SEO For The Common Webmaster

I have run across many webmasters who use the excuse that they do not have the time to do Search Engine Optimization for their websites. They create tons of great content and they set up a beautiful website with all the frills and wonder why they get no traffic. I want to shake them and tell them that SEO is not an option, it is a requirement.

Creating a great site is nothing if you do not do everything you can to help people find your website. This is done through quality SEO. I understand that people are crunched for time and they often do not have the time for everything. My answer is this, if you do not have time to prepare your taxes, do you just not do them? No, you hire a professional accountant or tax preparer. If you do not have time to fix your car, do you quit driving? No, you hire a mechanic to fix it. These are all things that are important and required in life.

Guess what? SEO is just as important if you plan to be successful as a webmaster. If you do not know how to optimize your site or you just do not have the time, it is time to get help. A SEO Company can do all the work for you. From optimizing your keywords to building back links, a quality company can make your site search engine friendly and easy to find.

No more excuses, as a webmaster you have two choices when it comes to SEO. Either make the time or do as many other webmasters do and hire a professional SEO Company to do the work for you. Either way, you can no longer afford to ignore the importance of SEO.

Well there is a definite changing in the Google data centers when it comes to Page Rank (PR) the last couple of days. As webmasters, many of us, yes including me, look at the holy Google PR update as some sort of sign rather we are doing a good job with our site. I decided it was a good time to analyze  the importance of PR.

First of all PR is simply a calculation of how many backlinks you have and the value of each one. There is a set formula that Google uses but it remains a big company secret what it is. Many will tell you just get a few good PR7-PR9 links and you will have at least a PR5, well in my experience this is not always correct. All PR7-PR9 links are not equal. Some say if the links are related to your sites niche (topic), than it will carry more value for PR. Once again, this has not been my experience. The best way I have found to build your PR is to constantly build back links wherever you can. If they carry PR juice, that is great, if not, someone might see your site and visit it. If you have a choice between a high PR link and a low PR link with all other factors equal, I would take the higher PR.

Now that I explained a little about PR, lets look at the importance of PR. Having many back links are very important to any site. By having high PR, it normally means you built several good back links. Does this equal more traffic? It may, but in most cases, it does not by itself equal more traffic. The main importance of PR is in the value it brings to your ability to sell blog posts, reviews, or links. People buying advertisement will often pay more for a link on a high PR site than on a lower PR site. The other factor of the importance of PR is when you go to sell a website or blog. Higher PR will often times increase what a buyer is willing to pay for a website.

If you do not plan to sell your website or blog and you are not concerned about selling advertising or text links, it is a waste of your time to even bother with rather you have PR or not.

So why do webmasters drool over PR? It simply comes down to the fact that  besides where your site is placed in the search engine results (SERPs), PR is a way that Google gives you some sign that you are doing something right for your site. It is an assigned number. You can see it, share it, advertise you have it, and it feels like a big pat on the back by the Google Gods.

People become webmasters for many reasons. It may be for fun, as a hobby, to make money, to advertise their business, or just for the thrill of sharing their life’s with others. No matter the reason, PR looks good but means nothing at all if you have no traffic to your website or blog. This is why I stressed the need for Quality Content. PR is fun to watch and can be a thrill, however, you should first and foremost create your website or blog for the benefit of your users. Write original material, advertise where you can. and do everything you can to get quality traffic flowing to you site.

In conclusion, PR is of small importance and the Google PR updates are like waiting for Santa at Christmastime; however, in the big scheme of web development, PR is of very little value. Spend your time developing the best website or blog you can and the rest will fall into place if you have patience to wait it out. If you add the best content you can and do the best SEO you can, I assure you that the rest will follow behind it.

Once you have your site up and running, one of the important things is to get your site noticed. To do this you need to build back links to your site. One way to build back links is to list your site in many directories.

There are many questions to consider when adding your site to a directory. Should you use a free directory or a paid directory? What should I put as a description? Should I pay for a featured listing? Should I only look for directories with High PR?

I always look for the best deal when trying to promote my sites. I submit to just about every free directory I can find. The exceptions is if the directory is filled with garbage links like porn or drug links. If I decide to pay for a link in a directory, that directory has to look better than a free directory, it has to have some age on it, it has to have a high PR, and it has to have very good traffic. Instead of buying a link on a directory, I would rather spend that money on a related niche blog or website. That is why, in my view, I prefer free directories.

When you fill out a description for your website, I would write as much as you are allowed and something that would make people want to visit your site. Use the key words you are trying to focus on and keep it simple. There is a debate in the world of webmasters as to rather you should write an original description for every directory you submit to. I would say it may be better but I like most webmasters do not always have the time to write a new one each time so I use two or three different ones for all my submissions.

Most directories, either free or paid, will offer a featured link for a price. Is it worth the extra price? One factor is how many featured links will be in each category. If they are selling five or less and it is a good price, I say it is worth it. If it is a high price or they sell too many featured links, you would be better to spend your advertising money elsewhere.

When looking at directories to submit to, one thing that many webmasters look at is the PR or Page Rank of the directory. If given the choice and all other factors are the same, I would recommend the higher PR directories. However, traffic is what you want so a directory with PR0 and a 1000 visits a day will be much better than a PR6 with 10 visits a day. I say look for popular directories that have a lot of listings and has good traffic. Another thing to look at is where they are in the search engines. Type in directories or free directories and see who is on top, those are the ones you want listings in.

One last thing I would like to mention is that many people offer a paid service to submit your site to many directories at once. This could be automatic with software or manually done by a human. Though I am sure that some of these services are legit and can help build you good back links, I think you are better to take the time and do the work yourself. My experience with these services are that they list your site in directories that are either junk or from foreign countries that will do no good for your site. I paid one guy and my site was listed in German directories that contained no English language sites. This will do little for traffic so it was not worth me paying for someone to do the work.

Directory listings are important to building links to your website or blog. It helps build PR, traffic, and helps in your search engine optimization to get you ranked in the search engines. Take the time to do some quality listings and you will reap the rewards.

Here is a couple of sites that can be of help with listing your sites:

Directory Critic : A great site that list many paid and free directories and other free tools.

DirZap: A Free Directory Submission Tool