Let’s face it… most of us don't enjoy link building. Link building doesn’t have to be difficult; you just have to be smart about it.

One very easy way to get links back to your website is to use directories. Some SEO consultants say directories are great; others say they stink. If you’re smart about the way you list your website in a directory, then you can get a lot of benefit out of them.

First and foremost, let me just say that most directories are pretty hopeless for actually sending through traffic that will convert. However, for SEO purposes, directories can be effective. With that in mind you may want to change your thinking about how you add your website’s details into a directory.

So here’s a list of ideas you might not have thought about when listing your website in directories.

Free vs paid directories for SEO
I never pay for directory listings. The only one I can see being of any value would be the Yahoo! Directory. This isn’t a must, but if you’re going to throw money at directories, go with the Yahoo! Directory. Many people have seen sharp rises in traffic when they have listed with the Yahoo! Directory, however, list your business with caution.

Yahoo! have been known to show the title of the listing in their directory in SERPs (search engine results page) so if you have a title tag for your homepage that zings and gets loads of clicks, be aware that this might change if you list your site in the Yahoo! Directory.

Of all the free directories, the one I list ALL my websites with is DMOZ. I suggest you go and list your site now… here’s the link - www.dmoz.org .

All the other directories are pretty much the same, some better than others. It really depends on a lot of factors like how many other competitors there are in the directory, how competitive your industry is (in terms of search) and how the directory is put together (the underlying code and software that runs the website).

Use keyword-rich domains in your directory listings
Most people when they purchase a domain name go with their business name. Typically this will be a name like “Windsplinter Design” or “CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet”. That’s great, but for a customer using a search engine looking for your product or service, they’re not going to look for that name. They’re going to look for the generic equivalent of your product or service. So if Windsplinter Design designed and sold ergonomic chairs, the domain name I would be suggesting to them to purchase would be www.ergonomicchairs.com.au.

This way they could use this domain in all their directory listings and because it’s keyword-rich, they automatically have great anchor text linking back to their site. If you’re not sure what anchor text is, check out this article for an explanation.

This tactic is particularly handy if you don’t have any control over what gets linked back to your website from a directory. Sometimes it’s the business name, sometimes it’s the URL. If you can only link your URL back to your website, having a keyword-rich domain like the example above will help you rank for the terms you have within the URL.

Add more than one listing
This tactic is handy if the directory you’re submitting your site to links the business name to your website. So rather than add ‘Windsplinter Design’ as your business name, put in a keyword like ‘ergonomic chairs’ as the business name. If the directory automatically accepts new listings, you’re onto a good thing. Add some more listings and use different pages in your site. For example you might add ‘red ergonomic chairs’ and use the URL of your red chair page in that listing (don’t fall into the trap that you have to use your main domain name, you can use internal page addresses as well).

Use a element in your copy
This is an excellent way to get really targeted anchor text back to your site. Essentially all you’re doing is adding raw html code to the body of the directory. Some directories allow this, others do not so you will have to experiment to see which ones work.

So if you’re targeting the term “flowers Brisbane” you might add this code to the body of the directory:-
ABC123 Pty Ltd can supply all kinds of flowers in Brisbane

The ‘a href’ section of the tag indicated that a link is coming up. The hyperlink is obviously the page you wish the text “flowers in Brisbane” to link back to, and in between the and the this is where you put your text.

So flowers in Brisbane
would look like this in the directory: flowers in Brisbane

So there you have it, some really handy tips on using directories in your SEO strategy.