When search engines started to become popular, they relied on web pages’ ‘keyword metatags’ to determine the topic and relevance of the page (the keyword metatag is a section within a web page’s HTML code where webmasters can insert words that are relevant to the page’s content). Webmasters discovered that by stuffing their meta tags with popular search terms repeated hundreds of times, they could propel their pages to the top of the search results.

Search engines caught up to the abuse and decided to ignore the meta tags and rely instead on web page copy. Webmasters then started to overstuff their page copy with popular search terms, often writing them in the same color as the web page’s background, so that they could be detected by search engines while being invisible to users.

Again, search engines discovered the trick and decided that the best way to rank a web page’s content and its topical relevance was to rely on inbound links from other pages. The rationale behind this is that it is much more difficult to influence other people to link to you than it is to manipulate your own web page elements. In fact, inbound links are the foundation of Google’s Pagerank algorithm.

There are several ways to get inbound links, among them writing articles that include your bylines with a link to your page, exchanging links, and listing your site in directories.

Listing your sites in good directories is probably the best way to get quality links that are highly valued by the search engines. Since directories rely on human editors who enforce strict criteria to list a site, and since directories organize the information in highly focused categories, they are an invaluable resource for search engines to measure the quality and the relevance of a web page.

In summary, directories are important not because they generate significant traffic (they don’t), but because they are given great importance by the search engines to qualify and rank web pages, and to determine their topical relevance.

You should definitely list your site with quality directories if you want to increase your chances of success with the search engines.

About The Author

Mario Sanchez: http://www.theinternetdigest.net. For more search engine tips go to: http://www.accordmarketing.com/seotips/

What allows some websites to weather frequent algo changes and even prosper while others are banished to the nether regions of the SERPS or banned altogether? In a word, moderation.

Search Engine Optimization is a lucrative business, and many SEOs routinely “push the limits” of what’s allowed by the search engines in an attempt to maximize a client site’s rankings and draw more business. The problem with this approach is Google is constantly moving the goal post. If you play the game too aggressively you’ll find your site being penalized when Google changes the algorithm.

So what can you do to safely optimize your site for the search engines? There are several things to remember:

1 – Make your SEO efforts an asset to Google, not a nemesis. Use ethical optimization practices that help ensure that your pages rank well and pass the “relevance” test. Google loathes spammers
because they skew the search results making them less relevant for the searchers, and less relevant results drive searchers to other search engines. Understandably, Google doesn’t like
that a bit! Bottom line: Make your pages search engine friendly, but don’t spam. That way when your page makes it into the top 10 it will really deserve to be there.

2 – Corollary to #1: Provide content that is truly relevant to the search queries that the page ranks well for. In fact, strive to make your page the most relevant (and most useful) page on the Internet for those search terms. Google loves lots of high quality content that is actually useful to your visitors, and their ranking algorithm will reward you handsomely for it, often
with little or no SEO techniques in use at all. Lots of quality content draws lots of quality inbound links to your pages, which in turn helps boost their rankings even more!

3 – Use moderation in everything you do in regards to SEO. If you don’t edge right up to the line, you’ll be a lot less likely to cross it when Google moves it on you. This applies to linking, keyword density, header tags…all of the typical SEO techniques that are in use by webmasters today.

Conclusion

The webmasters who are happy after each and every Google update make their SEO efforts actually benefit the Google index. Their pages are full of relevant, useful content and they refrain from
using “gray area” SEO techniques. Remember, today’s “gray area” techniques are often tomorrow’s “black hat” techniques.

Rick Rouse is the owner of RLROUSE Directory & Informational Resources (http://www.rlrouse.com), your one-stop source for information on a wide variety of topics.