There are a variety of ways that you can promote your website these days. Three of the current favorites are link exchanges, article submissions and traffic exchanges. If you own a web site or a blog perhaps you are trying some of these methods or perhaps the whole idea of promoting your website this way has not yet occurred to you. There is another option available, Manual or semi-automated directory submissions.

What does it mean to make directory submissions? The concept of directory submissions is submitting your website or your blog to a particular directory. Similar to having your phone number listed in the yellow pages, only this is a computerized version of the yellow pages on a much bigger but more defined scale. You post your website or your blog in a web directory for ease of location of your website by your customers.

So basically a web directory is just like your phone book but it contains links to different websites rather than a list of phone numbers. Just like with your yellow pages the web directories put their information into different categories and sub-categories for ease of location of required information. When you make a directory submission you need to put your details into the most appropriate category, and sub-category, of the directory. So you place your listing in the most suitable category so you customers can find you more easily.

A website directory will check the content of your website before it will list it in the directory and when you are listed most of the websites will supply your website with a link back from the website directory. So your customers will find your business within the directory and then they will be able to click on the link directly back to your website.

There are a few ways to make directory submissions, you can complete the process yourself or you can use an automatic system. The two names are very basic being Manual Directory Submissions, completed manually by a person, Automated or Semi-Automated Directory Submissions, made with the use of software. Manual submissions generally are a longer process requiring more time and effort but often offer you a more beneficial result.

A lot of online business owners will however use the semi-automated directory submission services of specialized businesses for a jump start to their directory submissions. Both formats will provide links back to your website however as a rule manual directory submissions provide the highest benefit factor to your website. When making directory submissions it is very important to try to locate high ranking directories themselves to submit to, these offer you the best SEO result for your time and efforts.

So you are trying to obtain links back to your website. What does that mean exactly? Well links back are basically a link on any given website which then points or directs the customer back to your website. The big search engine companies, like Google, count the total amount of links back that you have to your website in order to consider your rating. The more links back that you have the higher your website will appear on a search engine result page.

Making back links is a very slow process but should be undertaken at that pace. If you try to make too many back links at one time the big search engines will realize what you are up to and may actually block you from being in their search engines at all. You can however improve the growth in your website relatively easily over a period of a few months using a correct link building strategy.

Making directory submissions is not a difficult task but it does require some time and thought before proceeding. When you submit to a website make sure that the website is relevant to your business. These are the most important directories to ensure you are listed in. If you list in irrelevant directories, often your listing is not accepted or the people who are searching that directory are not likely to require your services or products. Irrelevant links can still provide you some SEO but relevant directories are far more beneficial.

Directories will generally require that you provide them with anchor text and it is important to try to use different anchor text for each of the directories that you submit to. There are rules requiring how to submit to directories and you need to make sure that you are following these rules otherwise you may find that you are rejected with your submission, but worse than that rejected from being listed in that directory at all. If the directory is directly relevant to your business and you are rejected this can have a big impact on your overall customer flow.

Many people do not have the time to submit to directories themselves and will seek the assistance of SEO companies who specialize in directory submissions, as well as usually a variety of other SEO services. Most of these SEO firms offer directory submission services at low cost, whether they are manual submissions or semi-automated submissions. If you are serious about improving your business and feel you perhaps do not have the time or the expertise to be successful with directory submissions then you should definitely look further into the options the professionals have to offer. You will probably be surprised at the low cost and high benefit you can receive by creating directory submissions for your business.