Hey guys, I am currently working on my online business directory, listing local businesses. I would like to rank for the term business directory, and I believe with enough work i can do it. My budget for link purchasing is $500. I am not sure if I should try out directory submission service (100 submissions for $10 or something), but could this do more harm than good? I believe Google doesn't look so highly upon mass submission at one go. So I am open to link buying suggestions. I am also thinking of somehow contacting companies about the business directory and recommending them to suggest their site. Are there any tools I can use for this? Any other backlink strategies would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Roflux
Why don't you work on ranking the directory categories for relevant terms? That way local businesses will have a reason to be listed in the directory category.
For tough market only SEO technique is time. You have to work on your directory every day, do some link exchanges, submit to free directories. If you just buy links for 500$ you won't get good SERP. And as cianuro said, it is better to get traffic to categories - it gives you more value to your directory.
Exactly. Don't focus your energy and time to only get good Serps for one keyword. you should focus on improving all areas of your site ( categories ) so you can get good rankings for all of them.
I will be making as many On Page optimisations as possible. Why would $500 of links not give me good SERP? In the past i have submitted my own pages to a variety of descent directories with good anchor text and it helped me in SERP alot. Thanks.
I didn't write it won't help you with SERP, but if you just go to TLA and buy 25 links for 20$ each you won't show on first page for business directory. Try to combinate link exchanges, directory links and buying links. Buy only parmanent and year links.
Don't focus on optimizing for the term "Business directory" if you're only showing local businesses. 99% of your visitors will bounce as soon as they realize it's not a directory related to them at all. Instead, focus on long tail keywords for your category pages that use the geographic area as part of the phrase (for example "Boston restaurants" or "Phoenix Laundromats" or "Topeka Computer Repair"). Those keywords are far easier to get ranked highly in the SERPs.
Take my advise, dont do keyword stuffing with getting same anchor text for each of your main website. Its better to reshuffle them with different keywords anchor text while collecting backlinks. Google now, understand which person is fooling them and which one is not. SEO is now, all about making them look, you arent fooling them. And then ranking!
First target those keywords which have less competition, and once you start getting some traffic from those keyword. start working on very competitive keyword. this will help you to maintain ranking for long time.
It's probably going to happen with the usual $500 in link purchases. For a decent term like business directory $500 is quite small. However, if you can come up with a mindblowing breakthrough idea, revolution, etc you can spend $100 on a Press Release and retire...maybe. Not a bad idea. Of course, most people who buy business directory links have no idea what's going on in webmaster land. In my younger days, I dumped $13,000 into "payday loan" and failed miserably. I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but spending $500 on SEO is about like spending $500 on a car. Does that make sense? In "business directory" land, I'm sure someone has spent $50-100k on SEO for the term. If not, I'm going after it! Brandon
I agree with Brandon, Business directory is really tough keyword to target. You should actually try to target some keywords that have low competition.
You could use that much money for ad campaign and promotion of your site through good SEO. Just for an alert, you might be knowing that Google is very strict these days for buying links, they are penalizing sites which they found buying or selling links.
direcotry submission service is fine. just do it slowly submit (like 20-30/day)and use variety of title and descriptions.
Yeah. there's a buzz regarding buying paid links that search engines might penalize a site that purchased a link. Well i think you need to focus on promoting your site since there's a lot of competition in your field...
The keyword "Business Directory" is not only highly competitive but also too ambiguous. I agree with most and advise you to try to choose a more focused keyword. If you chose something like "Dallas Business Directory" then you would have an opportunity. A $500 budget is also a bit small but the amount you need is really dependent on the competition of the keyword. Good luck.