Jump Start Your SEO

Jump-start your link building

in the next 60 minutes

By Derek Gehl

Derek If you want to get better listings in Google, you need to get high-quality links pointing to your site.

A “high-quality link” is one that comes from a site that’s valued by the search engines because it provides searchers with lots of useful, free information. It usually has a high search engine ranking and a great many links pointing to it, testifying to its importance as an online source of content.

Examples of high quality sites include: online newspapers, encyclopedias, industry-specific information portals, forums, and directories.

So… how do you get links from such powerful sites?

The easiest — and fastest! — way is to submit your site to paid directories. There are a handful of top quality directories you can pay to get your site listed in, most of which will have your site listed in less than 72 hours from the time you submit.

You can expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $300 for each submission, with the majority falling in around the $30-$40 range.

Here are a couple tips before you start submitting your site to these directories…

• Don’t expect to get much traffic from the directories themselves. That’s not what this is about. It’s about getting those links! The more links you can get from high PageRank sites to yours, the higher you’ll get ranked in Google’s listings.
• Every directory you submit to will ask for a short description of your site. Make sure you use your top keywords strategically throughout your description.

However, you’ll need to use a slightly different description for each directory you submit to. It’ll make these links seem more authentic in the eyes of Google.

Now on to the directories!

Here’s a list of paid directories you should think about submitting your site to. If you do, you’re sure to see a boost in your rankings, in a relatively short period of time:

PAID DIRECTORIES

Yahoo! Directory —  $299
Best of the Web — $69.95
GoGuides — $39.99
JoeAnt  — $39.99
Wow Directory — $37
Site-Sift — $29.95
Uncover The Net — $49
Gimpsy — $40
Librarians Internet Index — FREE
Site Snoop—  $10
Browse8 — $35
01 Web Directory — $49
Starting Point — $99
Web Beacon—  $39.99
Rubber Stamped — $29.95
Illumirate — FREE
Massive Links — $24.95
This Is Our Year — $24.95
SevenSeek — $40
Aviva — $34.95
Azoos —  $89.95
Skaffe —  $39.99
DMOZ — FREE

Although this isn’t the cheapest way to get quality links to your website, it’s definitely one of the fastest. And the extra traffic you’ll get from a good ranking with Google will easily pay for your investment!

Here are two final parting comments I want to leave you with:

1. Make sure you do your keyword research and pick the right keywords to include in your descriptions when submitting to the directories!

The “right” keywords are the ones that send you visitors who are highly likely to buy your product. If your keywords don’t attract qualified traffic, you can have a #1 ranking and still not make a penny.

2. Make sure your site is properly optimized for those keywords, using all of the strategies we teach in our Search Marketing Lab.

If your site isn’t optimized for your keywords, Google still won’t include you in its rankings for those keywords — no matter how many paid directory links you get. And it would be a shame to spend all that money on links for nothing, wouldn’t it?

Happy search marketing!

Derek Gehl