As well as weekly calls from the Online Directories begging us to advertise with them, we're all receiving lots of emails at the moment, usually from India or thereabouts, offering wonderful 'Search Engine Optimisation' or 'Linking' services and the chance to have your site submitted to thousands of online directories. To clear up some of the confusion let's look at the subject of online marketing through directory advertising...

Reasons for Directory Submissions

1) TRAFFIC

Most people will submit their website to an online directory (free or paid) in an attempt to gain more traffic or hits and thus the hope of new enquiries. This rarely works cost-effectively. As we know, over 80% of searches by internet users in the UK and worldwide are done using Google and around 15% by Yahoo and MSN/Bing. A very small percentage in comparison use directories such as Yell.com, Kompass, Applegate, Scoot, TouchLocal, FindTheNeedle, Thomson Local and all the others.

If you have a very poor website which is not appearing in the organic search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN/Bing or even no website at all then Directory Advertising (as well as pay-per-click advertising) can be a way of gaining hits. The free directories are rarely of use though and you should expect to pay £250 plus per year for sponsored listings on the major pay Directories. Each. Take a chance, sign up for a month's trial, and evaluate the extra traffic you gain to see if it results in quality new enquiries. Some Directories offer a free trial - can't hurt can it?

2) BACKLINKS AND SITE RANKING

Inexperienced Search Engine Optimisers will stress the power of having your site linked to by as many other sites as possible. You'll be offered 'Link Exchange', 'Reciprocal Links', 'Directory Submission' and other services. Don't do it unless you have money to burn or time to waste!

In a way, they are correct though. Remember that the most popular search engine on the planet - Google, used by 80% of internet users - quite rightly measures the importance of your site in part by recording how many other websites are linking to it. A link to your site, in simple terms, is counted as a 'recommendation'. So, if your site is competing with others to get high up in Google's rankings for exactly the same product, the site with the most links in to it from other sites may well come on top.

This has led lazy and opportunistic 'search engine optimisers' to submit sites to as many online directories, forums, blogs etc as possible in an attempt to get the most backlinks to their sites. Beware though, as quantity is not everything, Google will rank the relevance of those links coming into your site! A link from the local council's website will carry far more weight for example than some obscure free online directory. 10 quality links of relevance to your product or service from respected websites are worth far more than hundreds of links from irrelevant free-submit directories or even paid-for listings.

What most people don't know is that even if you have paid good money to have your link on certain Directories - your site MAY NOT gain any benefit at all from that link. Absolutely none, zip, sweet FA. This is because a while ago, Google, recognising that websites were gaining ranking by having thousands of irrelevant links pointing in, activated the 'nofollow' tag in it's ranking algorythms.

Here's why. Firstly, Google does not seem to like online directories, especially those that let anybody advertise their website on them for free or for a few shekels. Many of these are seeing their own rankings being reduced month after month. Makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, I could have a superb website, full of relevant content and value to my audience - only to be outranked in the listings by some shoddy affair just because it has paid for links on online directories that hardly anyone uses!

Google will also look at the number of links going out of your site compared to the links coming in. In simple terms, the more links going out, the less highly you will be ranked. This is to discourage 'spam' sites which consist purely of advertising links. So, if you are an online directory business - how many links do you think you will have going out - hundreds of thousands right? Wrong! This is because many online directories use the 'nofollow' command in the web code alongside your listing. (You won't be able to see this unless you access the source code for the page by the way!). If you need advice on this, tell us which online directories you have paid to list with and we'll check them out for you FREE OF CHARGE.

The 'nofollow' command instructs search engines like Google not to follow or count that link. If you click on that link, it will take you to the target website, it's just that the target website does not gain any 'brownie points' or 'pagerank' for the link or 'recommendation'. So, your site may not gain any ranking points at all from having a paid-for listing with certain popular online directories, who amongst others all use the 'nofollow' command on their listings. What you will get is 'some' extra traffic and it's up to you to decide whether that traffic gain will be cost-effective. A month's trial is usually time enough to evaluate and any Directory which won't offer a trial should be avoided like the plague!

In Conclusion

You and your business work hard to make profit. There are many many firms out there that want to take some of that profit by persuading you to advertise with them, take a listing on their online directory or use their services. Think about it. At most, take a trial to evaluate the cost-effectiveness. At worst you wil spend hundreds or thousands of pounds, hardly anybody will use their online directory or ever see your listing and you won't even benefit your own website by gaining a backlink.

What you should do is concentrate on filling your website with relevant useful content, come up with ideas for online press releases and work on getting other quality websites to link to you.

Here at Planting Solutions we strongly recommend 'Content Managed' websites, which once set up, allow you to create and edit your own content if you wish - as easily as using a word processor. You could change price lists, food menus, stock levels, add special offers and write articles on new products or points of interest. All this content is regularly indexed or 'spidered' by the search engines, causing your site to be seen as more authoritative, relevant and powerful.