Therefore, the submission process to a directory differs fromthat of submitting to regular crawler based search engines. With aregular search engine, one will submit their home page URL and thentheir crawler will visit that site as well as follow other links itfinds from the home page, forming its own title and description of eachpage. A directory does not work this way. They do not crawl yourwebsite and they are not able to decipher the content of the site.Rather one will select the most appropriate category related to thesubject matter of the site and then submit, suggesting a title,description and any other information the directory may require. Thisis why it is very important to submit correctly the first time. Notonly will if affect the way the site will appear when people aresearching but it is often times difficult to get it changed at a laterdate.
The format for submitting will work with most directories butwe will also look at some specific requirements of directories as well.While there are many directories on the Internet, we will only beexploring the top ones here which are Yahoo!, Looksmart, The Open Directory, Gimpsy, GoGuides.org, JoeAnt, Hotrate, Wherewithal/Xoron and Zeal.First let us look at how to properly submit in general and then look atsome specific requirement at each directory listed above. Now before we begin, it will be assumed that you have alreadyoptimized your site for good positioning on the crawler-based engines.This will help us in category selection as well as what title anddescription to use when submitting. If you have not yet optimized yourwebsite, you'll need to do so.
The first step is to select the most appropriate category. For an example, we will use a site that we own and operate called "Arizona Builders' Zone."To select a category, you will first need to know which keywords orphrases (combination of keywords) are most important or relevant toyour business. For our example site, the most important phrases that wewant to target are as follows:
"Arizona builders"
"Arizona construction"
"Arizona contractors"
Sure we can target many others, but these are the mostimportant in regards to this site. Also keep in mind that with adirectory you are limited to having one page (usually your home page)included. There are rare cases where a directory will include otherpages of your site in different categories but this does not happenoften. It is also important to understand that in the search engineoptimization (SEO) process, one can really only effectively promote twoto three keyword phrases at the most for each page of the website.To select a category, simply go to the directory you want tosubmit to and conduct a search using your most important keywords orphrases. You will then see one or more categories displayed along within some cases actual websites that are listed in those categories. Ifmore than one category is listed, you can explore each one and view thewebsites that are listed there. If you have competitors listed there,then you most likely want to be listed as well. The bottom line is tosubmit to the category that is best related to your business.
Once you locate a category, log it somewhere. This is so youcan go back at a later date and see if your site was listed or not.With some directories you will receive an email response on whetheryour site was listed or not providing that you supply a valid emailaddress when submitting. With others, you will have to manually checkto see if your site is listed which is why it is a good practice tomake a note of which directories you submitted to as well as to whichcategories.Now that you have located the proper category, you will lookfor a link somewhere on the page that will take you to a submissionform. Most directories will work this way. Some will have a standardsubmission form that you then have to supply a path to the category youwant to be listed in, but none of the ones we are dealing with in thisarticle work that way.
The three basic things that most directories will ask for isa title, description and maybe a list of keywords. These are the threeelements we will cover.
Title -
With crawler-based search engines, it is common practice toinclude you keywords in your title tag. For example, The ArizonaBuilders' Zone has the following title tag:
<title>Arizona Contractors, Construction, HomeImprovement and Real Estate Resources - Arizona Builders' Zone</title>
You can see that we have our three most important phrasesrepresented but we will not submit the same thing to a directory.Instead, only submit the company or website name. In this case it wouldbe "Arizona Builders' Zone." With a directory, we are dealing with thehuman element meaning that an actual human will be reviewing your site,deciding whether or not it will be included in the directory as well aswhat its title and description will be. Directories only want eitherthe company or website name listed. If you submit the title as "ArizonaContractors, Construction, Home Improvement and Real Estate Resources -Arizona Builders' Zone" the editor will either change it to the companyname or worse delete it because you did not follow the rules. Rememberthat most of these editors are volunteers and have to deal with manysubmissions, a lot of which are spam. So make their life as easy aspossible by submitting in the proper way.
Description -
A lot of times one will simply copy the meta description tagand submit that to the directory. However this is not the recommendedthing to do as some editors will reject it because they want you tocome up with an original description; one that is of a unbiasedthird-person view rather than a sales pitch. They are looking fordescriptions that inform one of what the site contains or is aboutrather than something like, "We are the best!", or "A leader in..." andso forth and so on.
For our example site, we have already written not only adescription that is used in the meta description tag but one fordirectories as well and have included it in the html of the home pagein the form of a comment tag. This provides an easy reference for uswhen submitting to directories and because it is in the form of acomment tag, crawler-based search engines will not pick it up.
Here is the difference between the two descriptions, the firstbeing the meta description tag and the second being the "directoryfriendly" description:
"The largest directory of Arizona builders, contractors andhome improvement companies plus resources and information on theArizona construction and real estate industry."
and
"A directory of builders, contractors and home improvementcompanies in Arizona. Offers resources and information on the Arizonaconstruction and real estate industry."
The differences are subtle but enough to make it original andit does not make any boasts such as "The largest directory..." This isthe description that we would submit to a directory whereas the metadescription tag is the description that a crawler based search enginewill pick up. You can write a description in the same way and thenplace it in a comment tag in between the and tag in your html. Whensubmitting your site, simply select "View Source" from your browser'stool bar, and the code is right there.
If you submit your description keeping these principles inmind, it is most likely that the editor will not change it. If you findafter your site is listed that the editor re-wrote your description ina way that is not to your liking, then you will have to try to contactthem through an email link or resubmit hoping they will see yourchanges. Odds are though that if you submit a good description in thefirst place, they will leave it be.
Keywords -
Sometimes a directory will allow you to submit a list ofkeywords. If they do, simply submit a short list of single keywordsseparated by a space. Do not submit an exhaustive list of repetitivephrases as they will most likely be rejected. You can list these as acomment tag right under the comment tag for your "directory friendly"description in your code. For our example site, it looks like this:
<!-- arizona builder builders construction licensed contractor contractors home improvement real estate licensing -->
As you can see it is short and each word is listed only once.The only directories mentioned in this article that allow you to submitkeywords are Hotrate and Wherewithal/Xoron. This is as far as we willcover this subject because it is really not that vital to the successof your directory submissions.
Now for some specific requirements and techniques for each directory listed above.
Yahoo!
Yahoo! charges $299 on an annual basis to be listed in theirdirectory. You can still submit to some non-profit categories for freebut there is not much chance that a Yahoo! editor will ever get to yoursubmission and review it. Therefore even if the category you want to belisted in has a free submit option, it is recommended that you pay the$299 and you will be listed in 7-10 business days.Make sure that when you submit that you are not alreadylisted, that no portion of your site is under construction or brokenand that your site is browser and user friendly. If it does not meetany of these requirements, Yahoo! may reject it while keeping your $299submission fee.
Looksmart
Looksmart is a pay per click directory meaning that you have tocreate an account with a budget to submit your listing and then youwill be charged a "per click" charge every time someone clicks on yourlisting. They charge you a set up fee of $29 for each listing and perclick fees start at $0.15. The benefit of being listed in Looksmart isthat MSN displays Looksmart Listings in their search results.If your site is non-profit, you may be able to submit for free to Looksmart owned Zeal whose listings also show up in Looksmart.
The Open Directory
The Open Directory Project (ODP) is comprised of volunteer editorsall over the world who are responsible for one or more categories ofthe directory. Therefore once you submit to a specific category, it isthe responsibility of the editor assigned to that category to reviewand approve or decline your listing. Some editors are more diligentthan others so it is hard to determine when your site will get listedif it gets listed at all. It seems as of late that it has become moredifficult to get listed in ODP. There is a website where you can checkthe status of your submission. It can be found at Resource-zone.com and you would want to submit to the "Site Submission Status" topic. Top level editors are pretty quick to respond to your post.GoGuides.org
GoGuides was started from former editors of the Go.com GoGuidesthat was killed after Disney decided to drop out of the portal race.Like ODP, it is comprised of volunteer editors that are responsible forspecific categories in the directory. There are two ways to submit tothis directory. One is to pay a one-time fee of $39.99 where your siteis guaranteed to be listed in two business days or become an editoryourself. You have to take and pass a test proving you have someexperience submitting sites to a directory before you are approved asan editor. Once you are an editor, you can add sites to the categoryfor which you applied to; they are added instantly to the directory. Ifyou want to submit a site to a category in which you do not haveediting privileges, you can add to your own category and then move itto another category where you will then have to wait for that editor toapprove your submission. As your editor level increases, you can applyto edit more categories.JoeAnt
JoeAnt was also started by former Go.com GoGuides editors and iscomprised of volunteer editors that are responsible for specificcategories in the directory. Like GoGuides.org, there are two ways tosubmit to this directory. One is to pay a one time fee of $39.99, theother is to become an editor. There is no test to take to become aneditor. You simply apply, choose the category you want to edit and thenare approved via email response. You can then add sites to yourassigned category. If you want to submit a site to a category in whichyou do not have editing privileges, JoeAnt has a forum that you canpost to, asking other editors to list the site. As your editor levelincreases, you can apply to edit more categories.Hotrate
In order to submit to Hotrate, you have to apply to be an editor aswell. Once you become an editor you can submit to most levels of thedirectory. As your level as editor increases, you can then submit tomore areas of the directory.Wherewithal/Xoron
There are two ways to submit to this directory - one is thestandard way of finding the correct category, submitting and waitingfor approval, and the other is to become an editor yourself. Once youare an editor, you can "grab" any category that does not already havean editor. Once you have this category, you can instantly add sites toit.Zeal
Zeal is owned by Looksmart and is comprised of volunteer editors aswell as Looksmart's employee editorial staff. Submission to Zeal isfree but you can only submit if you are a non-profit business orwebsite. All commercial categories would require submission throughLooksmart's CPC listing service described above.By following proper etiquette in directory submission, youwill not only insure that your submissions are accepted but that theyare listed in a way that will give the site its best chance at exposureand visibility.
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