If you’re a webmaster (as I am…), you’re aware that you’re probably not really doing your job unless you’re out scavenging up inbound links for your site(s). We all dream of the day that our sites will earn enough attention that we can forget about the business of acquiring links and focus exclusively on creating content to help people, etc. I’ve had the privilege of reaching that stage with a few of my sites…where they are ranking right at the top of the search engine results pages for their keywords and seeing a steady stream of traffic. But there’s nothing fair about the search engines. They are what they are, and they’re incredibly valuable. But you don’t get ranked because you’ve got a great site. You get ranked for a variety of other reasons…but mostly, because folks have discovered your site and linked to your site. This is the maddening scramble for webmasters…where to find enough links or at least, free traffic, to get visitors to our sites. It’s especially hard when you can’t justify buying ads for your site, because you don’t sell anything directly…and the economics of PPC advertising just don’t make sense.
While I am a real stickler for value and uniqueness, I have decided to take on a project which is somewhat less dramatically unique than my usual approach. I have created a number of directories in the past, but have always found them frustrating…the wrong software, the wrong market, no good unique selling proposition. I currently only have a single niche directory (ColumbusWebDirectory), which I’ve been steadily building for some time, but unless you’re located in the Central Ohio as I am, this directory offers no benefit to you.
My new directory is a general-interest one, and while it’s in the early stages of growth, if you’re looking for inbound links to your quality blog or web site, I’m looking for you. The Be Seen Directory is strictly human-edited and tightly-moderated. I’ll be keeping a very tight rein on which sites appear in the directory. If a site offers clear unique value and meets a reasonable standard of design and navigation…it will be included in the directory for free. If not (and, admittedly, this is purely a judgment call), it won’t be included at any price.
Because the directory is new, while it is being regularly spidered by Google and the other search engines, it hasn’t yet been assigned PageRank. So those of you who make your submission determinations based on PR will want to go elsewhere. But I can assure you that it will have value, and that it will be showing PR in due time…and those included will benefit when that kicks in.
It’s a simple submission process. Site Name (no keyword stuffing permitted), URL, description and email (which is not displayed…it’s only used to notify you if your site has been included).
So if you’re seeking links, consider stopping by and submitting your site for consideration for free inclusion in this new, high-quality directory!
Web directories continue to be a solid link building route. I’ve been hearing that Google is taking away some directories ability to pass pagerank, but I suspect that’s because they’re more worried about making money selling sponsored links then they are accepting only quality.
Sounds like you have something good going Chuck. Keep up the good work.
Josh, from what I’ve read in recent weeks, Matt Cutts has been pretty clear about the kind of bad behavior that’s getting directories deranked…it’s mostly about selling links, and somewhat about showing little discretion about who they allow in their listings. I’ve developed my own personal guidelines to make sure that neither of those becomes a problem for me, and then I’ve gone beyond that and hired out the “seeding” of my directory with a batch of really good sites by hiring about 50 people to add their 10 favorite sites that aren’t already listed. Because of the differences in personal taste, I’ve come up with about 500 very high quality links in the directory now, with quite a few more to come. A lot of them are very good sites I’ve never heard of before, and in categories that I knew nothing about personally. So I think I’m really off to a good start. Thanks for the encouragement!