How Using Directories Can Get You More Targeted Website Traffic
You have a lot of options as far as methods to drive traffic to your website is concerned; one method which has been in use for some time now is submitting links of your site to Web directories. A Web directory (also known as a link directory) is a directory of the World Wide Web and is somewhat similar to the yellow pages in the way that it lists websites (and links to them) by category. The idea of these sites is to present links to different sites in an easy to navigate format.
A web directory is different from a search engine in that their display of links is not pulled up by keywords (the search terms you type into an engine), instead listing websites by category. The category a particular website falls into depends on its content as a whole instead of the content of just one page or by keywords. This means that a website will only come up on one or two categories. Web directories allow site owners to submit their links; from there, an editorial team decides on the appropriate category for the site.
RSS directories are somewhat similar to Web directories, but have collections of RSS feeds instead of links to websites.
Directories in General
There are directories which are very general, listing websites of all types in one place. There are also some niche directories which list web pages only in certain languages or are targeted towards one area of interest.
One popular general Web directory is the Open Directory Project. This is one of the best known Web directories; it is well liked for its large number of categories and large amount of listings in each. The ODP is also used by search engines and even other Web directories.
People often debate the usefulness of Web directories to websites; search engines use this information (particularly ODP's) without really incorporating any of the data. Many search engines test using clustering, making them somewhat less useful for site owners. A lot of work has gone into building a simpler directory development process, using scripts to automate the link submission process or by using PHP. Social bookmarking software for the web has also brought new ideas to the process of categorization, through tagging websites by content (think about del.icio.us and other social bookmarking applications).
Why Use Directories For More Targeted Website Traffic?
Let us suppose that a website receives only a small amount of traffic from a directory as opposed to that coming in from search engines. However, you do not necessarily need to submit links to Web directories.
Targeted website traffic is more often the result of a directory search; someone looking through directories is likely to be looking for something in particular; something which meets a specific need. This targeted traffic is far more likely to be a prospective customer than is someone who just happens upon your site accidentally.
Search engines give a ranking to website or link directories, especially those which are niche-oriented. These niche directories are more commonly run by humans rather than by computers, making them a more reliable source of information – and the links within them more credible, since they are human-evaluated.
About the Author:Judith Hoelscher is an internet marketer, and author of several internet marketing related articles and reviews. You can find more informative articles and resources at: http://www.the-internet-marketing-tips.com
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