There are a lot of articles that discuss link building. These articles always include Dos and Don’ts and where to find links. However they never actually explain how to get a link. So for this mini guide we are going to give you an example of how to add your website to a web directory.

Firstly, if you are unsure on how to find web directories in the first place please visit our Link Building Guide.

For this example we are going to use our website and a web directory called Little Web Directory.

little-web-directory

Step 2: Browse the categories and sub-categories to find the perfect place for your business.

It might take a while to find your perfect place but it is worth looking for the best possible place to ensure the webmaster approves the link.

For this example we have chosen Internet then the sub-category Search Engine Optimization 
(http://www.littlewebdirectory.com/links.asp?cat=197)

search-engine-optimization

Step 3: Now that you have found the best place for your link you can click the Add Your Link in the menu on the top right corner.

Step 4: We will now fill in the form:

janklin-submission

Step 4a: First fill in the Link Title, this is also sometimes known as Company Name or simply Title. This will be the anchor/link text for you link so you may want to include a phrase that you want to be found for here (we have included SEO Services in ours).

Step 4b: Link URL – This is the full location of where you want people to go once they have clicked on the link i.e. the optimised page that you are link building for. A lot of directories will only allow you to enter your homepage here.

Step 4c: Link Description – This is similar to a meta description (but should not be the same as your meta description), this is text that will explain your business/optimised page.

Step 4d: Email Address – Use a valid email address because visitors to this website might want to contact you and the webmaster may use this email address to validate your link.

Step 4e: Now you just need to click Submit.

janklin-link-submitted

Additional Notes

You may have noticed that there were other fields in the form above.

Suggested Category: If there isn’t a specific category for your listing you can add one here within the correct category or sub-category. For example in our example I could have added Training Courses if we only provided training for Search engine optimization.

Reciprocal Link URL: If you want you can link back to the directory from your website, this is why they also have the box of code under this option. If you link back then this will improve your chance of getting a listing on the website but it is better not to link back (especially if you are building quite a few directory listings).

Other Directories

There are millions of directories and all of them are obviously not the same. However they do normally follow similar category formats and request similar fields in the submission forms. Some other fields are as follows:

Meta Description: For this you should actually give them the Meta description from the code on your website.

Meta Keywords: For this you should actually give them the Meta keywords from the code on your website.

Name: This is normally your name not your company name, however if there isn’t a Title field and Name is at the top of the form this will be your anchor/link text.

Verification Code/Verify: This is usually a captcha code to prevent spam but sometimes this is a question such as What is 1 + 1?

Address: This is  your company address

As you can see from these examples it is normally straight forward enough. So have fun creating links and don’t forget… Don’t buy guaranteed listings – Google won’t like it.