Before you get into specific marketing for your store traffic site, I recommend submitting your site to at least a few internet directories.
Internet directories are sites that list other websites into easily findable categories so that people who use them can quickly find what they are looking for. While search engines have overshadowed them to an extent in recent years, they are still a valuable tool for reaching potential customers.
By listing your store traffic site with internet directories:
- You gain an additional backlinks to your site
- This helps your site rank with search engines
- You provide another place for people to find your site at
- This helps you get more targeted traffic from non-search engine sources
Before you start submitting your site to directories
Since quality directories generally have sites which are submitted to them reviewed by people, I highly recommend that you only submit your site to them once it looks to be complete. This means that:
- Your site should not have broken links
- Your site should not have "Work in progress" or "Under construction" type notices on it
Once you have reviewed your site and made sure that it does not have broken links or notices state it is incomplete, start by submitting your site to at least a few good directories.
Initial Directory Submissions
When submitting to directories, it is entirely possible that they will decline to list your site. If that happens, don’t worry about it. Instead, simply note the directory on your to do list and submit it again in a few months once you have more content up.
To start with, I suggest listing your site on at least the following directories:
- DMOZ.org
- This is one of the main directories on the internet.
- To submit to dmoz:
- Go to DMOZ.org Add Site Information.
- Read the instructions there and make note of the following:
- You shouldn’t have broken links on your site
- Don’t be promotional with your description. State the facts plainly without a bunch of keywords.
- Browse DMOZ.org and find the category that best fits your site.
- If in doubt, choose the one you think your site fits in best.
- Use the "Submit ULR" link in that directory.
- Enter your site with its full url (http://www.whatever.com/)
- Finish submitting your site
- Editors will review it by hand and let you know if it is accepted or not.
- This could take quite some time, so don’t worry if you don’t hear back for a while.
- WOWDirectory
- This is another excellent directory.
- To submit your site to WOWDirectory:
- Wait until the weekend
- Seriously. You cannot submit for a free listing except on weekends…
- Go to The WOWDirectory Site Adding page
- This might take some time to load as the instructions are via video.
- Find the category your site belongs in
- Go to WOWDirectory.
- Browse to the category your store traffic site should be under.
- Once in the proper category and subcategory, browse to the proper local area.
- Submit your site
- Select "Add URL"
- Read the instructions
- Fill in the form
- Select "Submit" when done
- Like the others, this can take some time to be processed.
Further directory submissions
Once you have submitted your site to the above directories, I recommend looking over The Vilesilencer Top 100 Directories Page and submitting your site to at least a few of the ones listed there as well.
Illumirate, Turnpike, and InfoListings would be a good start.
Finding other good directories
Besides Vilesilencer, another good way to locate directories that perform well is to do a search for your targeted keywords in Google or Yahoo and see if any directory entries come up in the first few pages.
If you like selling locally, searching for your keyword plus a local city or county name will often bring directories up on the first page. Look them over and submit your site to any which look promising.
