Build a Name for Your Website with a Website Directory

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

Jay Gaulard writes for a wide selection of on various topics. He is a veteran of the internet and has come to be respected in his many areas of expertise. This article was written on behalf of , a popular website directory.

Build a Name for Your with a Directory

You’ve built a brand new for your and you’re really excited. However, you have to do something to get the word out and you’re not sure what to do. You know that you can post flyers all over your town or simply tell your friends, but that’s not going to do much for you. So what are you going to do?

Well, you’re going to start with a website directory. The directory is an effective way to combat the always changing of and to really get an edge on the competition. Basically, you need to do all that you can to ensure that you are marketing your site correctly and a directory is going to help you do that. You’re going to be able to battle some of the hardships of Internet marketing is you use a directory to get the word out.

Using the directory

Another thing that is special about submitting your to a directory is that you get a free back to your . The back is very important because the more links you have on the web, the better off your site is. This means it is going to be indexed by spiders.

You see, spiders follow these links to your site and then they index your site. The more links you have out there, the more your site is going to be indexed. This means that you’ll show up higher in the results when someone searches for what it is you are offering your customers and potential customers.

As for how the directory works, it is a place in which the are compiled into categories. They are also divided up into to make searching easier. Because these categories are divided up into , the spiders recognize them. Needless to say, these are visited by spiders more than many other sites. This is because of the quality of the back links. The back links are of a high quality at these sites, which is why you need to utilize a directory.

Choosing the right directory

Choosing the right directory doesn’t have to be difficult. There are some things that you have to look for in order to make that determination. Those things are:

To pay or not to pay - There are pay and there are free . Determine which is best for you. Free still provide you with that back . It is true there will be a lot more sites posted there, but they are effective.

Check the page rank - Check the page rank of the directory. That way, you know that it is a popular site. You can also check into sites to see how they are growing. If a site is growing, then that is a sign that it is a popular directory that is emerging. You definitely want to get in on that.

Look at both general and specific - You want to do this because both can be effective. You can post on a specific directory and post on a general directory. This will broaden the exposure that your site gets.

You don’t have to be restricted to just one directory. You can use all sorts of . This is important in getting those high quality back links that will make your site successful. There is not a rule anywhere that says you’re only allowed to post your to a single directory. If there were, then it would be impossible for a lot of sites to be successful on the Internet.

Submission options

You also have submission options. These options are manual, using submission software, and using a directory submission service. The directory submission service may use software or do it manually. However, there are article out there that will not accept from software. They want to ensure that real people are doing the posting. Many of these have real people approving the , so it is hard if they have to approve thousands of submitted by these software programs. It happens, but it is a good idea to do it manually. If you don’t have time to do it yourself, look into the directory submission service.

How to maximize the benefits

It isn’t enough to simply post your up on a directory. There are ways in which you can maximize the benefits. It will be worth your while to follow these tips so that you can make sure that you profit from your efforts:

If you’re submitting to more than one directory, you need to vary your description. Don’t use the same description for every directory.

Make sure the text that accompanies your is really good stuff. That means you want it to draw people in. You want them to click on your . Believe it or not, people browse , especially if they’re looking for a that focuses on certain material.

Make as many as possible to . Make sure they are that you can track back easily. Make sure they are easy to manage as well. You don’t want to go for that are hard to follow.

Make sure that you choose that will also allow you to submit the links to your inner pages. This allows for better indexing and will also allow more people to find you.

After this, you might as well give your a pair of running shoes. This is because it is going to take off like wildfire. It is going to run like the wind. It is important that you be prepared, because the moment you start submitting your site is the moment that it enters the race of popularity.

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How to Set Up a Custom 404 File Not Found Page

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Ok, this is a pretty simple thing to do and it has some important benefits.

Have you ever visited a or a only to find that annoying “Not Found” ? If so, what did you do? You probably got ticked off, hit the back button and visited another . Can you imagine someone coming across a “Not Found” page on your ? Well, if you don’t have a 404 “ Not Found” page set up on your , that might just be happening.

Here is what you need to do to fix this problem and keep your visitors on your .

The first thing is to create a with some sort of message on it. Something like, “Whoops, looks like the page you are looking for isn’t here. Please click this to visit our home page or our page…” You get the idea. You can save the page as “404.” or something similar and upload it to the of your web .

Oh, I forgot to mention this. In order to do what I am suggesting here, you need to be running an web and your web has to allow changes to your .. I am sure there are other ways to create a 404 Not Found page and get it up and running, but I am only talking about one way here.

Now, open up your . and place this into it somewhere. I like to place it right on top:

404 /404.

I am using . extensions for this stuff just because of habit and preference. You can use . or whatever you wish.

Well, that’s basically it. You can now save your . and upload it to the and go see if it worked. Try typing in some page that you know isn’t there. If it works, please read my previous post about “How To Check Your Web Page HTTP Headers & Response Codes” for some important information.

Good luck.

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How To Check Your Web Page HTTP Headers & Response Codes

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

There may be cases when you would like to see what your HTTP headers look like. Why? Well, because they are kind of important. As Wikipedia states, the define what the returned looks like.

Still you ask, “Why in the world do I care about that?” Ok, I’ll keep going. The main reason I look at the is to find out what the HTTP status code is. The reason the is important to me is because this is the the use for a multitude of things.

Let me give you a little example, and this related to my previous post regarding the sudden drop in Google rankings. As I was doing research into what the problem may be for this particular , I came across an issue where someone had recently put “404 Not Found” pages up on some of their . Everyone knows that “404 Not Found” pages are cool, but what some people don’t know is that if those pages show a “200 OK” (successful requests) , the site may be in big trouble, . The reason for this is because there are going to be many “404 Not Found” pages on a dynamic . If you have your “404 Not Found” page showing a “200 OK” , the will think that all the instances of this page are . You know as well as I do, that spells trouble.

What’s worse is if you set your as your “404 Not Found” page. Your is going to return a of “200 OK.” That’s not good, because now you have multiple instances of your …all content.

It’s my opinion that the are smart enough to figure this out. The page (such as your ) with the highest will prevail. Still, I have some that I am working on that have multiple instances of the and they all have , which isn’t good, because the duplicates are taking the from the real page. Now, again, that’s my opinion.

Here are two tips:

- How to check your - visit this website or just check”

- How to set a particular page as your “404 Not Found” page in your . - Just place this in the : “ 404 /404.” without the quotes. The 404. is the actual page in this case.

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