Run a test landing. Do a search and find your Pay Per Click (PPC) ad in Yahoo or Google. Click on it. Where does it bring you? Your home page? I hope not. You should create a specific landing page for your PPC ads. A landing page is page you create to convert your PPC traffic into sales. This page should get your potential customers (that you have already paid for!) to go exactly where you think they want to go.

Here are some tips to create a good landing page:

1) Focus! Focus! Focus!

The landing page should be about your product or service. No links to other sites, no advertisements, no "how do you do". When people arrive at your landing page, they should already be predisposed to buy (since you wrote such an excellent ad to get them here in first place) and are trying to either: a)Get more information about your product or service b)Find "Buy now" button Use search term on page, because searchers will key into section of page with their search term. If search term is "buy skidoo" then have a button that says "Buy Skidoos Here". Don't distract them - give them what they want.

2) Customize your landing page

DMOZ is a popular free open source search directory edited by human volunteers. With a PageRank™ of 9, it should be on your priority list when it comes time for site submission to directories.

As an authorative hub a link from a DMOZ directory category to your website will give your site a boost in PageRank™ and may assist in getting search engine spiders to crawl your site faster and more often. Google also uses DMOZ data for its Google directory.

What does this mean? It is well known in seo circles that by having a site listing in DMOZ you will also get a listing in Google directory, effectively creating two high PageRank™ backlinks. Hundreds if not thousands of smaller sites also use Dmoz directory data. Check my search engine relationship table for who DMOZ supplies directory data to. So from a single listing in DMOZ potential for hundreds of backlinks can stack up quite substantially.

Unlike Yahoo! with it’s paid inclusion via Yahoo! Express, you may submit your site freely to DMOZ for inclusion into their database. This can be a harrowing and traumatic experience for some as DMOZ directory submission requirements are very tight and strict.

DMOZ prides itself on listing websites with high quality content, culling bad and garbage sites. Hopefully I can lay to rest some of your DMOZ submission fears.

Prior website checks before submitting to DMOZ

A peek at site suggest guidelines at DMOZ gives a few clues as to what DMOZ editors look for when processing site submissions.

I don’t know how many times I have read on forums and message boards webmasters complaining they have submitted their site/s to DMOZ over and over again only to be rejected.

You can bet their site either doesn’t conform to submission guidelines, was submitted to wrong category or was just complete crap with no quality content.

Here is DMOZ submission guidelines list taken from their site. Follow it to ‘T’ and ensure your site conforms.

• Do not submit mirror sites. Mirror sites are sites that contain identical content, but have altogether different URLs.
• Do not submit URLs that contain only same or similar content as other sites you may have listed in directory.
• Sites with overlapping and repetitive content are not helpful to users of directory.
• Multiple submissions of same or related sites may result in exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites.
• Do not disguise your submission and submit same URL more than once.
• Do not submit any site with an address that redirects to another address.
• The Open Directory has a policy against inclusion of sites with illegal content. Examples of illegal material include child pornography; libel; material that infringes any intellectual property right; and material that specifically advocates, solicits or abets illegal activity (such as fraud or violence).
• Do not submit sites under construction. Wait until a site is complete before submitting it. Sites that are incomplete, contain Under Construction notices, or contain broken graphics or links aren't good candidates for directory.
• Submit pornographic sites to appropriate category under Adult.
• Submit non-English sites to appropriate category under World.
• Don't submit sites consisting largely of affiliate links.