Now that search engines like Google produce accurate search results, more and more users find themselves using a search engine to find what they’re looking for.  So are directories listings completely useless?  The simple answer is: “No…well at least not all of them”. 

What you will find is many ‘General Directories’ out there are loosing their significance.  General directories tend to produce little to no traffic whatsoever.  If you’re submitting your website to a general directory simply for ‘link juice’; don’t be mistaken – major search engines can acknowledge the fact that there is little relevance between your website and the general directory you submit to, and therefore putting very little weight on the link established.  There are a select few general directories that are still worth submitting to.  My top 3 include:

http://www.dmoz.org – Free submission (but probably the hardest directory to get in to), and most likely the most valuable directory link you can create.  If you get into this directory, you are also in Google’s Directory, since Google uses Dmoz results for their own directory.  

http://dir.yahoo.com – This paid submission directory has a recurring annual fee of approximately $300.  Yahoo directory provides a very trusted link and also generates  quite a bit of traffic.

http://botw.org – This paid submission directory has 2 options for payment.  You can either pay a recurring fee of approximately $100, or $250 for a one time fee.  This directory has been around the longest and boasts the fact that they only cater to the ‘best of the web’.  BOTW is a very trusted link according to the search engines.

If you are a business than you might want to look into http://www.business.com. This paid directory is very good for businesses in many industries.  It also has a pricy recurring fee, just like Yahoo!, but has a fair bit of traffic and also provides a trusted link.

The future of directory submissions and link building for search engine optimizers is in niche directories.  By submitting to a directory in your niche market, you are creating links that are much more related to your content and thus more trusted by the search engines.  Ultimately you can expect higher search engine rankings by creating fewer, more trusted links; as apposed to 10 times the amount of less important links.

For example, if you are a Canadian mortgage company you may want to look for mortgage directories or perhaps even real estate directories.  Another good option is to seek Canadian based directories where you can submit your website to.  All these directories would be highly relevant and would be more beneficial than submitting to spammy, general, low traffic directories.

There are a few good lists of directories out there.  One fantastic, but more general directory one is: http://www.avivadirectory.com/strongest-directories/.  

In essence, stick with the top general directories, and search for the niche / relevant directories to submit to.  Directory listings should not be your only means of link building, but should be one of several means of building valuable one-way back links.

So many people ask me - How did you learn search engine optimization?  The truth of the matter is, you never stop learning.  ‘The day you stop learning is the day you die’, and that also applies to your website’s rankings when your no longer staying current with today’s SEO. 

I started off like any other person curious about learning search engine optimization.  I Googled various terms like ‘SEO’, and was overwhelmed with millions of results.  Many sources seem to have repetitive information.  Sure you will also find a variety of perspectives - but who can you trust with your SEO knowledge? 

Over a period of time, I have researched various SEO resources and have developed a top 5 list.  This is not to say that these are the top resources for SEO necessarily…this just happens to be my favourite ones.  The below list is in no particular order:

1. www.seobook.com
2. www.bruceclay.com
3. www.seomoz.org
4. www.searchenginewatch.com
5. www.google.com/support/webmasters/   

I know the last one is a little ironic because it’s Google.  But hey, if anyone is going to tell you how you can market your website properly and rank well on the largest search engine in the world…than that person must be Google.

There’s no doubt about it - link building is one of the hardest and most time consuming components of search engine optimization. You’ve generated excellent web copy; you’ve completed all the on-page optimization criteria for your website, but how do you build effective links?

When considering which directories to submit to here are some important factors to think about: Try focusing on building valuable links, as apposed to large numbers of meaningless links. Submitting your site to thousands of general directories that list spammy sites will only tell the search engines that you are in fact one of those spammy sites too. Look for web directories with lots of traffic. Make sure the page you wish to be listed on is actually in the search results. For example, type in Google: “site:directory.com/page-i-will-be-listed-on.html” to see if the page you are about to submit to is actually indexed.

Look for niche directories in your particular industry. If you are an event planner, type ‘event planner directory’ or ‘event planner listings’ in Google and the major search engines. A good rule of thumb to follow: if the search engines find the site valuable and list it in the top 20, than it might not be a bad idea to be listed on their site too.

Keep analyzing the first 20-30 search engine results for different keyword phrases that pertain to your industry or business. Write out a list of websites (not direct competitors) and prepare a method to approach them for a link exchange. Yes I did actually suggest reciprocating links. But be aware, only do this if a) in fact you are exchanging links with someone in your industry and b) if it’s in your best interest to do so (i.e. this website / page gets a lot of traffic that would benefit your site).

Writing good content is probably the olderst form of link building. When the internet was just evolving and websites were nothing pretty to look at, webmasters would surf the web and when they stumbled upon some interesting content, they would often link this content to their website. This is still true to this day - if you have unique and valuable content than you have the best link bait you can ask for.

Writing outside of your website is also a popular means of getting quality inbound links. Write articles that are related to your business and submit them to article search engines. You can also post meaningful comments on blogs and forums and put anchor text inside the comment or conclude your post with a signature that is linked back to your website (this also can be done with articles). Be careful with blogs, since most bloggers avoid spammers by putting a ‘no follow’ tag to prevent spammers from getting any link juice from their posts.

In general, when building a link think about its value in terms of traffic. If your doing it solely for search engine rankings, than it’s probably not the best of links. A good resource for link building strategies is http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2160301. Lastly, if your still to lazy or simply don’t have time to do a proper link building campaign, than you can always higher a professional to do it. One piece of advice: make sure you receive some kind of report on what kind of links they are building and where they are getting it from.