Sorry to tell you, but directory submissions don’t provide a ton of traffic. Don’t expect to see visitors coming from any directory that you submit your site.  But what can you expect?

You can expect that the links from these directories should count as backlinks to your site if the directory page where your link resides after being approved is cached in Google.  Content may be king, but backlinks are still important.

Niche directories rather than general directories are a much better quality link, so I suggest seeking them out for your niche. Below is a list of travel directories that I have compiled.

Warning: Don’t just submit to Niche directories, but use niche directories as an arrow in your SEO Quiver. Create great content, and remember to use a variety of types of links.

Travel Directories

• All-travel-sites.com premium, but has a lot of free methods..comment on the blog or do a guest post. (my site)
• Travel-Directory.org
• Traveldirectory.org
• TravelandTourismdirectory
• A travel directory for websites that use the .Travel
• Travelandtourism.net directory
• TouristClick.com has a variety of submissions free to $85.
• TravelAxis  free but has a $60 rush submission feature. Has a list of travel directories at the bottom of the page, but has not been updated since 2009.
• World Web Travel Directory

Lists of travel Directories

Rather than go through endless lists and compile my own list of directories, how about a list of other travel directory lists?

• One of my favorites is the list of travel sites on Directory Critic with over 170 travel directories listed.
• TravelAxis.orgs list of travel directories updated in 2009
• WebDirectory.ws has a list of Travel directories that looks like it is updated regularly.
• A pretty old directory list with 39 travel directories.
• InfoVileSilencer.com’s list of free travel directories I have used their lists before..most are good, but some bad ones slip through.. but you just never know.
• I like this list of travel Directories with Stats..some nice stats for each directory that is listed.
• ShortBreaks Travel Travel Directory List

Well, that’s my list of travel directories and list of lists of travel directories that I can recommend. I know there are a ton of directories out there with lists of travel directories or lists of general directories with travel categories. I would recommend using the former, but chose wisely when using general directories with travel categories.

With all the changes Google has made and continues to make, I believe its best to use these sparingly.Variety is not only the spice of life, but is the spice of your SEO.

Be sure to read our other posts on Link Building so you will be sure to do your link building right.

You can now Embed Tweets easily..I started writing this post a week or so ago, but finally decided to publish it.

You can check out this TechCrunch article which gives several methods for embedding links. If you decide to use Blackbird Pie, be sure not to use the https version of your tweet links. Also, you must click on the time link below the Tweet which says something like “about 1hr ago” and copy and paste that link into the Blackbird tool to get an embedded tweet like the one on this post.

Other Twitter Stuff

You do know that many of the search engines are using Twitter results for part of their real time search results right? Well tweets do often show up in the SERPs.

Something that makes me go hmm

As you may or may not know,  as part of the Baldydog.com company, we not only do SEO, but I as the Social Media Director, do manage several other blogs.

In addition to all the blogs, as part of the Baldydog network, we have multiple sites to include directories such as Pixelheadonline, Online Legal Directory, Home Improvement Directory, and of course Alltravelsites.com to name just a few. If you want a complete list of our directories, leave a comment, and I will send you an email with the complete list of our directories.

Anyway, while reviewing and publishing travel site submissions on the travel directory, as part of the submission process, I usually send out several tweets about the newly added travel resource. I usually say something like the tweet below.

I also send out a tweet with the individual page for the listing and may include a direct link to the url of the listing if it is a short url.

Link Building Tip

What I have noticed is that links that I tweet, such as individual listing pages, will then be cached in Google. If I don’t Tweet them, they won’t get cached, and as you know, an un-cached page is as good as invisible to Google because it doesn’t know about the web page.
Does this mean you should go and send thousands of spam links to Twitter so they get cached?  I wouldn’t recommend it. I think it is ok occasionally. What I try to do when I do these types of “resource addition” tweets, is to sandwich them between tweets that seek to share, communicate, rt, or be genuinely helpful.

Even these types of tweets, I feel are helpful and not spammy, as I am only tweeting about travel related resources, and most of the 2000+ followers have some sort of travel interest.

So How Can You Use Twitter for Link Buiding

Twitter links as you know are nofollow type links, so they really don’t count for much Google Juice, but they do serve to notify the search engines of your resource, which may otherwise have been uncached.

If you do link building as we do, when you get accepted into a directory, send out a Tweet for the actual listing page of your resource or the category page that your listing appears if it is not too heavily populated with other similar resources.

Try to get as many cached links pointing to your site as possible. Cached with PR is better, but cached at the very least.

So have you noticed similar results using Twitter, or do you think I am erroneous?

**note – to get the box around my tweets, I put the tweets into a table. <table border=”2″><tr><td>Tweet code</table></tr></td>

***For more info on Link Building check out On-Page Optimization Training.

A great way to promote your online business is via article marketing. This involves writing articles to submit to article directories. Learning how to write articles to promote your internet based business will be an invaluable skill to have.

It’s a straight forward process. You write good articles on your niche and include a bio with a link or two back to your site in the resource box.  Then you submit these articles to article directories.

The quality of your article will determine how much traffic you receive and whether Google and other search engines are impressed. It is recommended that the articles you submit to article directories are newly written. With other words avoid re-using the same articles from your site.

Although it is good to write articles on your particular topic or niche in which you are marketing, it is better to approach the articles you wish to submit using a more broader approach.

As an example, if your blog income is based on marketing a particular diet product your articles could be on the broader topic of living a healthy life. Your aim is to attract a larger readership base than just those who might be interested in the product you are selling.

Article directories have a stream of readers interested in a range of topics. Your articles end up being read a surprising number of times.

But what is even better than the number of readers it that it your articles are read over a long period of time. This is contrary to a blog where mostly the newest articles receive the immediate traffic. Thereafter articles are at the mercy of search engines to receive further air time.

Each time your article is read you have the chance that the reader might be interested enough to click on the link to your site which is shown in the resource box at the end of the article. This allows for a possible constant stream of traffic to your site.

Besides the regular readers who use article directories for information or entertainment, article directories are also used by non-writing website and blog owners to source articles for their sites.

They are allowed to use them on their own sites in exchange for including your bio with live links. As a source of links this can be invaluable. And it requires no further effort on behalf of the internet marketer.

However, probably the most valuable part of this exercise and what makes it really worthwhile for internet marketers to submit articles to directories is the backlink the directory itself provides to your own site.

Most of the well established article directories such as Ezinearticles or Go Articles have a high PageRank. Having a link back from their site to your blog or website has high value for you the internet marketer.

Learning how to write articles for submission to directories is an excellent marketing strategy for the internet marketer. As an article writers who is developing an online business with the aid of good content you will certainly miss out on a golden opportunity if you do not make this part of your marketing strategy. Read more at The Digital Archives.

Tools You Will Need

• Google Adsense Keyword Tool
• Excel or some other spread sheet software

SEO Training – Keyword Research Video

SEO Video Content

Keyword research – Do it!

Use the Free Google adsense keyword tool

There are many keyword tools such as Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker and Keyword Spy, but for this series, which is being done for the beginner, the Google Keyword tool will be fine.

First, look at your site, and ask yourself – generally speaking what is it about? Looking at Mybarebags.com, I see that cloth bags are being sold here. So “cloth bags” is what I put into the Keyword tool. I might also look around the site and take note of any other keywords that might apply. On some sites, depending upon the site, I might actually go through each page and see what keywords apply to each individual page…if the site owner wants the entire site optimized…

This gives me a good starting point. Now, I am not going to spend hours upon hours on the keyword research, but suffice it to say, the more Keyword research you do, the more likely you are to find words and phrases that have a good amount of traffic, but have very little competition.

When I start a campaign, I need to limit the number of phrases that I am focusing on. If I have a choice between words, I like three word phrases the best, as they tend to be more specific. For example, “bags” is a very general keyword, “cloth bags” is a little more specific, but “cloth shopping bags” is even more specific. Sure “bags” will bring a whole lot more traffic if and when I rank for it, but for a site that sells cloth shopping bags, it might not be the best phrase to go after. Traffic that is searching for the term “cloth shopping bags” is going to bring a lot more qualified traffic to the site that is more likely to convert into sales.

After I put the initial word into the Keyword tool, I look at the other phrases that show up(see Google Adsense Keyword Tool – Cloth Bags pic) as related keywords. You have to know your site and your products, to know which words will apply.

If you go to the bottom of the Keyword tool page, you can click the csv for excel button, which will give you a nice “read only” spread sheet. You can then copy and paste the best phrases into a new spread sheet that will contain only the phrases you want to consider. Keep looking through your site  and the keyword tool until you get a list of at least 10-20 keyword phrases.

Next we need to prioritize our words, this is done by looking at the competition, which will be the next post in the series.

SEO Training Series Posts include:

• SEO Training Update – Install Google Analytics
• SEO Training – Site Assessment

My Keyword list for Mybarebags.com will be posted in the SEO Training Group. Please let me know if you would like to be part of the group or you can join by using the form below.

Subscribe to SEO Training

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*This post was changed after publishing. The second half, Prioritizing Keywords will be put up as a separate blog post so that information overload does not occur.

To learn what “dofollow” means, check out the PageRush dofollow FAQ. Now that you know what dofollow is, here is why you should join the movement.

10. Dofollow Rewards and Encourages Commenters

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Converting your blog to dofollow means that you will give search engine visible backlinks to people that post meaningful comments. This is a nice complement to your commenters and means people will seek out your blog and spend time writing comments.

9. Give your Blog a Kick Start

For a brand new blog, making it dofollow will attract new visitors. Think of it as a “survival of the fittest” link-exchange. The people who write the best comments get links. The best bloggers will find you, then you can set off to comment on their blogs.

8. Narrow your Niche

Authority on the internet is all about expertise. By making your blog dofollow, you in effect become more specialized. Visitors who know about dofollow will remember that your blog is the one where comments count. This little change makes your blog more remarkable, and more differentiated from your competitors. By responding to your commenters, you will naturally develop a community of readers.

7. Join the Movement

It is great to know people with common interests. Think of the analogy of moving to a new city. Even though you may be an accountant or lawyer, you are still likely to seek meet ups with other people who are new in town. In the same way, dofollowers hang together even if they are blogging about different topics.

6. Get Backlinks

Paradoxically, making your site dofollow (giving away better links) will make it qualify for lots of lists of dofollow blogs. Dofollow blogs qualify for special directories (like the PageRush dofollow list). Also, links to dofollow blogs are often passed around and shared in blog posts and on twitter. Going dofollow qualifies you to be included in that “ultimate guide to dofollow blogs” you saw last week. What is that quote… “if you see a parade, you might as well get in front of it.”

5. Take the Lead

By learning about dofollow, and sharing what you learn with your readers, you establish yourself as not just a domain expert, but also an expert in blogging. By going dofollow, you are ahead of the curve. There’s a good chance you will have some readers who are bloggers, and the more you can help them learn, the smarter you look.

4. Spam Filters are Good

As long as you have a good blog spam filter, and moderate your comments, there is no need to be nofollow. In fact, your blog will be better (more relevant and interesting) as moderated dofollow than as un-moderated nofollow.

3. Get more Content and Customers

Of course, ultimately you want to encourage commenting because you want more commenters, content, and *customers*. People stopping by in search of dofollow comments are potential customers you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Their comments are content you would otherwise have to write yourself. Its a Web win-win.

2. These Effects Compound Upon one Another

Like compounding interest on an investment, a blog post with one comment is more likely to get two comments. When combined with the backlink buzz you create by joining the dofollow movement, dofollow can be a real boon to your blog!

1. Why not?

OK, if you are superblog.com with 10,000 daily visitors, congratulations. You have graduated and don’t need to reward your commenters anymore. But lets face it, when you are climbing the ladder you’ve got nothing to lose. Your PageRank isn’t going to leak out to commenters, instead you are going to create a loyal audience and build your reputation at the same time.

This guest post was provided by Adam Loving , check out his blog PageRush for more SEO and Social Media tips and tricks.