Using Blog Directories for Link Building and Traffic

Two of the greatest challenges any blogger faces when building their site is acquiring backlinks and increasing visitor traffic.

All search engines gauge a sites strength primarily on the number of links that are pointing to it, and the stronger the site the higher it will appear in the search engines rankings and the more visitors it will receive.

Usually, there is a correlation between the number of backlinks and the number of visitors, but not always.

It is possible to build thousands of incoming links from low quality sites or pages and still have relatively few daily visitors - it is much better to have a few hundred or even a few dozen quality backlinks than thousands coming from spam-infested sources.

The greatest challenge of any SEO campaign is to gain these quality links.

There are a number of good quality links up for grabs on the myriad of blog directories in existence. You won't find the golden A1 type of link here, but most of these directories are respectable spam-free affairs that have been in active existence for some years now.

They are often attractively designed and some, like blogged.com and blogarama.com, allow users to socialise between each other or vote on one and another's sites.

Looking closely at the different aspects of these sites it is evident that they are well-established with some commanding millions of backlinks from other websites, and you don't receive that many links without having something very special to offer the internet community.

The average homepage PageRank for blog directories is impressive, with scores of 4 or 5 being the norm and some even achieving 6 or 7!

A number of blog directories use the “nofollow” microformat on their sites. This was introduced by Google in 2005 and acts link putting a condom on links. It tells the search engines – don't let this link count in your calculations.

So “nofollow” links have more value in link building than “dofollow” links.

A number of blog directories use 302 redirects and, like “nofollow” links, they too are removed from Google's Search Engine Rankings Placement (SERP) calculations.

Most blog directories are free to submit to, but some require a reciprocal link in return for a listing.

It is always advisable to read their submission rules first if they have any. A few of these blog directories won't accept certain niches or will only expect a blog if it has been in existence for three months or more.

If you are just starting a new blog it is best to update it at least weekly for six months and then start submitting to these services.

The fact that a directory has submission rules is a good sign though that they have a strict editorial policy. Directories to be avoided are those that publish any site submitted – these are no better than spam link farms and are more likely to do your blog harm than good.