Just for a minute, let’s imagine that the Internet is a vast, dense jungle, and you own a tree somewhere in that jungle. Let’s also say that your tree bears some juicy fruit that you want people to enjoy. Great. Now, how exactly do they find out where your tree is?
Of course, the tree is your website, and you want it to be found. Again, any self-respectin’ trekker wouldn’t step into a jungle without a compass and a map (besides water, cheese, flashlight, etc.) Now that you’re reading this post, you’re similar to an Internet trekker, and you found my site (my tree).
How did you get here? Surely most of you must have been pointed here by a search engine or a social networking site (the map). So simply put, you got to be there in the map to be found out. How do you get into the map, and, more importantly, get noticed? By making sure your site ranks well, of course. (The map says, “Hey, look for this tree. Many have recommended it.”) You could do that by having more links point to your site. And how in the wide jungle do you do that?
One way do that would be try and get back links, one way or the other. Now, let’s say that your tree is bearing some exotic fruit, found nowhere else. Folks who are looking for your exotic fruit will find it easily in their map, because your tree is just one of a handful of trees bearing that fruit. And your tree tops the map listing for that fruit.
What if your tree was an orange tree? Surrounded by a million orange trees, how would the trekker see your tree in the top few? That’s where the directories come in. Have your site listed in as many directories as possible, both free and paid, and get one-way non-reciprocal links that search engines love to rank. But if you’re really looking to hit that big bunch of trekkers, paid web directories can give your tree the extra decoration it needs. What makes it all even more attractive is that it is possible to submit to the best paid web directories for free.
Stay in the jungle. But get found.
