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Most Marketers Forget the Local Directories - Did You?
By Richard Day (c) 2009

We all need backlinks to our websites.

A backlink is an inbound html code that points to your
website. You are probably wondering why you would want a
backlink.

I will explain it this way: If you have many websites with
one-way links to your website, the search engines interpret
this in your favor. You want to make sure that your
website is at the "hub of the wheel" so to speak -- all the
spokes, or links, are pointing to your website.

Your goal should be that the search engines view your site
as an "authority site". If a website provides excellent,
interesting articles and other content, and has many
readers, that website could be called an "authority site".
Websites mention and point to, or refer to, articles and
videos on the authority site.

Let's step back a bit and explain links in an example:

If Sally's site links to you, then you have one inbound
link. However, if your website links back to Sally's site,
the links balance each other out and nobody wins -
that is called a reciprocal link. Don't look for
reciprocal links. You should look for links back to your
website from other websites where you don't have to link to
them.

Now who is going to do that? Any website marketer who has
been around for some time does not want reciprocal links.
He wants one-way links to his site.

Sources of Inbound, One-Way Links:

Links from directories - Directories aren't as popular as
they once were now that people use search engines to find
what they want, but directories still offer free inbound
links. All you have to do is apply for them. There are
several companies that offer free software. Just search for
a directory submitter. There are several to choose from.
You will find one that is easy to use and makes submitting
to directories a snap.

Links from articles you write - There is probably no better
way to get people to visit your blog than to write good
articles. When you write a good article, you need to send
that article to a large number of article directories.

They will post your article at no charge to you and most of
them will allow you to put a couple of self-serving links
in the "resource box". The resource box is where you can
advertise your website, tell them what they will find, and
perhaps send them to your subscription optin page.

As you might guess, sending your articles out to thirty or
forty sites can be a daunting task. I would suggest that
you do a search for article submitter software.

You may find an article submitter that works very well and
saves you hours of valuable time. You type the information
into the article submitter once and it will automatically
fill it in to the article site. It even keeps track of
your username and password for those sites where you have
to register.

You should spend the time to find a company that will do
this for you. It costs me money every month to submit
eight articles to many, many article directories. I think
it is worth the money, but if you are just starting out,
perhaps the free way is better.

Comment on "dofollow" blogs

Some WordPress blog owners have installed a plugin called
"dofollow". This overrides the default of "nofollow" that
the blog comes setup as. If the blog has this plugin
installed and activated, you will get a backlink to your
website when you make a comment on that site. (Most blog
owners aren't aware that this may be a reason they don't
get as many comments on their articles as they could.)

There is software that I use that finds blogs that have the
"dofollow" plugin installed. I look for them and I am more
inclined to comment on those blogs because it gets me a
backlink.

Search for a blog submitter. It is the software that you
use to help find those blogs. Most blog submitters are
free too. All you do is type in keywords that refer to
your website and it will find blogs that have similar
keywords.

Free Directories You *Must* Know About:

Most blog owners and internet marketers have forgotten this
one. It is right under their noses, but they haven't
listed their sites in local directories. Here is a short
list of local directories that you must do tonight.

* Google Local (http://local.google.com/)
* Yellowpages.com (http://www.yellowpages.com/)
* Yahoo Local (http://local.yahoo.com/)
* Yahoo Yellow Pages (http://yp.yahoo.com/)
* Superpages.com (http://www.superpages.com/)
* Yellowbook.com (http://www.yellowbook.com)
* Atlanta at a Glance (http://www.atlantaataglance.com/) or
* www.your nearest big city.com
  (ex. http://www.dallas.com/business-directory) and
* www.big city chamber.org
(http://www.uschamber.com/chambers/directory/default)

Even if you don't have a physical address where you accept
the public, you can still put your website on these various
directories. You don't have to show your physical address,
if you don't want it to show.

To Summarize:

Every website marketer needs backlinks. The website
marketer's goal should be to grow their site in size to
become an authority site in his area of specialty.

It is not difficult to get backlinks, but it is time
consuming and laborious. I would suggest that you use
software to help you speed up these repetitive tasks. Get
free software called directory submitter. Obtain an article
submitter product. Use a blog finder to help you comment
on blogs that give you a backlink.

Lastly, don't forget the obvious. Use the list above to
get listed in the local directories.
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