How many of you target certain phrases to attract "searchers"? I'm not talking about the phrases that attract submissions. In the past I had not really thought of optimizing for search engines. I must say that as submissions kept coming through I was ranking naturally for random phrases that I would never think to optimize for. I'm starting a new directory project which you can read about in my blog. I intend to optimize for specific terms to gain as much search traffic as possible. I will update my blog with progress reports and tips. So.. does anyone else have any experience with this method or do you just advertise in the obvious places hoping to get some exposure?
Be aware of overoptimizing. Once Google finds it - all can go to some kind of a sandbox which means no search results on almost all your keyword. - D.
Do you mean over optimizing for the same subjects or just in general? Please explain as I'm still learning. Thanks.
I had a type in my travel page on zorg links (before penalty) I wrote "traval dir" rather than "travel directory". I was on the front page (around #3 or #4 becuase of my amazing strength) and was getting xx visits a day. A few link pointing to that page and i was #1 a few weeks later. Simple things like that help a lot.
I think what he meant by overoptimizing is black hat SEO--keyword spamming, buying backlinks en masse, etc.
Absolutely! SEO is very important to get quality visitors to directories 'cause ultimitaly it's the traffic flow of these visitors that will lead to submissions.
I did optimize my directory for searches like "Find Real Estate in ..." and similar keywords, but I am yet to receive any good traffic. But to answer your question, I am one of those who is trying to capture regular users searching for real estate info... i hate to call myself a search engine, but it seems that my directory will soon become one.
Very true. When starting my first directory I focused more on design and functionality that I didn't really edit the Titles and Descriptions . Now I'm finding myself ranking for a bunch of misspellings . Anyways, my next blog post will cover misspelled words for SEO, the advantages and disadvantages. Thank you for the input. Some owners don't realize that a "web directory" has more uses than just to make a quick dollar. Their main purpose is to attract search traffic.
My directory has big listing (20k links), and the content grow gradually. When i check my stat, i surprise that i get so many visitors from search engine. So i think that to have big listing has its own advantage for SEO purpose. It will broaden the keyword and will attract more visitors, even we never optimize for that keyword. By the way, I also got pr drop to pr2 from pr4 for last pr update. But i'm happy with traffic i have.