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One of the most straightforward ways to build links is by submitting your site to directories. Right. We all know the big directories such as DMOZ, Yahoo, or Best of the Web, & you should submit to these sites. But you should also consider submitting to various small or niche free or paid directories.

Free directories are a no-brainer, except for all those that require a link back in order for you to be listed. I recommend avoiding these directories altogether. Search engines will not penalize you based closely on who links to you, but if you link from your site to a known spammer or so-called bad neighborhood your placement in the SERPs (search engine result pages) could suffer. Most of these “link back” directories exist only to gain link weight for themselves & are not worth your time.

Paid directories can often be worthless as well. Many people launch paid directories purely as a way to make temporary money, they will promote the directory & attempt to inflate it is Alexa rating or PageRank to attract submissions & then move their promotional efforts to yet another new directory, thus executing a bait & switch maneuver. Many also have been banned or penalized by search engines for the practice of selling links without editorial review.

Prices on these small directories can range from a few dollars $ as a one-time fee, to as much as $50 annually. There’re literally thousands of such directories out there, & picking valid ones to submit can take some time & work & knowledge. And so… So far so good. We’ve created a list of legitimate directories here, but it’s far from comprehensive. And so… So when evaluating a paid directory to see if it’s worth your time consider the following factors:

* What is the Google PageRank or Alexa Rating of the Directory? The higher the better, & never pay for a directory listing if it has a Google PR of 0.

* Check the backlinks of the directory, where are they from? A varied collection of real sites, or footer links from other sites the company owns or has bought ads on?

* How long has the directory been active? You can check Whois.sc or Archive.org to get an idea. The older the better.

* What do the other submissions look like? Are there unrelated submissions in many categories? Do any of the listed sites look like spam to you? If it looks like a directory of spam sites or unrelated links, you do not want to be associated with it.

* Price is always a factor, so keep that in your mind as your make your evaluation.

* If you know the name of the company that runs the site (if they do not tell you on the site you can find it with Whois usually) do some research on the company. Do they run dozens of cookie-cutter directories or just this one? Obviously you will not want to bother with the company that runs dozens of directories as they arejust out for your money.

There you go, a fairly complete guide on using directories effectively.

I’m Tom Hunter wealthymarketer team leader & internet marketing professional see my site at Wealthymarketer & learn more about the wealthy marketer program.

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