One Clear Dot

I’ve said this several times in the past: web sites are not like brick and mortar stores. If you build a store in your home town, surely it will gain some patronage simply due to the fact that people see it, drive by, get curious, and stop to check it out when they have time. If you build a website, nobody is going to find it unless you take steps to promote it.

There are a few things you can do to make sure people find your website.

Buy ads on other websites.

Build your website with strong search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and then submit your links to all of the major websites.

Put the URL on your business card.

Tell everyone you know about your site.

Buy e-mail lists and spam people to get the word out (I do not recommend this last one).

OK, so now you have taken some of the steps above and you have your URL out there. How, though, is that when you type your major keywords into a search engine you site only comes up in page 10 or 50? How do people achieve placement on the first page of search results?

Most likely, they have a lot of incoming links to their website. This can be tricky. It’s not good form to go around peppering your website URL all over unrelated forums or begging people to link to you. So, what is the most logical solution? Web directories.

There are thousands of web directories out there, all just waiting for you to come by and submit your website information. Most charge a fee, though. I am a firm believer that you get just as solid results if you get a listing in a free web directory. The Dirmania directory is one of my new favorites. Not only is it free of charge, it is simple to use, well organized, and very purist in its intent. The people who run the directory are not looking for a bunch of amped up, SEO-heavy listings. They simply want to help you promote your website.

I’ve included this screen shot so you can see how simple the submission page really is. You just fill out a few fields, click submit, and wait for your site to be hand reviewed.

Here is one huge advantage the Dirmania has – they have not lost their Google Page Rank. A lot of web directories were stripped of their PR in the last six month or so. Most personal blogs also have their PR removed. Dirmania is still a PR3 and that is impressive in their current climate in the world of website promotion.

Posted on April 12th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Business