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.

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.

A client of ours, Atlanta Car Accident Attorney James Murphy are wondering why they’re not ranking as well for their blog posts as they are for their practice area pages. From her e-mail:
 
Type “school bus accident dublin ga” in the Google search bar.  We should be the 5th result or so.  When clicking on the link, however, our car accident practice area page appears….

(then) type “parking deck Sandy Springs” in Google.  We should be the first result, and Google sends visitors to the correct blog (post).

At Foster Web Marketing, clients in similar practice areas who are not in the same area (and don’t compete) link to and from each other. But the pages that they link to are the practice area pages and home page, resulting in more inbound links and higher “link juice” of the practice area pages than of the other pages.

That being said, the practice area pages ranking higher than the blog post pages are not uncommon, and goes to show the power of building links to individual pages (ESPECIALLY blog posts).

So then you ask, why does a blog post rank for the second keyword phrase, but not the first? The answer: competitiveness.

Who are people going to blog/talk about or report more, a school bus accident in Georgia that sends 29 kids to the hospital, or a parking deck collapsing (which, from what I can find, resulted in no injuries). While there’s no clear-cut answer, it would appear that the school bus crashing resulting in injuries is the more competitive topic/keyword phrase, because there is simply more more authoritative sources out there covering the story.

Proof: type in “school bus accident dublin” and you’ll see that there are triple the amount of search results, and more news stories out there than the second keyword phrase about the parking deck.

So, how do you overcome this?

Build links to the actual blog post. The search results above you are ranking because they have built more authority, meaning that particular page has built more links (both off-site as well as internal linking on-site…. if a news website has 100,000 pages, with a link on every page to this particular blog post, while the quality of those inbound links might not be that great… guess what… that’s a lot of links) than your blog post.

Taking the time to create the content of your blog post is only the first step… promoting and building links to it is a whole new level.

Check out the first post of this blog, ways to promote your attorney blog, and coming tomorrow: ways to promote and build links to individual blog posts.

George Murphy of Foster Web Marketing recently asked Josh King, Vice President of the fast-growing legal directory Avvo, a few questions about the site after it is heading into its third year online. Here is what he had to say:

So just give us some feedback on Avvo and a few of it’s selling points.

Avvo helps guide consumers in handling their legal matters with confidence and choosing the right lawyer.  For lawyers, Avvo offers a free web presence where attorneys can add highlight their practice and stand apart online.  Attorneys can also answer legal questions posted on the site by consumers, and use Avvo’s self-publishing tool to create legal guides in their areas of law.

All of these activities help create a depth of profile that makes it easier for buyers of legal services to make the decision to hire a lawyer.  Avvo is not only highly trafficked, but is also highly search-engine-optimized.  This is particularly valuable when a potential client is looking an attorney up by name. Another very popular feature of out site is the Avvo Rating, which is our assessment (based on an algorithm we run on every lawyer profile) of the likelihood an attorney will be able to help a consumer with their legal problem.

Sounds like way more than a directory site. What kind of success stories have you been hearing from attorneys using Avvo?

We’ve heard from many attorneys who tell us they receive numerous clients through Avvo.  One WA firm told us that earlier this year, one-third of their new clients were from Avvo, and another told us they were acquiring two clients per month. Not bad for a free website.

Not bad at all. What kind of growth have you experienced since launching last June?

We’ve grown over 400% in 2008.We also cover more than 1 million attorneys, making us the largest legal “directory” in the U.S.

Impressive. What does the future hold for Avvo?

Very soon, attorneys will be able to advertise on Avvo, much as Google features sponsored listings along with search results. We’ll also expand coverage into the states in which we currently don’t have lawyer profiles.

We’ve spoken about this before, but with Avvo.com having a web 2.0, almost social-media type of feel to it, what are your thoughts are on social media for attorneys? Especially Twitter?

I think Twitter is a terrific way to network and expand readership of attorney blogs, when used properly.  However, attorneys will need to find the right balance between not letting Twitter be a time sink and not posting once and going away. 

Amen to that. Thanks to Josh for his feedback, and for any attorney out there who is looking to expand their online reach, go claim your Avvo profile (everything is pulled from State Bar records, so not anyone can register as an attorney on the site. Very cool!).

Coming tomorrow: Twitter For Attorneys, in Video.