One of the buzz topics in the marketing world for the past few months is the fact that directory submission is dieing as a method of link development and search engine optimization. To add to the buzz, if you regularly check up on Google’s Webmaster Guidelines you will notice that it no longer lists submitting your site to relevant directories as something you should do. To some, this is a sign that search engines no longer view directories as important.
Have you figured out the problem with this logic yet? Well, here it is: Google is not the only search engine. While Google may receive the vast majority of search volume, it doesn’t mean that they get all of it. As a result, I have been finding great success in optimizing websites for keywords in Yahoo and MSN lately. Optimizing for a single search engine means that you are missing out on a large portion of your traffic.
Case in point, my first website Easy Online Money Making barely scratches the rankings on Google (it is Google long-tail optimized), and if you are curious no I have not taken the time to redesign it since I made it. On the flip side, if you go to Yahoo and search for Online Money Making a very expensive keyword to advertise for, you will find that my website is ranked #2 in Yahoo and I did this thanks to a very large number of directory submissions when I didn’t know better.
Trial and error ended up showing me that directory submissions may not be weighted as much in Google as they were in the good old days of marketing, but they clearly still play a significant role in Yahoo’s ranking algorithm.
My suggestion is that you find high quality directories and submit to them manually (there are plenty on the various webmaster forums) and then use semi-automated solutions such as ResellerGo to generate a blanket effect where you are gaining links by sheer force. This should by no means use the majority of your link building campaign, but it is the equivalent of keeping 5% of your portfolio in gold; you know that it will still be there in the end and any good investor will have at least a little.
I think of the whole thing the same way I see nofollow comments, who cares if Google doesn’t follow a nofollow comment, as long as it brings in targeted traffic directly or indirectly it all works out just the same.
