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Infertility Home > Professionals
> Business
Mgt. > Web Site > Promotion
Promoting Your Web Site in
General Directories
In addition to search engine web page listings, another way that information
is organized on the Internet is via Web directory listings. Web directories are now growing in importance. If you wish to maximize your
Web site promotion, then you should promote your Web site in directories, in
addition to search engines. The major directories, described below, include:
- Go (formerly Infoseek)
- Looksmart
- NBCi (formerly Snap)
- Open Directory
- Yahoo
This Web page covers the following topics:
Here are the steps to get listed in a directory:
- Carefully select two to four important search phrases or keywords on your
site.
- Write three descriptions of 15, 20, and 30 words, which include your
keywords.
- Select a directory category for your submission.
- Submit your site to that category. Typically, there is a link called "submit a site" at the
bottom of the directory web pages.
- Directory editors will review your description and site. They can alter
your description and change the category.
Go
Go lists sites primarily in two ways. It has a directory, where human
editors have organized sites into categories. It also has a search engine
component.
Looksmart provides some or all of the directories for the following Web
sites, so it's important to be included in the Looksmart directory:
- Alta Vista
- CNN
- Excite
- Iwon
- MSN Search
- and over 370 ISP's
NBCi (formerly Snap)
NBCi is a directory of web sites, not a search engine. Unlike Yahoo, the grouping of matching web sites is not done by the frequency of words in the titles and descriptions. Instead, sites are given a quality rating by editors.
Open Directory
Open
Directory handles the handles the directory searches for:
- AOL Search
- AltaVista
- HotBot
- Google
- Lycos
- Netscape Search
- lots of smaller sites
Therefore it is very important to obtain a good listing from Open Directory. Many Open Directory infertility sites are inside this directory:
http://dmoz.org/Health/Reproductive_Health/Infertility/Clinics_and_Services/...
Yahoo
Yahoo is the most important Web
directory. If you do nothing else, make sure that you register your
site with Yahoo. Yahoo was the first complete Web directory and
now many search engines are adding Web directories. Because Yahoo is so
important, IHR has created a special page Submitting
Your Site to Yahoo, which explains how to submit your site and provides
tips.
Submitting to a Web directory is different from submitting to a search
engine. Here are some key differences:
Search Engine |
Web Directory |
Typically only submit a Web address (i.e., URL) |
Typically submit a Web address, site description, and a
category |
Not reviewed by humans |
Typically reviewed by humans |
High ranking depends on factors such as link popularity and
Web page keywords |
Keyword tags are ignored. You will need to have good site
content to ensure good placement |
Some people used various techniques (e.g., keyword spamming)
to fool the automated search engines. |
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to fool the human
editors. |
- It is very hard to update your directory description, so it is important
to get it right the first time.
- Sometimes it's possible to get multiple listings in a directory, so try to
get this, if you can.
- Add educational Web pages to your Web site (e.g., Frequently Asked
Questions, explanations of procedures, etc.) Thus, the more educational
pages you have on your Web site, the more likely that the directory editor
will want to add that page to its directory. The more substantial content,
the greater the chance of more listings.
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