A directory lists web sites by category and subcategory.

The categorization is usually based on the whole web site rather than on one page or a set of keywords making sites limited only to a few and specific categories. A link building company would usually provide this service for those who need it. Web directories often allow site owners to directly submit their site for inclusion. The only job to be done by the company is to have editors review these site submissions for quality. Many web directories have risen in popularity over the past few years. As people get more Internet savvy, paid directories become handy tools that can help make web browsing easier for users. Paid directories are considered as one of the best link building strategies available in the market nowadays. There are numerous ways to be included in web directories. The common practice nowadays is for SEO companies to provide link building services like web directories to its customers and charge a fee not for the membership per se but for the time allotted in reviewing and making sure that the links submitted are at par with the criteria posted by search engine companies like Google and Yahoo. Directories are usually paid through credit cards and debit cards or through online payment sites like PayPal, gBuy and 2CheckOut that will require companies to pay their fees through their credit or debit accounts.

Directories also have various features in listing that often depend upon the fees paid for inclusion.

1. Free Submission, that wipes out all review and listing fees for companies that avail of their services.
2. Reciprocal Links to directory, there are directories that require companies to put reciprocal links or links that will take the reader back to the web directory embedded in the outbound website.
3. Paid Submissions, or featured listing services that charge fees for companies to have their links listed or featured within the web directory.
4. Human-edited Directories created and maintained by editors who add links based on the policies particular to that directory.

Link Building has become one of the primary strategies in search engine positioning for many companies nowadays. Link building not only helps improve exponentially a company’s popularity among users and on different search engines, it also helps in achieving target traffic and boosts over-all company productivity and popularity. The quality of information present in every web page is of primary importance in many businesses nowadays. This quality is also one of the most important things that people always seek in surfing the Internet. Companies that are able to capitalize with various linking strategies like paid directories will be the ones achieving enormous success and sitting atop the various search engine rankings.

Depending on what your site offers, your link building campaign could go viral with the use of social media tools.

What is more impressive about link building through social media is that links obtained are completely organic and highly valuable in the eyes of search engines. The catch: with much link popularity to be given from social media, much is also required. If you have less time on your hands, you can hire a social media link building service to handle your promotional campaign.

If you are a hands-on type, here are some tips on how you could generate user following and use social linking to its fullest:

1. Feature High Quality Content. Unlike other link popularity strategies, effective use of social linking requires that your site contain high quality or even linkbait content. Without it, you cannot expect to form relationships, which is the core function of social linking. The success of social media in building link popularity is a result of creating a site that is authoritative on a given topic. The use of interactive, compelling materials and relevant content is advantageous for social media.
2. Choose A Site That Works For You. The next step is to build relationships with online social networking communities. When you are merely after personal popularity, be free to select any site; but when you are after link popularity, it is important to choose the right ones. The biggest social sites like Digg, Technorati, or Reddit, may have a large community but their target audiences may not be suitable for you. For instance, you don’t want to make the mistake of promoting baby products in Digg, which is a haven for the young and tech savvy. There are other options like Facebook, which has a more mature following. The important thing is to research first and determine which social sites will yield more traffic for you. Popular alternatives to the larger social sites are Facebook and Twitter. Twitter has become a popular choice lately for many people, including celebrities. What you do is link your profile to Twitter and post a “Follow me” when you have an interesting article to share.
3. Update Your Properties. Social media sites allow you to feed directly from your blog. This is helpful when you maintain a regularly updated blog. With this feature, you ensure that your social media account is up-to-date and fresh. Some social sites have their built-in ranking application, e.g. Squidoo, which might get you promoted to the search engines.
4. Social Netiquette. Social sites are intolerant of bad netiquette. Spamming is shunned and users who promote their profiles excessively endanger themselves of getting reported or their accounts getting terminated. Recovering from a bad online reputation is hard since bad comments cannot be removed or edited. Bad reputation damages your link popularity, and in turn, can have severe consequences on your rankings.
5. Engage the Community. Linkbait content is hard to come by on a daily basis so when you are unable to produce viral content, you can be an active member in the community and build relationships. With Twitter, you can follow people or businesses that are of a similar interest to yours. Link out to blog owners that share your niche. Linking out for no reason at all will not yield any traffic for you. When you can, making attention-getting comments to blogs can get you noticed by the owner. Be sure to incorporate some related content into the comment to give other users a general idea of the content in your blog. As you want to keep track of the people you follow, you should do the same with the people following you. Do some research in order to avoid spam followers. Having spam followers may not be bad, but it could affect your credibility.
6. Share. Social linking is mutually beneficial if you retweet someone else’s posts. In this way, you get the chance of being followed by people as well. Be an active member of the community. If you use Twitter, retweet posts. If you use StumbleUpon, stumble sites. If you use Digg, dig some sites. This will earn you goodwill and make it easy for you to build relationships with other users. This is after all, the key to link building success in the social media environment.

In order to effectively use social media as a means of obtaining link popularity, your web site, social networking site, or blog must be able to attract attention and build relationships out of online users. This is a tedious task that requires time and serious effort, but the benefits are exponential and worth it.

Competition is there whether one acknowledges them or not. With the importance of link popularity today, tools in checking links have also grown in popularity. In the market, companies like INP & Arelis Google Keyword Tool, WordTracker, SEO Tools Rank Checker and Free-Webmaster-tools provide checking and link building service for websites that may need their link’s popularity checked. Most of these companies charge a fee for their services, while there are still many others that offer services for free catered to those start-ups and cash-strapped companies. Search Engine marketing is a very tricky endeavor, but once mastered, the benefits are tremendous and very advantageous. Many shortcuts exist; there are also techniques that businesses can do to take advantage of SEO opportunities.

What worked for one company may not work as well for another. Individual strategies are important for companies to be able to reach out to the millions of users who log into the World Wide Web everyday. Beyond the technicalities and skills that are required in establishing a website, every business has their own goals with which individual strategies are applied. Checking the quality of links, inbound and outbound, is important to rank high in search engine tools like Google and Yahoo. Google, for example, values quality inbound links found in the website for higher rankings. The more quality inbound links a web site has, the more probable it is for that company to be ranked high in Google searches or any other SEOs for that matter.

To check and make sure of the legitimacy of a website’s popularity, companies can utilize these tips:

1. Not faking and/or using artificial methods in creating inbound links to one’s website. In other words, link farms, top sites, automatic link generators, link services, spamming with keyword text, and doorway pages will most probably be an unwise use of funds to raise search engine rankings. If worse comes to worst, a website may be banned by search engine marketers as a result of implementing these methods.
2. The main objective of link building is to rank high in the list of search engine marketers. Link swaps and linking with similar websites are still the best way to go.
3. Check your links and spend time logging on to search engine websites like Google and Yahoo. Typing in keywords related to your website and poring through how your site is presented every time you make a search is another good way of checking your website’s popularity.

Sheer quantity of links is not the name of the game. To be popular in the vast domain of the Internet, quality is all that matters. A couple dozen links to a website from related, high quality, authority sites are much more valuable to a search engine than hundreds of low quality links one can obtain by exchanging with any site that would agree to post their pages. Positioning one’s website to reach out to millions of customers can only be done through patient strategizing and building link influence. Link Building has played a vital role in search engine positioning for many companies. It helps improve a company’s rankings on different search engines and most importantly, boost over-all company productivity and popularity.

What it basically does is bring the spotlight on quality websites based on the formation of a collaborative opinion with the help of its users. Its more than 8 million users can add sites they just happen to find and recommend it under one of the around 500 topics used by StumbleUpon. Also, items with the lowest/oldest ratings are regularly removed to maintain its image as the go-to place for the moment’s best of the web.

From the online marketer’s point of view, it is indeed a social discovery site. What a lot people don’t know though, is that it can reserve a certain number of daily page views for the right price. Web publishers participate in this cleverly designed ad network for a minimum $0.05/StumbleUpon user who visits.

It may be best employed for brand or campaign awareness rather than that of a sales tool. So, does being a high-traffic site translate to being an effective source of new visitors for the bookmarked sites? Well, according to several experimental studies such as the one by www.social-media-optimization.com it does, especially in comparison with the other social media sites. What is even more convincing is the observation that SU users being in “discovery mode” tend to explore the destination website rather than other sites where they leave after the landing page. This behavior leads to its potential for improvement as a direct e-commerce driver.

1. Micro-blogging. Even the already established publication, The Guardian, made the revolutionary move to be exclusively found on Twitter (after 188 years of being on print). The micro-blogging site represents some of the best things about the World Wide Web —- literally up-to-the-minute-news, social and professional networking, niche insights, and domino-effect information broadcasting. All those features — in 140 characters or less. Other micro-blogging sites include Tumblr, Plurk, and Squeelr.
2. Video Sharing. After the success of YouTube, which can only be described as phenomenal, video sharing has become an important player in SMO. In tri-media, TV advertisements cost tons of money, whereas a video uploaded on YouTube can generate impressive hits for virtually no cost comparison. An interesting video with good reviews and ratings can singlehandedly lead to swift traffic swelling to your site. To help give your videos a push, consider the channel profile, the keywords/tags used, even the very title of the video.
3. Picture Sharing. As cliché as it may sound, a picture paints a thousand words. And as a number of psychologists have employed over the years — an image can affect one’s disposition. At the forefront of this would be the Yahoo-owned Flickr, which Technorati is also affiliated with. As characteristic of the most successful social networking sites, their communities are very involved. For those involved with online marketing, the site’s link embedding capabilities, comment subscription for ease of response, affordable annual Pro membership, and good privacy options, Flickr has understandably become quite the choice.
4. Social Bookmarking. Del.icio.us, Digg, Stumbleupon, and Technorati are sites that help collect, play up, distribute content online (so as to diminish the impending threat of information overload on netizens). Article tagging, link sharing, keeping on top of the hottest items online, and browsing by user tags all define in SMO. Del.icio.us, for one, has over 4 millions who have collectively bookmarked over 100 million web pages. Amongst social bookmarking users are the sought after bloggers, for whom using some variation of “add this to ” is almost reflexive.

1. News. “Now” is the operative word when it comes to the Internet’s strength against other media. Optimizing this involves creating content that’s definitely in the know.
2. Contrary. Although not necessarily taken to mean creating arguments for its own sake. Rather, being contrary in linkbaiting is taken to mean providing another critical view, a new insight to a pre-conceived notion, or the discovery of an entirely new area of interest for that matter. Originality—whether in layout presentation, approach to the main topic, and most of all, in terms of content—can spell the difference between a well-linked piece and a missed article.
3. Resource. Being the authority on something (and having to earn that credence) is a distinguishing factor for any writer. A number of the most-read or viewed material online imparts knowledge that one can only get from the experts.
4. Humor. Ah, never underestimate the power of rapport that can be built with a laugh. Humor in linkbaiting makes it something you instinctively want to share with other people. After all, one good laugh deserves another.

Beginning is always the most difficult step, but it can be made easier with the following pointers:

1. Know that SMO and SEO, albeit extremely powerful when effective, function primarily as drivers and not directly as sales converters. Therefore, compelling content, targeted marketing, and a convenient sales process will be crucial most especially for e-commerce sites.
2. Keep the end in mind — what are your goals and performance indicators? Will an increase in site visits, registered members/subscribers/followers/fans, page comments be the main metrics of success? Holding community-exclusive promotions (raffle, refer-a-friend, print-a-coupon, and crowd sourcing) are also an excellent means of making full use of SMO.
3. Pick your weapon of choice. A shotgun approach to SMO might not be the best way to go about conquering the online sphere. Spamming is a big no-no especially when it comes to niche networks. These are communities, not just a gathering of people. They do not take it lightly when people try to take advantage of that. On the other hand when one provides the community interesting and relevant pieces, the group also tends to respond with an unimaginable swell of support.
4. Make sharing instinctive through content worth spreading and ease of bookmarking/forwarding/re-posting. Constantly visible icons to the most common social media tools: Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Del.i.cio.us, Stumbleupon will increase the likelihood of your word being spread. But this is only second to the most critical factor — having content that people will want to share with in the first place.
5. Participate! Commitment to being involved is the key distinction in SMO. Companies who harness this potential are able to make it a win-win situation. Now “knowing your customer” has become quite possible, accurate, and up-to-date. Also, press releases and other big announcements can be coursed through these networks, thereby ensuring that they reach the people for whom it matters most. On a bigger scale, industry news/developments can more easily be picked-up by keeping abreast with the field’s authorities. Niche communities also make the social media sites a gold mine of innovative ideas and consumer insights.

On the headlines:

1. Creating misleading hype that is only loosely connected to the content.
2. Headlines that have content considered “fine print.” Worst case in point: promising to give a certain number of pointers or promoting the participation of a particular guest blogger, only to indicate at the bottom of the article that the remaining steps or the actual guest’s blog post can only be read in a different upcoming article.
3. The headline when used effectively, can be a powerful hook in itself. Poorly conceptualized titles can waste what would have been a well-written article.

On the content topic:

1. Nobody likes a perpetual ranter who completely misses the point (if there was one to make in the first place). Articles that seek to win hits by being scandalous or antagonistic without any real reason are only inviting trouble. Sure, an initial spur would increase visits, but if there’s no real value, return readers are not very likely.
2. Copy-pasted articles, whether literally committing plagiarism or continuously recycling ideas, are a surefire way of being forgotten in the long run. Any bet for link baiting must have some aspect of “freshness.”
3. Many have written about carefully choosing hooks for link baiting. Read up on those. Not using them is a mistake that can easily be amended.

On the article quality:

1. It is an insult to your readers to present them with a clearly unedited article – rushed/illogical flow of ideas, grammatical mistakes, typographical errors, broken links — all indicate sloppy work which likely translates to sloppy content as well.
2. Never underestimate the importance of the visual/design impact of the article. Cluttered, difficult to read pages are more than likely to discourage readers.
3. Give credit where credit is due. Citing references is the most basic application of this.
4. Not speaking the target audience’s language means a missed point of connection. (Jargon – its abuse or inadequate use can both be the weakest points of the article.)
5. Link spamming – anything with “spamming” involved is a no-no for anyone planning on being successful with link baiting.

Self-Awareness

1. Look at the range of tools you already have: are you SEO- and SMO-friendly? With the different forms of linkbaiting, hooks, and media available, which direction is best-suited to your capabilities and branding strategy?
2. There is always room for providing compelling content — whether it involves translating confounding concepts into a practical and comprehensive resource, or its opposite, expounding on a vague point by giving more examples and
3. Play your strengths to your advantage — as a newbie with a refreshing perspective, a fairly well-known resource building a considerable reputation, or an authority that is going for the big time.

Audience-Awareness

1. Who are you trying to get on-board and why? Although they are all essentially part of a globally expanded word-of-mouth campaign, your niche’s bloggers, and social media network active community members and industry watchers are sought for specialized expertise.
2. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Consider targeting second-tier bloggers first (those that show great potential in creating a strong voice in the field) not necessarily going right ahead for the big fish.
3. To get you started, why not use your own networks? This is entirely different from, say—God forbid!—requiring your friends to click a hosted ad on your blog every 15mins. Without resorting to anything that is likely to get you banned, your personal network will likely be more open to actively promoting your work.
4. Never underestimate the power of language — it defines your relationship with your readers in so many ways. Only those who truly know their readers can get away with using their industry/community-specific terms without sounding like someone who’s trying too hard to fit in. Understand and learn first before jumping in with all the jargon and memes.

Industry-Awareness

1. Why make the same mistakes everybody else is making at the beginning? This seems all the more foolish, given how information is quite literally at your fingertips. Observe and analyze successful/failing examples of what you’re trying to achieve and how you were planning to achieve it.
2. Be in the know. You may not necessarily be the very first one to broadcast juicy news, but make it a point to cover all the major developments – even if it’s just to give a review or helpful hindsight.
3. If possibly (and there are only a handful of things that are not) try to always test market prior to major changes in your strategy. Keeping an ear on the ground will make you go a long way.

1. Article Title
2. Article Description or Summary
3. Name of Author
4. Article Body
5. Resource Box
6. Category
7. List of Keywords

Prior to submission, it is wise to read the directory’s terms of service to make sure that you understand and consent to the process of republishing your work. The good thing about article submission is its “viral” nature. A well-written and interesting article will be published, re-published and spread over and over again, giving your site tremendous publicity. Thus, when done effectively, article submissions can indeed give you the link popularity results you need. In accomplishing article directory requirements, keep these snippets of advice in mind:

1. Make a strong article title. Come up with a unique, snappy, and content-relevant title that contains at least one strong keyword. Readers gravitate to catchy titles. Your article title has to be distinct because directories usually reject duplications. You can test your title’s uniqueness by typing it on the search field and see if there are hits on the search engines.
2. Write an attention-grabbing article description. This is not a requirement in all directories but it helps to write a summary prior to proceeding with submission. Readers get a sneak peak of what the article is going to be all about with your article description so it is equally important to come up with (an) attention grabbing sentence(s).
3. Include the author’s name. You can use your real name, or a pseudonym for that matter. Attaching your academic degree may also help establish prestige. You can also use the company or organization name.
4. Write a 100% original article body. Everything in the article has to be original. High-quality articles incorporate expertise, wisdom, and knowledge so it is easy to spot software-manufactured articles. Another option is to hire a freelance writer or copy editor to come up with original and relevant articles. In addition to original content, produced work must be free of marketing undertones. Written pieces must be journalistic in style. How many words should an ideal article contain? The preference lies within the range of 400 to 800 words, but a 200-word stand-alone article will suffice for publication. Moreover, articles for submission need to have simple formatting. Curly quotes, extended formatting, apostrophes and quotation marks will cause problems. Writers are advised not to use contractions or dashes (-) because pieces that have them do not get published properly. Article directories go for very basic html formatting.
5. Resource Box. Be sure to place crucial contact information and credentials that will be valid within a six-month period in the resource field. Also, a 30-50 word sentence about yourself will work. This way, publishers pass on information and link you provide in article directories when they are interested in republishing your work. Some experts advise against including an email address and recommend you to input a phone number instead. Include your web URL and if you have more than one, pick the most relevant link.
6. Select a proper category. Article directories have an assortment of categories for you to choose from. Some directories allow you to configure your own category in case nothing in their selection suits your article.
7. Use the right keywords. Keywords are a tool to enhance the article. If used effectively, keywords enable readers to find your site through search engines. Several resources and software are available to help you decide which highly-searched keywords to use.

When done right, article submission can be an effective link building technique that will boost your rankings in the search engines. Article submission creates a reputation for your company and establishes your position as an authority in your industry. Although it can be a time consuming link building strategy, article submission is an economical investment that could generate a massive volume of back links for link popularity and topnotch search engine rankings.