or page information to help users find the right one, forget about it, especially if there is a price tag involved. In fact, while it’s sometimes worth stumping up some cash for a paid directory listing, there are plenty of free ones that should be your first ports of call.

How much Google and the other engines trust a particular directory is an interesting question. On one hand, they are made by people, so they should only contain relevant results, but on the other hand, some of those people may not be using the listings in an ethical way. The best way of estimating whether or not a directory has decent authority or not is to try it. Is it useful to you, and easy to use? Are the results what you were looking for? If yes, the chances are that other people think so too and the search engines know it’s reliable. And, of course, more people are likely to find your site through a good directory than a bad one, so that works out nicely for all kinds of search engine optimisation reasons.

Getting your site included can be as simple as going to the directory page, entering the URL, and bang, there you go. Most better directories will make you jump through a few more hoops, but even if they don’t it’s still worth taking a little more time and creating a snappy page description at least. Have a look at the other entries in the category and try and find a unique selling point for your website. Also, make sure you list in the right categories. Choosing categories is just like choosing SEO keywords. More people will look for broad ones, but those categories will be bigger and have more competition in them. It might be better to be a big fish in a smaller category than be eaten by the sharks in a highly competitive field. Think about the long tail keywords and the categories that correspond to them.

Pick a couple of large general directories, and one or two that are more specific to your field, say on industry hubs or discussion sites. Depending on what you sell, it might also be worth targeting a few location-specific directories. As long as you choose them carefully and don’t restrict your SEO link building strategies to directories only (and avoid going overboard with an entry in every one you can find), having links from that kind of site could well have a positive impact on your search engine optimization campaign.

There are very few people in the developed world who are still unaware of the Internet. Over the course of ten or fifteen years, the Internet has gone from being the private play area of geeks and scientists to a globally public meeting place where the entire planet goes to take care of its private, commercial and creative business. Of course, now that the Internet is such a crowded place, websites are in increased competition with each other to stand out from the crowd and be noticed. The easiest way to stand head and shoulders above your competitors is to be at the top of the results pages returned by the major search engines when users type in a query relevant to your business. In order to achieve this feat, increasing numbers of website administrators are turning to a method of positive marketing called Search Engine Optimisation.

What exactly is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the term used for adjusting aspects of your website in order to achieve good results in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s). Adjustments made within a website such as keywords and formatting is known as On-Page SEO. The adjustment of external aspects of a website is known as Off-Page SEO, and this is what we will examine now.

How does Off-Page Search Engine Optimisation work?
Recently, major search engines have put more emphasis on Off-Page SEO, equating the importance of a site with the amount of independent links it receives from other sites. When someone links to your site, the search engines interpret it as a vote of confidence for your site’s content and authority. The more links you have coming to your site, the better your site will perform in search engine rankings.

What kind of techniques can be used in Off-Page Search Engine Optimisation?
There are ever increasing arrays of Off Page SEO techniques but the following are among the simplest strategies to help create significant links to your website:-

Article marketing
Write articles for the many article directories on the web and you will be allotted a resource box where you can introduce yourself and share a link to your website.

Blogging
Create various relevant blog posts to give more information and share links about your website.

Forum marketing
Join forums relevant to your website’s topic and you will be allotted a signature box where you can leave a link to your website with every contribution you post. This a great method for online reputation management, where you create an off-site buzz about yourself and your business through your contributions to other sites.

Social networking
Create a profile on social media websites and find other members who are interested in relevant topics to establish links and awareness to your website.

With the consistent application of the above Off-Page Search Engine Optimisation techniques, the profile of your website will rise. As the profile of your site rises, it will gain in authority, creating a cycle of increasing profile and authority that will see your website steadily climb up the rankings.