A quick search for the term “click here” in Google should prove just how important link building can be when it comes to SEO. If you peek into the source code of that Adobe.com page that appears first in the search results, you’ll discover that there is absolutely NO INSTANCE of this phrase, so the only explainable answer for the ranking is the fact that hundreds of thousands (nearly a million now actually) are linking to the download page for the Acrobat Reader, mostly with “click here to download” somewhere mixed into the link text or ALT attribute on an image.
Historically, there have been three dominating business directories that all SEO Experts have had on their Link Building Punch List, they are:
- Yahoo! Directory ($299)
- Best of the Web ($299, up from $199)
- DMOZ.org (bribe required at Resource-Zone.com)
The obvious benefit of getting a listing in the Yahoo! Directory is higher organic placement in their search engine. However, that might change with the Yahoo!/Microsoft Deal, which hints of Yahoo! becoming powered by Bing.
In the decade or so that I’ve been optimizing websites, I have yet to get even one listing at DMOZ.org, and unfortunately opened up Pandora’s box when I inquired as why I was not able to get any listings when I posted a thread at Resource-Zone.com, the DMOZ.org Editor community forum. I gave up on this destination a long time ago, mostly from frustration, but partly because I don’t have enough humility or time to hunt down an editor to bribe or grovel to. If you want to give this directory a shot, best of luck to you.
That leaves us with how to submit to BOTW.org, the Best of the Web Directory. Previously, one could pay $199, get some ranking and monetize the traffic to buy a Yahoo! Directory link. Unfortunately, BOTW.org cost is now $299, the same price as Yahoo!, so choose your poison. The advantage of BOTW.org in my opinion is the short editorial review time. Yahoo! could take several weeks, as they want to make sure you don’t have any keywords in your title (darn SEO Haters). However, when you submit your site to Best of the Web, the listing is typically live within a few days.
Once you’ve submitted your website and business to BOTW.org, Yahoo! and DMOZ.org (if you feel lucky), consider signing up for Buzzstream to start tracking your links, and using SEOMoz.org’s Juicy Link Finder to discover hundreds of other great link building opportunities. Before long, you’ll have the next “click here” example to show off to your friends and hopefully significantly improved sales and leads generated from organic search queries.
Happy linking!
