Directory Submission

Directories can have a serious impact on the results that you achieve in the crawler-based search engines. Submitting to the directories is a good idea – but they can take a substantial amount of time to list you. So start early!

One of the most important things that you must prepare before submitting yourself to a directory is an objective description of your website. Directories will frown upon any description that seems promotional in nature and will reject your listing. Make sure you prepare an objective, well-written description of your website before you start.

The key directories to list in are:

• Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org/add.html) – Free submission

• Yahoo (http://au.docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/splash.html)
   
  All commercial website submissions to the Yahoo directory attract a fee. This is currently AUD$495 annually. This is expensive and you will need to carefully consider its importance before proceeding. Our recommendation would be to do everything else and if you are still struggling to get good search engine rankings then consider submitting your site to Yahoo.

 
If you are a New Zealand-only business then it may well be worthwhile submitting to a number of New Zealand-based directories:

• NZPages (http://www.nzpages.com) – Free submission

• NZWebsites (http://www.newzealandwebsites.com) – Free submission

• NZSearch (http://www.nzsearch.co.nz/addsite/) – Free submission

• NZS (http://www.nzs.com/cgi-links/add.cgi) – Free submission.

Advanced SEO Techniques

If your search engine optimisation is vitally important, you may want to consider some of these more advanced SEO techniques:

• Theme-Based Sites

   
  This technique involves creating a separate website that focuses on providing information that is related to the product or service you sell. If you are selling meat you could create a site that explains the details behind all the different cuts of meat– where they come from, what their characteristics are, and so on. Theme-based websites generally rank very well in the search engines because they are keyword rich! The theme-based website can then be used to channel visitors through to your main sales site.

• Single Product or Service Sites

   
  Single product or service sites are websites that focus on a single product or service. This allows you to focus on the keywords and phrases that you want to target for that product or service. You can build a separate website for each of your products and then link between each of the websites (thus increasing your link popularity). This sort of approach can also have benefits for your sales copy, in that it enables you to write copy that is completely focused on the product that you are trying to sell.
   
  Single product or service sites can work well when you have between one and ten major products.

Professional SEO

In this section we have covered the fundamentals of SEO, which is an extremely dynamic and forever changing ‘science’. There are numerous sub-topics that we could have covered in this section– but SEO is a topic that could fill books.

If SEO is a crucial element of your website promotion strategy then you should seriously consider getting some help from a professional SEO company. SEO companies specialise in this area and are current with everything that is happening in the search engine world.

Talk to your E-Business Consultant or the Support Team if SEO is a crucial part of your website marketing strategy. Your consultant will be able to take you through the different professional SEO packages available.