Hi, I've recently embarked on the epic directory-sign-up that everyone seems to do at some point - back links will be next thing on my list - the question I have is how long will it be before I start seeing results? I'm aiming at directories that are relevant to my line of work, so I'm hoping that this will bump me up the ratings slightly. Thanks
Well, I'd say that as soon as you finish wasting your time with directories, and you focus more on to SEO efforts that actually provide some benefit, then you will begin to show some results shortly afterwards. Really, I'd only go out of my way to join DMOZ and Yahoo. The rest just aren't worth it anymore. Ok, that's probably a bit harsh, but honestly, the link juice that directories pass back to you is very heavily discounted now, to the point where it's not worth the trouble. You may as well waste your time on the equally useless angela's links. What you really want is backlinks from high quality, very related sites with good PR. If you really want to use your time wisely and effectively, you need to get out into the discussion about your topic. Find blogpost articles and forums that are discussing your topic, and join in the discussion. Become and authority in your field, and start to leave your link here and there, where appropriate, within useful posts that contribute to the discussion. Join social bookmarking communities and befriend lots of people that are interested in your topic. Then write unique, useful content on your site and bookmark it at the social bookmarking sites you joined. Directories will get you nowhere fast.
Wow! Thanks for the bucket of cold, hard reality there... Honestly, I wish I'd read this a week ago. I thought that the directory thing was like SEO puberty - i.e. it's something everyone has to go through in order to be an adult?!?! Clearly not! With regards to forums, that's not a problem, the website is a brochure for my work (translation), and there are plenty of high quality forums on which I can post and advertise my site. I read somewhere that it can take up to 6 months for results to be seen by using whitehat practices, is this about right? (this does not mean that I'm going to try blackhat techniques!) If so, how do you go about short term SEO goals? This is all still very new to me, and it seems like there's conflicting ideas all over the place (Meta tags are good/meta tags are not good etc.), so I'm just trying to get a time frame together, so that I can judge my work thus far. Thanks for the help!
First, I'd start with key phrase analysis and selection. Look for key phrases that have good volume but lesser competition. Use the google adwords tool to help you there. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Come up with about 2 good key phrases for each static page of your site. Next, spend some serious time in on page optimization. I like to use WebCEO. I know it's had some bad press lately, but I still like to use the page critic for on page optimization of key phrases in google. Follow their advice, especially what they say about hour header, and meta titles. You can get WebCeo free for a 30 day free trial. Once you've done your on page optimization, you can throw it out. Then, it's time to do some blog commenting on forum posting. It won't take long for results to show up at that point. Remember, you're looking for backlinks from high quality, very relevant sites with good PR. Get a couple dozen of those and you should see results in a week or two. One last thing to remember. Link development and SEO is an ongoing process. you need to set aside 30 minutes per day to work on your links.....forever. not just a week or two, not just a month or two, not even just a year or two. For as long as you want to compete in yoru niche.
Again, thanks for the information. I downloaded WebCEO a couple of days ago, but I've not had a chance to play around with it properly yet (I've not loaded up meta descriptions or keywords, as I'm currently taking notes on my competitors). As far as I can tell the Free version, is free forever - or am I just being naive? The forum thing (as well as any blog posts I can make) will be done on a daily basis, no problems there. Right then, I've got some work to be getting on with! Thanks again...
Article Directories work nicely too...this one offers revenue sharing for the authors. http://hawgzilla.net