The Best Directories and a Back-door to Google Supplemental

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8914376.post-27850540418161777512008-02-24T15:01:00.007-05:002008-02-26T00:53:48.669-05:00The Best Directories and a Back-door to Google SupplementalThis newsletter will expand upon my comments last week about the value of a broadly based approach to linking including the inclusion of several directories in your link building program. I’d also like to revisit the issue of the supplemental index, discussed at some length in previous newsletters. But before any of that, I want to share with you one of the comments posted by Don Reid following last week's newsletter. It really speaks to the essence of that newsletter: <blockquote>Hi Ken That was a really interesting and informative newsletter. Prior to the calibration my site was a PR4. I then joined your program and some other stupid ones that gave me thousands of links. I remember complaining to you about a year ago how my PR had dropped to 2. It then even dropped to 1. You told me the problem was the thousands of incoming links and to get rid of them...finally I listened. The site is back to PR3 :) Thanks for taking the time to write to us, it's easy to make time to read valuable information Kind regards Don</blockquote> Google's Supplemental Index The Supplemental Index contains pages that have been indexed by Google but are not considered important enough to appear in search query results. Search query results come from web pages listed in the Primary Index. The supplemental index is Google’s response to an ever-expanding Internet and the reality that many webmasters make their sites large just to exploit the value of internal link popularity. Most of the time, when we think about link popularity we think about the number and quality of external sites pointing to our website. But part of your PR score is determined by internal links. Internal link popularity is the PR your site’s pages give to each other. I guesstimate that these days, internal links might account for as much as one PR level. For example, pages that are part of a site-wide navigation menu bar will link to one another and give quite a bit of PR (relatively speaking) to one another. Pages that I call orphan pages, pages which receive few internal links, usually several levels down in the website, have low PR or no PR. The home/top/landing page usually has the most PR since usually every page on the site links back to the home page. Of course, the home page also benefits from many more external links. One of the factors in the almost exponential growth of the Internet was the calculation by webmasters that if they made their sites bigger they’d get more PR as it was fairly obvious that huge sites often had a good rankings, even in the absence of many external links. There are websites out there even today that are creating thousands of new pages every day via automation. So, Google had to reconsider the degree to which it rewarded size. It decided to figure out which pages on a site were important and which were unimportant. It decided that pages with PR would end up in the Primary Index and pages with no PR would end up in the newly created Supplemental Index. Google also started placing pages with duplicate content in the Supplemental Index along with pages that have duplicate title and metatags. For some time, you could go to Google and type in site:www.mywebsite.com/ and you’d see all the pages indexed by Google from your website. And, if you looked closely you’d notice that some carried the tag Supplemental Result. Well, that no longer exists. You can still do the above search to see which of your site’s pages have been indexed. but you can no longer distinguish between the pages that are in the primary index, and hence eligible to display in response to search queries, and which pages are in the supplemental index. Google doesn't want people knowing which pages are in the primary index and which are in the supplemental index. Knowing which of your pages are in the primary index is useful info. Pages in the primary index have a chance to be returned in response to a search query. You should know which pages they are and you should make sure those pages carry some optimization. They have enough PR to rank but you may not be able to exploit that if those pages are not optimized. Meanwhile, you may waste time or money optimizing pages that are not in the primary index and that, at least at this time, have no chance to rank. Well, bless the hearts of people at webmasterworld.com. They have found a backdoor that seems to work. First, do this search at Google: site:www.mywebsite.com/ You will see all the pages from your website indexed by Google. You won’t really know which are in the primary directory and which are in the supplemental index. But note the number of pages displayed. Then do this search: site:www.mywebsite.com/* The asterisk at the end seems to do it. I don’t know if Google will close this window but it seems to be working right now and has for several months. You will see a much smaller sampling. Those appear to be the pages that are in the primary index. Those are the pages that have a chance to rank. To test the accuracy of this you should be able to go back to the original search and take one of the pages listed there that you believe is not in the primary index. Copy its url and paste the url into the search box. Search for that page. All of a sudden it won’t appear. Why? Because what appears when you do a search (apart from the site:www.mywebsite.com search) are the pages in the primary index, the ones that have a chance to be listed in response to a search query. Supplemental pages do not appear though I’ve heard that occasionally they do, which might reflect Google playing with things. How can you use this knowledge? Make sure that any of your pages in the primary index are optimized. Every page listed in the primary index should be bringing a modicum of traffic to your site. I have so many clients that settle for being one trick ponies. They have dozens of pages sitting there doing nothing many with exactly the same optimization as the home page, which also increases the likelihood that they’ll end up in supplemental. And, work on moving more pages from supplemental to primary. How? By getting more external PR to your home page (or to the lower level pages themselves) and by improving your sites internal navigation architecture so that selected supplemental pages get more PR from internal sources. Be selective especially if you have a big website. The amount of PR a page can pass on (called link juice) is limited by its PR level and the number of out-bound links on that page. If you try to target 100 of your supplemental pages by linking to them from one of your primary index pages, like your home page, you may not have much PR to pass on to so many pages. If you target ten you just might be able to move them from supplemental to primary where they’ll have a chance to rank (assuming they have some optimization). Later, as your PR grows from external sources you can target more pages. Know which of your pages are in the primary index and make sure they are optimized to bring you traffic. Remember too that some of your pages may be in the supplemental index because they do not appear to offer unique content. If they have the same title and meta content as your home page, so often the case, then they may have been dumped into supplemental for that reason. The Best Directories Directories may be a valuable sources of PR or link popularity. Directories are valuable because the sites approved for directory inclusion are editor vetted and so they carry more weight on crawler-oriented search engines like Google, Yahoo engine, Msn and Ask. Simply, a website that is considered worthy for inclusion in a web directory, is considered more credible by a crawler-based search engine and that can translate into more PR or trust. But because of that, the credibility of the directory itself becomes an issue. Which directories are reputable? The problem is that few directories are considered legitimate these days as many are considered simply glorified links programs. They have been penalized. Stay away from any service that offers to submit you to directories. Find a few good directories and submit for yourself. It’s not only cheaper but you’ll learn a lot more about your competition. The inspiration for this discussion on directories comes from an evaluation of directories rendered by Bob Mutch. He rated directories based on their age, how many edu and gov links they have and whether or not they themselves are listed in the DMOZ and Yahoo Directories. He came up with a top 40. If you were to submit to them all it would cost you about $4000. But keep in mind that most also have annual renewal fees (though often discounted). So, this sis not just about initial cost but ongoing costs. One directory I’ve sometimes recommended, BOTW.org, has a one time fee of $240 and then an annual renewal fee of $79. I was a member there at one time but never got around to renewing. Now if I want back in there I have to pay $240 again. Doh! But let’s use Bob’s study as a springboard for discussion. I think his study might be 1-2 years old so I want to examine what he came up with before providing you with the link to his results. I want to talk about the top five directories, the free directories, and then the rest of the directories. According to Bob, the top five directories are: <a href="http://dmoz.org/">Dmoz</a> (Open Directory Project) <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/dir">Yahoo Director</a>y (not Yahoo search engine) <a href="http://www.lii.org/">Librarians Internet Index</a> <a href="http://www.stpt.com/directory">Starting Point Directory</a> <a href="http://www.business.com/">Business.COM</a> DMOZ and Librarians Internet Index are free so let’s talk about the free ones first. I mention DMOZ in every newsletter. It is important as it functions as Google’s Directory. Getting into DMOZ helps you rank on Google, no doubt. But it takes forever to get in there and many sites never make it. The Librarians Internet Index is oriented to non-profit type web sites so they seem to reject business oriented sites. I’ve submitted my blog there as it is an information-only website and I mentioned to them that my information is not only relevant to small businesses but non-profit websites that require better rankings, such as my new client at <a href="http://www.preventmedicalerror.org/">http://www.PreventMedicalError.org</a> The other free directories are: <a href="http://www.jayde.com/">Jayde</a> <a href="http://www.mavicanet.com/">Mavicanet</a> <a href="http://www.illumirate.com/">Illumirate</a> Jayde has been around forever (so it’s a good bet) but they are all worth submitting to. Hey, they're free. Back to the top five. We’ve already discussed DMOZ and Librarians Internet Index. Yahoo is a must and if you invest in one directory only then it should be Yahoo. Google will even credit you for that. Be aware that the Yahoo Directory is not the same as the Yahoo Search Engine. Even today I got an email from someone who marveled that his two websites were in the directory even though he'd never paid. Of course, they were in the Yahoo search engine, not the Yahoo Directory. Bob rates Starting Point ($99) fourth and Business.com ($199) fifth. For myself, I’d definitely reverse the order. Starting Point may be the 4th ranked directory but its home page is presently a PR4. The 4th most important directory yet its home page is a PR4? That should give comfort to some of you living in the PR3/PR4 realm. Here’s one way of accessing whether it might be worth the $99 annual fee they request. Go to this page <a href="http://www.stpt.com/directory/">http://www.stpt.com/directory/</a>, a PR4 page that's one click away from their home page. Let’s say that you are an SEO like me and you want to find their Search Engine Optimization category so that you can submit your website. There’s no such category listed on their categories page so you click on Web Design as the most likely alternative category. Now you are three levels down in the website (home/categories/web design). You are on a PR3 page. Not unusual since often pages at the second or 3rd level are one PR level below the home page PR. On this page you see that there is a subcategory for Search Engine Optimization. So, you click on that and end up <a href="http://www.stpt.com/directory/internet/search_engines/">here</a>. Hmmm, you are now four levels down in the directory on a PR0 page. Is it really worth $99 to buy a link from a PR0 page? In fact, this page is not even in the Google primary index. Remember how we searched for pages in the primary index? When you search site:www.stpt.com you see that there are 613 web pages indexed. I know my Search Engine Optimization directory page has been indexed as I also searched site:www.stpt.com/directory/internet/web_design/search_engine_optimization/ It’s right there. But when you amend the search to narrow it down to what’s in the primary index by doing this search: site:www.stpt.com/* you find that there are only 191 listings. Scrolling through those listings reveals that the Search Engine Optimization page is not in the primary index. Yes, it is indexed but not in the primary index. So, again, why would I spend $99 on this directory? I’d end up on a page that’s in the supplemental index, not even in the primary index. If category pages aren't indexed, they have no ability to pass on any link juice to your site. Access the page you are going to be listed on to determine whether or not the fee is worth it. It’s not so much the PR level of the page that concerns me, it’s that Google may never know that I believe enough in my business to invest in it by submitting to Starting Point. One of the reasons the Yahoo Directory carries so much weight is that Google knows you are willing to spend $299 on it each year. You believe in your web business. It's the same interpretation they make when you renew your domain name for 10 years. You believe in your business and Google believes a bit more in you. I think the Business.com directory is a much better investment at $199 (though you still need to make sure the page you’d be on has enough PR to be in the primary index). It’s not easy to find the directory submit page so <a href="http://www.business.com/info/ad_products/annual_inclusion.asp">here it is </a>. In my own case, I am listed on a PR3 page with about 130 other web sites in my category. So, I’m probably not going to get a lot of link juice from that page. But it may count for more that one imagines. First of all, Business.com is a directory that people actually use (few use dmoz). Business.com doesn’t come up top four when people talk about the search engines but it’s estimated that about 12% of all business-to-business searches are done at Business.com. So, quite apart from any notion of link popularity, it is one of the few directories that can actually direct business to your website. And, I think it indicates that you are serious about your business. I think it’s the second directory you should submit to if you're more of a business to business service. One thing I want you to notice when you go to Bob’s chart is the huge drop-off in quality between the top five directories and the remaining 35. I also want to you note that this ratings chart may have been developed a while ago and it is no longer reflective of the reality in 2008. For example, the #6 listing <a href="http://www.cannylink.com/">http://www.cannylink.com/</a> costs $20 a year while one that I often recommend BOTW.org, is much lower down on the list and costs $240 first year. But note that the home page for http://www.cannylink.com/ is a PR0 as are the few category pages I visited. I’ve mentioned to you that Google has dampened the PR of directories that seem to exist only to feed the links industry. This so-called directory at http://www.cannylink.com/ even calls itself a links directory. Poor marketing plan. The one I often recommend, ranked #14 by Bob, BOTW.org is a PR6. The page that would suit my listing there is only a PR3 with about 125 outbound links. I’m not sure that’s going to direct a lot of link juice to me and I doubt many really use that directory when searching but it would be my third choice after the Yahoo Directory and Business.com. You’ll recall that I questioned above the wisdom of paying $99 to get on a page at Starting Point that isn’t even in the primary index at Google and has no PR. But I checked some of the sites listed on that page, my competitors, and noticed that many of them had PR5. As I later went through some of the other directories, guess who kept showing up time after time? Those same PR5 websites. They seem to have heavily invested in directories although they also have non-directory inbound links. Remember directory listings are a measure of your credibility (as determined by editors) but not a measure of your popularity per se (since the listings are generally bought). You still need 3rd party links. But I think a few good directories could well take you to the next level. Note on Bob's chart that the age of some of the directories is in green font and that was done to denote the oldest directories. It is believed that older directories may carry more weight and that’s one of the reasons I’d be tempted by the 1996 BOTW.org. In case you're not aware, when you submit to a directory you begin by finding the right category for your website and only then click on submission. One of the best ways to find your category, especially if it's not obvious when you look at the top-level categories, is to do a keyword search using a phrase reflective of your theme. When I searched for 'links popularity' at some of the above directories it didn't produce a category for Links Popularity but it did lead me to the Search Engine Optimization category and I would have realized that that was the best category for my one-way-links.com website. Also, when you submit to a directory follow their instructions very closely. Usually, they just want to know the real name of your business and a description. I would submit One-Way-Links.com as the name of my business because that is the name of my business. I could not call it Link Building Services as they would reject that. But luckily my business name is keyword rich anyway. Then you provide them with a brief description of your business devoid of all superlatives (e.g. best, original, the first, etc.). I suggest you pick one keyword phrase that you most want to rank for and use that as part of your description. But don't get too wordy. What you want is for the editor to accept your suggested description without editing. If they start editing it, you may lose the keywords you most want included. Once you've submitted to one directory, the others will be a cinch. But I strongly encourage you to submit directly for yourself. It’s a great way of learning about the competition Here’s <a href="http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/top-web-directories.html">Bob’s Chart</a>. Enjoy! Your Links Program Partner Pages Several times in the past I've provided recommendations as to how you might approach setting up your program partner pages. I've suggested that your partner pages should serve not only the interest of your partners but your own interest as well. They should carry a unique, site-relevant title tag, description tag and some on-page text relevant to your site. The objective isn't so much that the partners page rank for something itself though that is possible and I've certainly seen it. But it's about certain themes on your website transcending your website rather than simply being orphan references. If you want to rank for 'single in vancouver' then it's fine to include some optimization for that on your home page but it's also a good idea to show that that theme transcends your site. So, while referencing 'single in vancouver' on your home page you might make sure that one or two other pages on your site carry a modicum of optimization for that as well. If the theme transcends your website then there's a better chance that one of your pages will rank for it, often that will be the home page as in the case of my client at <a href="http://www.25dates.com/">http://www.25dates.com</a> who has a #5 ranking for that on Google. Have a look at one of this client's partner pages <a href="http://www.25dates.com/other9">here</a>. You can see that it carries some optimization for 'single in vancouver' starting with the page's title tag 'Single in Vancouver' and including some reference to Vancouver on the page itself. Only then does the client list links to program partners. And, the above is not just good for the client but for the client's partners. It's too late to show you this now as Google has updated but last week the above client was ranked #3 on Google for 'texas property tax lenders' as she was linking to one of our brand new program partners who's optmized for that phrase. Our new program partner was not yet ranking for that as he didn't have enough PR. A week later I no longer see the above client's listing (25dates) but I see the client <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.propertytaxfix.com/">himself</a> at the #10 spot for this. His toolbar PR would not have changed but his real PR has. Google works in mysterious ways but mostly it works. Do note that Google has many different data centres so what I see as a #10 might be different for you based on the data centre you are seeing. It usually takes about 6 months for there to be stability across most data centres. Cheers Ken Optimization and Link Building Newslettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08623361238377533826noreply@blogger.com