Search Optimization School

One of the greatest ways to build authority links is by doing article marketing, and submitting to article directories. Of all the articles directories online – the one with the greatest authority, and highest popularity is by far Ezine Articles. They have a challenge going on right now (with prizes) to write 100 articles in 100 days (HAHD). A LOT of people have already signed up, and I did last night committing to follow through with 100 of my own articles. I just submitted my first two today – only 98 to go! I’ll keep you posted on my progress. You can read about it more in my HAHD Challenge post.

When you’re building backlinks – sometimes people forget that directory submissions are pretty much the best kind you can get! As they age they get even more valuable as the pageranks rise, and despite the fact that the higher pagerank directories charge a pretty penny for listings – you can still get listed for free in all kinds of free directories, many of which only require a reciprocal link back. Blog commenting is something you have to do constantly, but with a directory you only have to submit your site one time to get in!

Here’s 5 free directories to get you started:

Surf Safely: Pagerank 4 directory accepting free submissions, but you must have a PICS label and family safe.

Flookie: Pagerank 5 directory accepting free submissions, very easy to submit to.

Resource Help: Pagerank 5 directory accepting free submissions for reciprocal link back.

Zoomdir: Pagerank 5 directory accepting free submissions, but if you do reciprocal link you’ll get listed in just days (vs. months with no link back).

Zico Sur: Pagerank 5 directory accepting free submissions, very easy submit.

If you want to know even more about directory submission (including where to find 500+ high pagerank directories), read my more in depth post High Pagerank Directories for Quality Backlinks.

Commenting on other blogs is one of the best sources of traffic you can find and even better way to build backlinks. But how do you know that your time is being rewarded? You certainly don’t want to spend hours and hours leaving comments that are link dust in the wind do you? Here’s an example – let’s say that you are promoting your own business by leaving business cards on bulletin boards and check out counters. Would you waste your time leaving them in places where nobody would see them? Would you leave them in business that get virtually no customers at all? Of course not. You would leave them in the places that would do you the most good, big stores with with lots of customers.

So, due the same due diligence when leaving comments. First of all know what links are all about. Know that there is the normal way to (html) code them, and then there is the “nofollow” way. The “nofollow” tag added to an HTML hyperlink means that you link to something and tell the search engines to “ignore it”. So if you comment on a blog using “nofollow” tags the search engines will ignore the link above you comment. There is a “dofollow” movement, and dofollow WordPress plugins you can use to remove the nofollow tag blog-wide. All you have to do is search google for “dofollow blogs” to find seemingly endless lists of blogs that you can comment on that are more beneficial than others. The only thing I can think of better is to look for lists of dofollow blogs that have decent google pageranks. You could go a step beyond that and look for Alexa rankings under 100K too, but I think that a list of dofollow blogs with decent pagerank is a good start.

Do you have decent dofollow lists that you use? Comment below now……