The relevance of SEO cannot be overestimated. Increasingly, webmasters and site owners alike are beginning to realize importance of optimizing a site to increase rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). However, they are not always sure how to go about this.

The Growing Importance of SEO:

A few years ago, web sites were created with goal in mind of bringing companies closer to their clients, i.e. their target market. As popularity of search engines grew, number of web sites being created increased alongside. During this process, webmasters and site owners began to realize how important it was to get that all-important competitive edge by reaching ideal top 20 positions on SERPs. Thus battle for top 10 positions ensued.

With this was born need for people to find and understand a method of constantly reaching those positions. In case of SEO, techniques which evolved can be divided into “good guys” and “bad guys” (the proverbial “white hat” SEO and “black hat SEO”, respectively.) Of course, some SEOs evolved into more shades of black than others, finding techniques to “outsmart” spiders, while others remained true to developing content-relevant sites aimed at users rather than spiders, while still attaining those sought-after top positions. (But that is a topic for another day.)

Although black-hats may differ from my opinion here, SEO is no quick fix to propel a site into high-ranking top positions. SEO and usability go hand in hand. Target search engines and searchers at same time by writing good, relevant, converting content. Map your site well with internal links to related sections. In so doing, you will provide your browsers with easy-to-follow navigation and simultaneously help spiders to index your site. Achieving a well-balanced site is a tedious journey, but when implemented correctly, may produce long-term stable results that will drive your site to top positions and increase your conversions.

Know your territory.

If you want to experience something fully, you have to be prepared for it. You have to research what you need, from most basic needs through to finest details. I have been privileged enough to experience wonders of an African safari. Before journey, one knows to pack comfortable bush clothes. One also knows that you’re not going to need high heels or suits in bush. It’s basics that count: jeans, sneakers and t-shirts.

When you go out on a game drive, what keeps you at ease amongst lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo is fact that firstly, you know you’re in a Land Rover, driven by an experienced safari guide, and secondly, that if it comes to it, there’s a trusty rifle in back seat.

The lessons illustrated by this analogy are: research your territory, be prepared, dispense with what is unnecessary and remember that basics count most of all.

The Internet now features a large number of both general purpose and specialized directories. The specialized directories focus on a specific topic or region.

Unfortunately, submitting your web site to plethora of available directories requires a significant investment of time and effort. The key to achieving a positive ROI (Return On Investment) from directory submissions is to focus on those directories which will provide you with high-quality inbound links.

It is important to note that many web directories have issues which prevent them from providing useful links. Taking time understand these issues and submit only to directories which will provide value will provide significant time savings in promoting your site.

A Taxonomy of Web Directory Issues

Web Directories Which Are No Longer Managed

A survey of 79 general-purpose web directories revealed that 62% of those web directories do not appear to be processing submissions.

In many cases, this is because operators of web directory launched their site with great enthusiasm, became overwhelmed by amount of effort required to maintain a web directory, and stopped maintaining their directory. These operators leave their directories online to take advantage of residual advertising revenue, but no longer invest time required to process directory submissions.

Web Directories which Block Search Engine Robots

Some SEO's believe that they can preserve Google PageRank by not giving outbound links from their web sites.

Web directories which operate in this manner will sometimes block Googlebot and other search engine robots from their directory pages using robots.txt or meta tags.

Before submitting to a web directory, check PageRank of directory page upon which you expect your listing to appear. If that page has a PageRank of zero, it could mean that site operator is blocking Googlebot.

However, this same symptom can also mean that site or page is new, and has not been assigned Google PageRank yet. To research this further, examine sites robots.txt file and source code to directory page upon which you expect your listing to appear.

Web Directories which use Scripted Links

Many web directories use scripted links to avoid leaking PageRank. Scripted links use PHP or JavaScript links to redirect user to target page. Although these links work correctly for most site visitors, they do not work for most search engine robots.

To determine if scripted links are in use, place your mouse cursor over an outbound link on directory page upon which you expect to appear. Examine link text which appears in lower left corner of your browser.