Let’s face it, getting (and keeping) a good Google page rank is no easy task and requires constant attention. Not just in getting reciprocal links, but honing your Meta tags, and keeping your content fresh. But we are here to discuss only one part of pagerank dilemma. In fact this article will focus more on other, and in some cases, more important benefits of a proper links directory.

Directory Structure

•Categorize your directory well- Meaning more categories you have better organized your directory is. More categories means your visitors can locate particular links a lot faster. •Minimize depth of your categories- You should not make your directory more than three category levels deep, for instance if you are a travel site and have a category for Jamaica, then structure example would be Travel>>Caribbean>>Jamaica. Easy navigation for your site visitors is main reason for this. •Reason two for minimizing your directory depth- Search engines will spider each page of your website, they will determine pagerank of each page based on its content, and distance away from your homepage. Use this as a rule of thumb; each level down from your homepage will cost that page “one” pagerank point. Using example above, this is what is meant here, Travel>>Caribbean>>Jamaica: Travel” page would have highest pagerank being closest to your homepage, let’s say it has been give a Google rank of 4, next level “Caribbean” in all likelihood would have a rank of 3, and so on. •No more than 20 links per page- There is not a link partner in world that wants his/her site to be on your link page as link number 100. I would rather be link number 3 on page number three than link number 100 on page one. This is clutter, and useless to all involved, you, your link partner and especially your site visitor. Keep this in mind as well, when search engines spider your site they will also notice more pages on your site thus determining that you offer more content. Your link partners will also appreciate it.

Relevant Links

•Do your visitors really care if you own a travel site and have links to recipe sites? Of course not. Although locating good quality link partners for your site will take more time, it will be well worth it in long run. If you have a travel site, seek out rental cars, vacation spots, travel accessories, and like. Your visitors are on your site because they (at that moment in time) are interested in what your site has to offer, do not change visitor’s train of thought into anything other than what you want them to think about, in this example, traveling and things associated with traveling.

Keeping in touch with other sites like Amazon.com, Buy.com and Yahoo.com, Google created a new shopping search tool called “Froogle”. It has been called one of most innovative price conscious tools on Internet. Using same technologies of Google.com, Froogle employs direct data received from merchants and through web crawls alone. Depending on successes of beta testing phase will provide adequate information as to whether Google continues with Froogle.