When looking to start or grow an existing Internet business or even offline business there is one fact you cannot get away from. That simple fact is without traffic your business is going nowhere. This simple truth is universal to all Internet businesses and is tantamount to building a Wal-Mart on the moon it could be the biggest and best-stocked store ever but if no one can get there it is dead before it starts.
One of the best ways of promoting an online business and enhancing an offline business is with the use of web business directories. There are a few key benefits to this for your online and offline business and in this article we will look at some of those key benefits. Among these is the main lifeblood of business and that is traffic, directories can help generate this in a few key ways.
The first benefit to both on and offline businesses are web business directories. These are among some of the highest trafficked websites on the Internet with some of the highest Alexa rankings there are. The largest of these directories and probably the best known would be Yahoo.com another large directory would be DMOZ (The Open Directory Project).
Alexa is a division of Amazon.com and it runs a web traffic rating service that ranks a website's traffic with the ideal ranking being number one. Some of the websites with high (actually the lower the number the better) traffic rankings are Yahoo #1, Ebay, MySpace, YouTube and Google.
The reason this number is important to potential web business directories you are looking at is traffic, these sites get lots of it. This is good for you as many people look to directories to find what they are looking for over search engines for the key difference between them. Based on human editors almost no web directory databases use robots as where search engines employ robots called bots, which use mathematical algorithms to index websites.
Many people consider the human element of a web directory to equate to a higher quality of listing as a human can notice simple subtleties that a computer just cannot notice. This human factor is what also gives the sites a higher authority ranking expressed through the high Page Ranks most established web business directories enjoy. Why is this Page Rank factor important to you and your business? Simply put Google gives greater credibility to sites through higher Page Ranks expressed on a scale of PR0 to PR10 with ten being the highest you can achieve.
When you list your site in a directory with a high PR some of that Page Rank passes on to your site and in essence it boosts your Page Rank which helps improve your results in the SERP's (search engine results page). This brings it all full circle as the higher your score in the SERP's the more traffic your website will get. The number of incoming links you have to your site (back links) directly relates to your position in the SERP’s. Simply put the more one-way links you have the better your websites traffic will be.
What benefit is this to your offline business you may ask? Simple. As the world embraces the technology of the Internet and more and more people turn to it for solutions to problems the more your business presence on the web becomes increasingly crucial. Many people use web business directories as the modern day Yellow Pages. These directories can have advanced listings capabilities which can be anything from a few lines to extremely detailed business information such as business phone, address, product listings, photos of the business, etc.
This is an affordable way for an offline business of getting an online presence without actually having to build their own website. It can give the offline business a quick and simple way to join the modern way of doing business to a generation that is as comfortable doing business online as their parents were with a telephone.
They use the Internet as a way of gathering information to save time and make more informed decisions when they do chose to spend their hard earned money. In the end it boils down to this, web business directories are a way of connecting businesses and customers together in a more efficient way and to a larger, more informed audience.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Stay on the Good Side of Article Directory Owners
Article marketing has become one of the top ways to increase the popularity of websites and gain higher search engine rankings. Having articles you have written posted in reputable article directories allows you the publicity you are looking for as well as gaining necessary backlinks that count as a vote for your site - a necessity if you want a good page rank in Google.
Keep in mind that while posting articles to article directories can help to improve your search engine rankings and increase the visitors to your sites, all the work you spend writing and posting will be in vain if article directory owners choose to not post your article.
Let's take a look at how you can stay on the good side of article directory owners and increase your chance of getting your articles posted:
1. Follow the rules. You stay on the good side of article directory owners simply by reading the submission guidelines posted on the article directory site. These guidelines explain the rules that you will need to follow in order to get your article posted. At minimum, they will describe the types of topics the directory owner will accept, formatting requirements and even word length.
2. Show your expertise. By writing extensively on a particular subject or similar subjects within a broader category, you become respected as an expert - often allowing you the privilege of having your articles automatically accepted. However, submitting articles on a number of different topics might send an alert to the article directory owner that you could be a possible spammer. You could have good intentions and simply want to submit articles reflecting the variety of different sites that you own, but having many articles on many topics could send a flag that you are aiming mainly for a high number of backlinks and the quality of your articles may not meet the requirements of their site. If you want to submit articles on a variety of topics, try submitting certain topics to certain directories or sign up with multiple usernames or pennames (if allowed by the article directory).
3. Rewrite your PLR articles. If you use private label rights (PLR) articles, be sure to rewrite your articles. Do not use them straight out of the article pack, because many others who have the same article packs will not rewrite theirs! Duplicate articles are always deleted from article directories, therefore if yours does not get in the directory first; there is a good chance your article will be deleted. Furthermore, not all article directory owners understand the use of PLR for article marketing. Do not take a chance that the article directory owner might accuse you of copyright infringement!
Remember, if you have questions, ask the article directory owner(s) because it is much easier to do it right the first time than to spend time and effort rewriting it or just being taken off the list of qualified writers for that article directory. Always submit high quality work, do not try to cut corners once you have established a rapport with the website owner.
Keep in mind that while posting articles to article directories can help to improve your search engine rankings and increase the visitors to your sites, all the work you spend writing and posting will be in vain if article directory owners choose to not post your article.
Let's take a look at how you can stay on the good side of article directory owners and increase your chance of getting your articles posted:
1. Follow the rules. You stay on the good side of article directory owners simply by reading the submission guidelines posted on the article directory site. These guidelines explain the rules that you will need to follow in order to get your article posted. At minimum, they will describe the types of topics the directory owner will accept, formatting requirements and even word length.
2. Show your expertise. By writing extensively on a particular subject or similar subjects within a broader category, you become respected as an expert - often allowing you the privilege of having your articles automatically accepted. However, submitting articles on a number of different topics might send an alert to the article directory owner that you could be a possible spammer. You could have good intentions and simply want to submit articles reflecting the variety of different sites that you own, but having many articles on many topics could send a flag that you are aiming mainly for a high number of backlinks and the quality of your articles may not meet the requirements of their site. If you want to submit articles on a variety of topics, try submitting certain topics to certain directories or sign up with multiple usernames or pennames (if allowed by the article directory).
3. Rewrite your PLR articles. If you use private label rights (PLR) articles, be sure to rewrite your articles. Do not use them straight out of the article pack, because many others who have the same article packs will not rewrite theirs! Duplicate articles are always deleted from article directories, therefore if yours does not get in the directory first; there is a good chance your article will be deleted. Furthermore, not all article directory owners understand the use of PLR for article marketing. Do not take a chance that the article directory owner might accuse you of copyright infringement!
Remember, if you have questions, ask the article directory owner(s) because it is much easier to do it right the first time than to spend time and effort rewriting it or just being taken off the list of qualified writers for that article directory. Always submit high quality work, do not try to cut corners once you have established a rapport with the website owner.
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