Many have said that submitting your website or blog to directories is no longer an effective way to build links and improve your website’s search engine rankings, but this isn’t entirely the case. Yes, not only are (some) directories still good for SEO and link juice, but listing your website and local business information on directory sites can also increase your Google Local/Google maps rankings as well as Google Local pulls from many trusted directory sites when verifying that your information is correct.

So now you need to know what directories to submit to and what rules to follow. Here are 5 tips that you should follow when listing your site or blog on a directory.

1. Is it a niche/legal directory?

You don’t want to submit your website to a directory that is too general or has nothing to do with law because this can actually negatively affect your rankings. The quality of you inbound links is very important, and the last thing that you want is a bunch of links coming in from non-legal-related sites.

One directory that we can show as an example (there are plenty out there but this is just one that we prefer for a number of reasons which we’ll explain below) is Local-Attorneys.com. This is a directory site that specializes in ONLY lawyer listings.

You can also look for niche directories that are location-based, meaning they only list businesses in your city or state. These can be good for improving your location-based search engine rankings and some of them are also good for traffic as a lot of quality directories that are location-specific get a pretty good amount of visits.

2. How does the directory rank?

How the directory is structured is also very important to look at. You want to make sure that any directories that you submit to have SEO-friendly URL’s for your listing (meaning that some of your keywords are actually included in the URL of your listing), some sort of content on the directory site and not just a bunch of links, and a decent Google Pagerank.

Again, we like to use local-attorneys.com as an example because they have all of these things and also rank on page 1 for terms like “local attorneys”, “find local attorneys”, etc. Try to see if the directory you’re listing on ranks for any of your local searches (also, conduct these searches to see what directories DO come up and submit your website or blog to those as well).

This is important for rankings because a) the higher the quality and rank of the directory, the more “link juice” that you’ll receive by being listed, and b) a quality directory is a lot more likely to get more visits which should direct some traffic to your website.

Remember, a directory can help you in two ways: it can help improve your inbound “link juice” which will dramatically improve your Google and other search engine rankings, and some directories can also get your website more traffic.

3. It’s a paid directory, is it worth it?

Clients e-mail us all of the time asking if they should be listed on a paid directory and if it’s worth the submission fees.

Yes, there are plenty of free directories out there that are effective, but a quality paid directory can help you earn a return on investment as long as you know what you’re looking for.

(And, by the way, if you’re using any types of software or web-based programs to submit your website or blog to multiple free directories at once, you’re shooting yourself in the foot).

We’ve seen listing fees range anywhere from $50 all the way to $1000. So, our tip: find some quality directories with lower listing fees ($50-100 is usually pretty reasonable) and submit to a few of them to start off with.

You can monitor Google Analytics to see if any of these paid directories have referred traffic to your website, but just remember that there is return on investment that you won’t be able to see and that is the link juice that this directory is providing your website and helping it rank better on the search engines.

4. Be sure to use effective effective submission methods

What do we mean by “effective submission methods”?

Don’t use the same description for every directory. Be sure to change the wording and included keywords around and, if possible, try to link to interior pages of your website for appropriate keywords/practice areas.

In other words, if you’re submitting your site or blog to directories trying to build your “link juice” up for an auto accident keyword, don’t always link back to the home page itself. Your website should have a page dedicated to each of your areas of practice, and the more inbound links that you have going to these types of interior pages, the better.

Also, to save time, instead of typing or copying and pasting all of the generic information like address, phone number, e-mail, etc., download and use a Firefox plug-in called Informenter. This will save you a LOT of time, trust me.

5. Always try to be as detailed as possible

Listing a website or blog on multiple directories in one sitting can become very tiring and repetitive, but you’d be surprised how much adding little details like a company logo or hours of operation can actually make a difference. Try to take the time to fill out AS MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS AS POSSIBLE. Add as much content to every directory submission as you can and make sure that you’re maximizing the listing on that directory. Sure, it may take a few extra minutes, but it’s better to do it then and to do it right than to have to go back and do it again.

Here are the top three Web Marketing stories of the Summer of 2009:

3. Bing emerges as a major player in the search engine game (or do they?)

Earlier this year, if you mentioned a Microsoft search engine as having the potential to overtake Google or Yahoo! you’d likely have been laughed out of the room. However, ever since Microsoft unveiled their newly-branded search engine, Bing, in May of 2009, the new search engine has been taking the search engine market by storm.

However, the question remains: Does Bing have staying power? Does it really offer search engine results and features that will convince users to make the switch from Google, or is it all just hype generated by Microsoft?

Bing does offer Cashback, a service where they’ve partnered with some of the top online retailers to offer shoppers certain percentages of cash back in exchange for shopping and purchasing on their websites. This has become extremely popular in a less-than-thriving economy where everyone is looking to save a buck. But other than the Cashback feature and claims by independent researchers who claim that study proves that users prefer Bing’s results more than Google’s, it seems as if it’s too early to dub the search engine as a major threat to Google’s steadily-growing success.

However, a certain deal that was worked out of the summer may be enough to take them to the next level:

2. Bing and Yahoo Join Forces

On July 29th 2009, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced a deal that would see Bing power Yahoo! search results.

In June 2009, according to Wikipedia and Complete.com, the search engine market-share was as follows:

Google- 74%

Yahoo!- 17%

Bing- 7%

Yahoo! and Bing’s decision to combine forces and allow Bing to take over Yahoo!’s search engine results may be big news to some, but again, it is still to early to say that Google should be looking in their rear-view mirrors.

Organically, from our research, over 85% of our clients’ traffic (200+ attorneys from all over the country) comes from Google organic search. Bing has been slowly rising the ranks of sources of traffic for our clients (right now it is top 10 for most clients), and is something to keep an eye on, but we still advise our clients that Google is still the top search engine for the foreseeable future.

On the Pay-per-click side, yes, Bing’s paid search has increased over the summer, but it would still be safe to say that Google’s Adwords is  the preferred pay-per-click advertising resource across the board.

So, the conclusion: Bing and Yahoo are trying to catch up and have made up some ground over the summer, but let’s wait and see what develops over the next few months.

So, you would think that Google is just sitting on their hands and waiting to see if the others catch up, right?

Wrong.

1. Google’s response to Bing and real-time search with Google Caffeine

Google seems to have responded to the hype surrounding Bing and the emergence of real-time search with the announcement of Google caffeine, Google’s new search engine.

The news shook up the search engine and web marketing world and has caused many webmasters and search engine marketing professionals to wonder if they’ll need to change their ways to optimize their websites for Google’s new algorithm.

Google’s announcement stated that the new search engine is “the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”

But does this mean that they’ll start to value certain optimization factors more than others now? Should everyone freak out and start figuring out how to get ready for Google’s new search engine (which is still in Beta phases and has yet to be implemented into their main search engine)?

Probably not, but here’s what we can tell you:

If you don’t have a way to add content to your website, and if you’re not adding content on a regular (daily/bi-daily) basis, you’re going to have a hard time catching up when Google Caffeine becomes the norm.

Searchenginewatch.com conducted a case study comparing search engine results between the old Google algorithm and the new Google Caffeine algorithm.

The conclusion? Google was, indeed, correct in their announcement that pages will be indexed faster. No more waiting a few weeks to break out of the Google sandbox, and no more hoping that visitors use the Google Blogsearch to find your blog posts. Trusted and high-authority websites with fresh and relative content might even begin appearing in search engine results the same day as the content is published if Google Caffeine accomplishes what Google hopes it will.

This new Google search feature gives them a leg-up on Bing and Yahoo!, and also allows Google to battle Facebook and Twitter in the real-time search competition. Before, Twitter (and, later, Facebook) could convince users that those looking for real-time search results should sue their sites vs traditional search engines because of SE’s long indexing times.

Attorneys and law firms with content management systems that allow attorneys, bloggers and writers employed by the law firm, and other website/blog contributors to log in and post content within the matter of minutes will definitely have the upper hand with Google caffeine and other real-time search engines emerging as preferred search engines.

Our recommendation? If you have a good writer, keep them and give them a raise. If you don’t? Find one and hold on to them, you’ll need them.

Content is king, and this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

There is our recap of the Top 5 Web Marketing News Stories of the Summer. Here are some questions that we hope will be answered by 2010:

• Will Bing actually continue to grow, or fade away after the hype settles?
• Will Twitter users continue to maintain their profiles, or will spammers scare everyone away?
• Who will emerge as the next big thing in social media/social networking?
• How will Google decide what sites are displayed in real-time search engine results?

We welcome your predictions, feel free to post a comment with what you think the answers to any of these questions will be.

Twitter launched a new version of their web page today, and the new design is eerily similar to that of a search engine. They announced the new design on their blog this morning, and the reason that they gave for the redesign:

Helping people access Twitter in more relevant and useful ways upon first introduction lowers the barrier to accessing the value Twitter has to offer and presents the service more consistently with how it has evolved.

We’ve envisioned Twitter as a major player in the search engine world for a while now, and it looks like this may be the first step.

Twitter has one thing that Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and other search engines don’t: Real-time search capabilities.

How long does it take traditional search engines to index a page of a website? Days, weeks, and sometimes months. Sure, you could use Google Blog Search, Google Trends, or Google News search for certain up-to-date information, but how about a Twitter search for what everyone thinks about the newest Harry Potter movie as opposed to going through 20 different review sites and blogs?

Just today I was looking for the score to a pre-season soccer game that was overseas, but no major news site had the score until an hour after it ended. How did I find the score before them? A Twitter search.

Ticketmaster codes for special concerts?

Low-carb Recipes?

WordPress plugins?

Tweeting is easier than blogging (logging in to your Twitter account and typing 140 words or less vs. logging into WordPress or blogger, typing content, adding pictures, links, and tags, spellchecking, etc…. ), and the fact that you can Tweet on most smart phones means that Twitter will continue to grow in contributors and content that a Twitter search can “crawl”.

Yes, Twitter is also good for promoting blog and website content if you have enough followers, but for those who don’t have the time or resources to manage a blog full-time, Twitter is a great alternative (hence why it’s called a “Microblogging” service).

When you’re Tweeting, be sure to include keywords that people may be searching for from time to time, similar to how you optimize your website and content for SEO purposes. Include generic keywords relative to your practice areas, as well as location-based keywords, and utilize the “hashtags” (#) for any keywords that are commonly used in the Twitterverse.

Twitter is at an all-time high in popularity, with every celebrity and news outlet signing up as each day passes. Whether or not it will stick around and continue to rise in popularity will remain to be seen, but seeing as creating a Twitter profile is free and it doesn’t take much time to manage, what do you have to lose?

Twitter currently serves as a social networking tool, a content marketing tool, and an rss reader to some extent. Twitter as a major search engine? It might be sooner than we think.

You’re probably hearing more and more about Twitter as the days go by, either on television when they announce the newest celebrity who is “tweeting”, or from your friends and colleagues who already seem to be up on the Twitter lingo.

Well, just because you’re left scratching your head whenever they bring up words like “tweet” and start talking about their “followers” (I thought it was some sort of e-cult or something at first) doesn’t mean that it’s too late for you to join the Twitter revolution.

Tom Foster and George Murphy of Foster Web Marketing just wrote a new free report, “Twitter for Attorneys”, which you can download here.

The report covers a number of topics ranging from how to sign up for an account, what your profile should and shouldn’t include, basic Twitter etiquette, and how you can use this social media powerhouse to improve both your online networking efforts which can lead to referrals, and your lead generation efforts through creative Twitter marketing.

Just because you are new to Twitter or don’t know anything about it yet doesn’t mean that you have to be scared or hesitant to sign up. This report will help you understand what you need to do to catch up with all of the other attorneys already Tweeting and gaining more and more followers as the days go by, so take a few seconds to download it and let us know what you think!

We can show you a number of Foster Web Marketing clients whose traffic and leads have dramatically increased over the past few months because of these standard practices: proper web development (adding content on a DAILY basis) and basic search engine optimization techniques.

But when it comes to the point where your site and every site competing with yours have been optimized online, when they all have thousands of pages of content and features such as blogs and library articles included on their site, how do search engines decide whose site has the more authority and should rank better?

That’s easy, the amount of inbound links it has. The blog post I made a few weeks ago about a FWM client trying to figure out why he or she was being outranked for a specific keyword search is a pretty good case study to prove that building links is VERY IMPORTANT.

So, back to basics. It’s not enough to just write content. You, as an attorney or webmaster, always have to keep that thought in the back of your head: is this a link opportunity?

Google ranks sites and pages with more inbound links to them based on the fact that, if this is useful and informative content, than more people will be linking to it and sharing it.

But does this always come into play as attorneys? You have to remember that the area where you practice is geographically limited (or it SHOULD be! I can’t stress the importance of marketing yourself to one niche market as opposed to trying to conquer the world and rank for the entire east coast with only one website) so the chances of sites and blogs linking to you are as small as the size of your target audience.

You could always take the “link baiting” approach and come up with a story that will bring in readers from around the country or world. But, even though we always stress the importance of increasing your exposure online and that everyone, no matter where or who they are, is a potential client because of referrals and social networking, this usually results in a high bounce rate and a very low ROI.

Sometimes you have to take a more pro-active approach to link building. Some of these were mentioned in our ways to build links as attorneys and should be used regularly, but when it really comes down to it: link building is like everything else, the more personal and grassroots ways you use, the better.

Here are 10 basic and usually overlooked linkbuilding techniques you can use:

1. Posting on Craigslist. Sometimes it’s good for leads, but it also counts as a link. Don’t stress over the fact that the link is “nofollow”, look at your Google Analytics traffic report and see how many visits Craigslist resulted in next time you post. TIP: sometimes the services section postings get flagged or get lost in spam postings, so be creative with it.
2. Register with your local Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce if you’re not already. This almost always leads to a link or two.
3. We’ve mentioned this before, but take a few minutes out of your day to answer questions on Yahoo! Answers , Fluther,  and any law-related message boards you can think of like Injuryboard. Dropping a link back to your site on these kinds of sites, as long as you ADD VALUE TO THE CONVERSATION and answer the question can result in pretty good traffic.
4. Build relationships with local bloggers.
5. You SHOULD, by now, realize that you need to be active on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But do you have a link to your website or blog on there? No? (smack forehead)
6. You have a blog… is it linking to your website? Is your website linking to your blog? TIP: utilize site-wide footers as well.
7. Sometimes you have to look in the mirror. Is your own site or blog linking internally to other pages? Are you taking the time, when writing a blog post, to link to other blog posts and web pages? These count as links as well. ALWAYS think about how you can link internally, it’s very important.
8. Google local searches. Know those maps and local business results you see for certain searches in your area? You should be concerned about not being ranked number one. Obtaining a number one rank for these isn’t something I’m going to share quite yet.
9. Look for linking opportunities from local government and law-related websites.
10. Create a Squidoo page.
11. Okay I lied, there are 11. ALWAYS DEEP-LINK AND USE DIFFERENT ANCHOR TEXT. You don’t want everything going back to the homepages and you don’t want search engine spiders seeing the same anchor text when crawling for inbound links. Switch it up, you’re constantly adding content to your site for a reason, use those other pages!