One of the best things you can do to ensure a continuous flow of high traffic to your website is by submitting your URL to a Web Directory listing. In many cases, this will increase your search engine visibility dramatically. And as we all know, search engine optimization is a key factor in making your website stand out among a sea of similar websites.

Admittedly the practice of submitting URL’s to Web Directories is not as popular as it once was. This noticeable decline in Web Directory submissions can be attributed in large part to major changes that sites like Google made in their ranking algorithms, which occurred sometime in 2004.

Nonetheless, submitting your URL to Web Directories remains a highly effective and viable means to ensure high traffic, which results from high search engine result listings. Specifically, the main reasons why people submit their sites to such directories are: to get good, permanent links, to get a good search engine PR link to their own site and to get traffic and leads from these Web Directories. The first two concerns in particular have a great deal to do with how high your own site will rank in Google and other search engines. It is for these and various other reasons that the Web Directory phenomena has blossomed dramatically and more sites are joining in on the action and sprouting up everyday to meet this huge demand.

One of the problems inherent in this massive increase in Web Directories is that many of them have become little more than what is commonly known as “Link Farms”; websites with little or no content aside from the directories and links themselves. Google in particular takes a dim view of such websites and in many cases have banned these permanently, resulting in the offending sites not appearing on Google search result listings at all. Obviously this will have a detrimental effect on a particular site’s visibility and many business owners who have previously relied heavily on Web Directory listings for their traffic were sorely disappointed by Google’s actions.

Fortunately there is a way to avoid this obstacle which can be a potential death sentence, so to speak, for your website. The best thing for you to do is have your site listed in a reputable, high-quality, paid Web Directory service such as Ally Web Directory. This site and others like it will have the proper skill, manpower and policies in place to ensure that your website does not end up in Google’s blacklist. A good Web Directory site will help make sure that your own website gets the visibility you need, resulting in increased traffic, which will of course translate into added revenue for your business.

If you are at all concerned with increasing traffic to your site, you would be better off not sign up with a free Web Directory service and instead submit your site to a paid Web Directory service such as Ally Web Directory. Free directories generally do not offer extra services aside from directory listings and they are not likely to last very long.

The Internet today is a bewildering hodgepodge of information, media content, online merchants offering various products and services and much, much more. It can be quite a formidable challenge to seek out exactly what you are looking for. If you are planning to – or already have a website of your own, it can be easily lost in the tangle of similarly themed websites and be difficult for even the most experienced web surfer to find. Indeed, the current battle for online visibility and accessibility has been raging hot and heavy for a number of years now. So how exactly do you ensure that your website rises above the pile in a landscape of similar websites?

It has long been known by the Internet-savvy – both web designers and long-time surfers that Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is one of the most important factors to consider when making sure that a particular website attracts as many people as possible. Aside from such methods as website design optimization and organization, posting rich and informative content and regular site updates and maintenance, the best thing you can do to increase your website’s visibility is having it included in a Web Directory. Inclusion in a Strong Web Directory such as www.allydirectory.com will go along way in dramatically increasing your website’s chances of viewership by the right audience.

As you can imagine, websites that offer Web Directory listings are a dime a dozen nowadays and many sites are scrambling to offer such services, both free and paid. The main and perhaps some might say only advantage to free websites is of course that they are free. This advantage, which may be of primary consideration for those on an extremely limited or non-existent budget, is however offset by one major disadvantage. Many search engines do not, as a rule, prioritize free Web Directory listings in their search results for many various reasons; they may be poorly written, contain missing or dead links and because they are free, they tend to have a lot more listings than paid Web Directory listings.

Because they do have a budget to work with (as opposed to free Web Directory listings whop have little or none), paid Web Directory listings will generally have better graphic design, better content and actual human beings who will edit and sort the articles based on their particular website’s service policies. While this may seem to offer little advantage to the potential customer, the generally higher quality content and structure of paid Web Directory listings make them all that much more attractive to Search Engines, who consider these paid sites much more reliable subsequently place them higher in their search result listings

Furthermore, Search Engines tend to look less than favorably upon sites that have broken links and non-existent pages. So the generally better designed paid web sites, which will probably be more vigilant in correcting and making sure these errors don’t exist to begin with, are given much higher priority in their search results.

While search engine technology continues to amaze the internet user and provide valuable aid to the researcher, the Web directory provides a more coherent and certain method of providing access to pertinent data. The main reason for this is the submission process. The ability of web site owners to submit their sites to directories for inclusion in specific categories and subcategories and the review and evaluation of these submissions by editors leads to a more concise list of relevant sites.

There are several different terms that relate to directory submission.

—- Free Submission. This is self explanatory. The site is reviewed and no fee is charged for either the review or the inclusion in the directory.

—- Paid Submission. Also self explanatory. A fee is charged for the submission.

—- Reciprocal Link. This means that when the submitted site is accepted and linked to the directory, it must in turn link the directory on its site.

—- No Follow. Often there is a “no follow” tag placed on the link to prevent search engines from following the link. This is done to prevent directories from unduly impacting search engine site rankings.

—- Featured Link. The link is highlighted in some manner within the category where it is placed.

—- Featured Homepage Link. This is even better, as the link is highlighted in some manner on the Directories Home Page.

One of the drawbacks that have been experienced in the past in the development of Web directories is the use of volunteer editors to review and evaluate as well as place submissions. This has often led to delays in the review process. The high speed and pace of the internet has caused most web site owners to concentrate on other things other than the development of patience. They are not happy with delays of any type. Hopefully as Web directories continue to expand and become viable and even profitable aids to site organization, this problem can be addressed.

There is no doubt that technology is expanding rapidly, but there will never be a replacement for human judgment. The future of Web directories looks very good, and it is the willingness of Web site owners to submit their sites for consideration and inclusion in the directories that is going to be the key that makes it so. When you get right down to it, there is some sense of satisfaction in retaining a bit of human control in this business of data organization and access. The ability to submit your work to the Directory that you chose, and request its inclusion in the category you intended it for provides that needed human touch.