If you’re like most businesses, your phone rings at least four times a day with a marketer on the other end asking if you would like to sign up with their online directory. Some of these are helpful, others … not so much. If you’re skeptical, you drop these guys like a hot potato. Some companies really benefit however, ever wonder why? 

When people are looking for a specific business and can’t remember what it was called or how they happened on it, many times they’ll type in very basic keywords to find it. Often, instead of finding one company, they’ll find a list of every company that signed up with the directory that purchased that popular domain. Keywords do work, and that’s one reason directories can be helpful. Very basic keywords used in a directory URL will draw quite a bit of traffic, and if you’re located where they’re looking, it can be very good. The back link to your site may also be helpful.

Over-saturation of directory listings is still problematic – both on the search engines, when all you can find are a gazillion other directories, and in the directories themselves when listings are unfinished and leave little detail. Sometimes searching for things can be a real pain in the butt for the seeker. I see this particularly detrimental in the residential service community, and I’m recognizing an equally disturbing trend in restaurant listings lately.

We advocate using directories as a subordinate method of link building. Use the DMOZ, MerchantCircle, Yelp, Google, Bing, and Yahoo listings wisely, and you’ll come out ahead. Get tied up with some of the other smaller directories and mistakenly assume that a directory listing is your total link strategy,  and it can be an awful mess.

Don’t get me wrong, the listings I just mentioned definitely have some drawbacks too, but they work on a better authority system (including domain age) and they don’t stick you in with every Tom, Dick, and Harry who are doing the same thing. If that actually appeals to you however, and I can see where it might, make sure you’re doing something that makes you stand out. Lesser known directories may grow in relevance, and you might want in on that as well.

Directories work because they know how to stick you in a category that will be searched on. Directories have impairments when too many businesses are listed in the same category, too many listings are incomplete, and everyone is using the same keyword strategy. I don’t think that benefits a searcher. I also think it’s not too helpful to have directory after directory after directory when a searcher is looking for a trustworthy company. I’m sure I’m not the only one who closes out of that search to search on different, hopefully better, terms. (Good argument for keyword research!)

To avoid the hassle of getting stuck in with the ‘other guys,’ get to know a little about keyword research and proper keyword use. It’s not a bait and switch game, it’s a method to improve where you comparatively sit with your competition. Everyone uses certain words when looking for something, and you don’t have to quit using them on your site to develop a better strategy. You do, however, need to figure out how you can get ahead of others who are using the same words and phrases. EVEN in directory listings.

You are better off paying for proper SEO research and listing with one of the free directories mentioned above than paying a regular monthly fee to be listed with a directory among many, many, many others – all who use the same wording.

Have you listed your company with a directory? How has it helped your visibility online? Tell us about it.

I gave away a little of today’s post in my last one, where I addressed how to use keywords. Remember, I asked you if you could:

• Use them effectively in your H1, or header title.
• Use them in your H2, or header for a bullet or numbered list.
• Use them in the body of your short, opening paragraph.

That’s a start. Choosing one keyword, and using it like I showed you in Part 4 is very important. Using too many keywords can often take away from the quality writing you want to share with your readers. That one primary keyword should be used as described above, and it should be used in the opening lines of text under your title.  

More Keyword Effectiveness

Another important placement of your primary keyword is in the anchor text of a link. Here’s why:

• The anchor text, or the different colored wording used when linking, provided the links connect (and you must always check), adds good authority.
• Anchor text used for linking outbound to another, possibly higher ranking site, may naturally turn into an inbound link once a relationship between authors is established. Keyword-rich anchor text coming in on an inbound link is good for authority.
• Anchor text using effective keywords for your internal linking between pages of your website is also good for your reader, and by default, you.
• Posting comments on relevant blogs and forums will also bring links in from other sites, so you want to include good keyword-rich anchor text when you leave them.

You’re not completely limited to one keyword for all your content. If used too frequently, you can actually hurt your site, not help it. Shoot for using your primary keyword naturally 2-3 times on a page in the places we’ve talked about. Then, go back and see if another word or phrase that you’ve researched can be used as a subordinate, worked into the text of your content. Don’t use it more than a few times.

It’s imperative that you write for your readership; your potential customers, your existing customers, and others, such as information gatherers and peers in your business to business relationships. If you can do this fluidly, and maintain the quality of your content, you’ve got the basics of a recipe for success.

One more thing as I wrap up this series. Be a good steward of your site. Make sure to reply to comments and return links to readers who have helped you link. It’s not going to hurt your company to complement or agree with a competitor’s comments or product lines, and doing so can actually be helpful for more than just linking. Once relationships are built, and that takes some time, you may very well find yourself in a situation where you’re offered extra work. Sometimes a company finds it better to send extra work to someone they trust than to risk turning down work with no alternative for their customer. That could only be possible with effective link strategies.

We’d love to hear from you. Be sure to leave your comments or questions with a link to your company along with your name below. Here’s to your small business success!

Photo Credit:   Flickr’s danielle_blue

Related Posts:

Very Basic SEO 5 PT Series

Where Do You Find Your Keywords PT2

Using Keyword Research Tools PT3

How Do We Use Those Keywords PT4

Sharing links is a pretty common way to show interesting, fun, or informative sites to friends, associates. We don’t usually think about how that helps the website we link to, we just do it. Some research on a site we’ve been slowly upgrading revealed another common situation. The website wasn’t ranking.

As I shared what I had learned with the small business owner, I realized that all my words were falling on deaf ears. It can be hard to wrap your head around what it takes to be found online.

I wanted him to know that smart linking strategies can offset costs associated with marketing a company. Yes, you can, and should, hire a company to help you build links, but you can do some of it yourself and increase results while saving some bucks.

Think of link building as social networking with your friends for entertainment.

Engaging with your friends, there’s no real goal other than sharing stuff. When you’re marketing however, the goal is to move closer to the top of the search results page, or SERP. You have goals, but basically you’re sharing.

Here’s the situation.

This site I’m referring to had been optimized for a particular phrase, and like most things associated with technology, the keyword relevance changed. The words they were using for their link building efforts began to matter less. Usually you can chalk that up to mass use of a word or phrase beyond what you can compete with.

In this instance, another company in the same area and industry had used ‘black hat’ methods of outranking our client’s site, and had seriously knocked him down several pages using the really great terms we had optimized for. That’s going to work for black hat guy until the engines realize junk and clutter don’t keep people on his page. That website will be knocked to the bottom for a long time.

But for now, it hurts our client and we had to do something about it. If you’re not on the first page, don’t mess around. It can take a lot to get back in the ring.

Start Finding Great Places to Leave Your Links
Besides the obvious keyword research update, a site in this scenario has a real shot of outranking the other company with a good linking strategy.

More links from higher authority websites back to yours will improve the situation. Search engine spiders recognize links being developed over time; they see that a site is referenced as people go to it for real, relevant information – and that’s authority. It takes time to build that up naturally, and you don’t want to do anything unnaturally or you can be penalized by not being crawled. That won’t help.

It’s not just using the right keywords. If it was just keywords, your website language would be enough. Keywords change and have to be updated occasionally, and links go bad and have to be checked occasionally.

There were low number of links due to the newness of the site, but it wasn’t getting indexed often enough for other reasons, too. That site had been neglected, without:

1. Using their blog
2. Updating the blog 2-3 times per week
3. Commenting on other relevant blogs and leaving their website link
4. Article marketing with links back to the website

Are you struggling to build back links? Share your horror stories below.

Related Articles: New Feature: Small Business Marketing Links

Photo Credit: Robert Brook on Flickr

If you market to other businesses on any level, and haven’t yet subscribed to B2B Magazine, you’re missing out. We receive both the print and online versions, and tend to read them cover-to-cover each month. Today’s issue just arrived in the mail, and the first thing to catch my eye was the “New Channels” column by Paul Gillin, titled “New PR Reality: Link over Ink.”

Gillen hits the nail on the head when he says that “clients and executives mumble ‘That’s nice’ about a Web link, but get excited about a reference in their daily Wall Street Journal.” We’ve definitely found this to be true. But the rules have changed, and one or two good links can now return far greater results than a mention in the most prominent print publication.

It’s a rare business that won’t find its audience online these days. Unfortunately, it’s also a rarity for small businesses to know how to get found online. Publishing a Web site or starting a blog is not enough. Adding your Web address to your print marketing collateral is not enough. Sending out press releases that mention your business or your site … even that is not enough. Don’t neglect any of those activities, but to achieve your online objectives, you’re going to need links … quality, inbound links from other Web sites, blogs, social networks, and relevant directories.

How many times in the past month have you searched for something you read about in a newspaper or magazine? Ok, now how many times have you followed a link from Google or from within a blog or other online article? Is there any comparison?

By the way, you can subscribe to B2B Magazine and a variety of other useful trade publications for free at www.tradepub.com.