Are Web Directories Useful for Link Building?

Webmasters have been back and forth with this question: are directories as useful as they were in the beginning of link building. Be your own judge after this article.

I want to start by saying; it’s not wise to submit to every free web directory you come across. Always pay attention to web directories you submit to. If your websites goal is to be indexed in search results, websites you link to is more important than the quantity.

Search engines need websites to present in front of their web searchers, quality websites like yours need to be noticed.

A few suggestions to help you find quality web directories:

A directory should not be filled with ads all over the homepage or any page in the domain.
Quality listing, with good written titles and descriptions will always display on their website.
The directories you submit to must be human edited. This means the directory editor reviews your listing carefully before adding your website.
Indexed pages are important. The more indexed pages the better it is for your website.
Web directories are not useful to you, if the directory is not useful to search engines. A few suggestions to pay attention to:

Make sure the web directory is not full of advertised links. Most likely this website is full of spam and low quality listings. (I believe I repeated myself on this point, something to keep in mind)

Instant approval directories should be a red flag for you. This proves the theory of low quality listings, as well categories will have irrelevant link resources. Search engines frown upon these directories and will not index them, this means you will not benefit from a directory like this.

Low indexed pages means, no value or new website. Do your research on any website you wish to link to. Check the history when checking how many pages are indexed.
Keep these tips in mind when you look for quality websites. I suggest that you submit to a handful of useful free web directories that manually review your each listing submitted. As well all content should be updated daily and dead links should be removed from the website.

When link building the option is yours to choose from. A great option is to pay attention to directory lists created by webmasters for webmasters. This way you have a better chance of being indexed by web directories of value. Follow these simple to tips when you start link building.

How to Get Citations for Your Google Places Page

What are citations and why your Google Places page needs them?

Citations are mentions of your business name and address on various free or paid local listing services. The more citations your places page has the better are the chances of higher ranking of your listing. Through citations search engines trust your business listing because citations represent number of votes to your listing from other websites. It also helps search engine to signify your listings popularity, relevancy and importance and make your listing outstanding among other search results.

How to get citations for your listing?

First of all you have to research on the keywords that your listing is competing for. You have to determine top listings first then search the citations of your competitors and to do that type the business name and phone number as it appears on the places page within quotation marks in the search fields you will usually get the inflated number of search results but in order to get the actual number of citations you have to go to the very last page of the search results.

You can search for competitor’s citations via Google Maps cash software as well. But if you want to know the quality of citations specifically then I don’t recommend using the software because it can tell you number of citations and other details.

It is imperative to create citations first before setting up your Google places page. This eases the process of verification while claiming listing.

The types or quality of citations are categorized as under:

Instant Citations

Fast Track Citations

First Tier Citations

Second Tier Citations

Instant citations:

Citations with no verification are called instant citations. These are the local listing services that don’t require verification through phone or post card. The following are instant citations service providers.

calendar.goac.com
citycliq.com
citysquares.com
events.nydailynews.com
poidirectory.com
tupalo.com
bizwiki.com
brownbook.net
cylex-usa.com
facebook.com
getfreelisting.com
hotfrog.com
insiderpages.com
judysbook.com
manta.com
merchantcircle.com
mojopages.com
mylocalservices.us
sagespark.com
salespider.com
showmelocal.com
showsmart.com
tuugo.us
uscounties.com
where2go.com
yellowbot.com
yellowee.com
yelp.com
zvents.com
foursquare.com
Fast track citations:

These kind of citations are used for white hat hack technique listings. They are used not for just a single listing but for multiple listings in one or more than one city or area. Fast track citations are used for broad coverage and large number of web portals. The objective of using this service as the name implies, is to get citations fast and quick higher ranking.

First tier citations:

These citations are primary data providers in local search. These are used for white hat listings and are very important citations in terms of quality. Search engine trust them mostly. The following are first tier citations service providers.

Info USA
mybusinesslistingmanager.com
InsiderPages.com
Yahoo Local
Yellowpages.com Register Yellowpages.com Listing
AngiesList.com
CitySearch.com
Yelp.com
SuperPages.com
Second tier citations:

These citations are data sources for major local search portals. They share the same data from primary citation providers. But don’t under-estimate their importance they are considered for local search ranking too. The following are second tier citations service providers.

Bing.com
Brownbook.net
DiscoverOurTown.com
FourSquare.com
Gowalla.com
HotFrog.com
Kudzu.com
Manta.com
MerchantCircle.com
MojoPages.com User Sign up MojoPages.com Listing Setup
YellowBot.com Sign up YellowBot.com Listing Setup
Localeze.com
Navteq.com User Sign up Navteq.com Place Setup

Find Out How Successful People Think So You May Be Successful Too

Do you think successful people are just plain lucky?

Successful people did not become successful because they were lucky.

They did not achieve success by accident. Being at the right place at the right time, meeting relevant people, reading the appropriate book, did not come about accidentally or by luck.

Luck is brought about by Labour Under Correct Knowledge.

Successful people prepared themselves. Instead of giving up on anything they started and wanted to achieve they got stronger by learning more.

Success is a methodical, orderly and deliberate process of deciding what you want to do with your life, what are the steps that you need to undertake to get you there, and lastly what you will do once you get there.

One of the most important aspects, if not the most important aspect to success, is the ability to visualise your successful outcome and stay focused on it until you achieve it.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited.” – Albert Einstein

Successful people understood the potential power behind knowledge, yet they also understood that, for them to close the gap between where they are and where they wanted to be, they would have to piece together the enigma that is most often referred to as “life”.

They had to build a picture, a vision, of success in their mind, and then go about taking action on creating that envisioned life.

In much the same way, you have to be serious about your present and future, you need to have the knowledge that is required so you, too, may close the gap: you need to be and remain determined to devote yourself to taking massive action to build your business of succeeding in life.

You, too, will need to see the end, your dream and destiny that you desire in your mind’s eye. It is up to you to take the necessary and relevant action to make it all happen. It’s just like going to the doctor with a particular health problem.

The doctor may prescribe a medication for you to take four times a day, yet he cannot be there with you to ensure that you are taking the medication.

It comes back to deciding to be responsible for your life.

Have you noticed how it all stems from that one attitude? Being responsible for your own life.

Your success, your being responsible 100% for you to live your dream life starts here.

When you accept 100% responsibility for yourself and your current life situation, you will have the power to move towards those things you truly desire in life: which is success in all areas of your life.

This life-changing article is about possibilities and opportunities, knowledge and tools. It will help expose your unique course in life.

It will inspire, support and motivate you to excel, to do what successful people do, to have all that successful people have, and to become a shining example of a successful person.

Here, you’re not being told what you couldn’t do, instead you are being told to shoot for the stars. And above all, you are being shown how to shoot for those stars.

“A person is what he thinks about all day long.” – Emerson

Interesting thought, wouldn’t you think? So much so, it’s worth repeating: “A person is what he thinks about all day long.”

Success and happiness cannot happen if you possess the same old thoughts and beliefs.

If you do not change your mind, if you do not get rid of the unsupportive thoughts and beliefs, you will inevitably remain stuck in your old ways. Not much, if anything, will change.

Let’s give you a quick overview on how change comes about:

Your BEHAVIOUR, how you act (or perhaps do not act), controls your success or failure. Your ability to attain high levels of success is dependent upon your actions and behaviours. Your results are the outcome of your behaviour. Now let’s consider where your behaviours come from and what controls them?

Your FEELINGS command your behaviour. Every action that you take is first filtered through your feelings that reside in your subconscious mind. How you feel about something determines what you do and how well you do it. So where do your feelings come from?

Your ATTITUDES create and influence your feelings. Your attitude is your perspective from which you view life. Whatever attitude you have about anything will affect how you feel, which, in turn, affects how you act. Where do your attitudes come from?

Your BELIEFS create, control and influence your attitudes. What you believe about anything will determine your attitude about it, which will create your feelings, and then which will direct your behaviour and action. Belief patterns are so powerful that two people who are in the same situation could perceive things completely differently. It only requires us to believe what we see and how we see it. We all have thousands of beliefs – big and small. And where do your beliefs come from?

Your THOUGHTS create, control and influence your beliefs. Your thoughts are real and are immensely powerful. Everything you accept from the outside world and everything you feed yourself from within is a product of your thoughts. Everything starts as a thought.

So, it goes without saying you need to learn to control your thoughts. And when you do, you will automatically control your beliefs, your attitudes, your feelings and, consequently, your behaviour and actions.

The big secret to success:

Learn to control your thoughts and you will influence your behaviours and actions. It’s all a mind-set. That’s what we’ve been saying all along.

Success is predictable and is not achieved by accident.

Have the mind-set of the successful people and you will achieve success. Believe and it is yours!

“There is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.” – Joel Osteen

Science of success experts have concluded that the brain is a goal-setting organism.

That is fantastic news for us: for whatever goal we give to our subconscious mind, it will work for us day and night, 24/7, to achieve it for us; to make it a reality.

The principal breakthrough that scientists made was that we do not need to waste our precious time and effort trying to change old thoughts and behaviours: we just simply create new ones.

And the other discovery they made was that we can continue to create new thoughts, new memories, new behaviours, new skills, and learn new things for as long as we are alive on this earth.

Now, with the new discoveries in recent years, it has been scientifically proven that our capacity to achieve and succeed literally has no limits.

Our brain has the capacity to continually learn during our entire lifetime.

Our brain can form new thoughts, can have new memories, and can learn new things by the millions, no matter what your age is. By the millions.

That’s how many new things we can learn, that’s how many new skills we can learn, that’s how many new thoughts we can have, that’s how many new behaviours we can adopt.

This is encouraging because there is no limit on your capacity to achieve new things.

No limits whatsoever for the human brain to learn, memorise, develop, achieve and perform at higher levels than ever imagined. It makes no difference what your age is: you are capable of learning anything new that you want to learn.

That adds to what we spoke of earlier: no more excuses.

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

Your brain has the capacity to achieve way beyond what was ever thought possible. So now is the time to break out of your limited thinking and start dreaming big and imagining unlimited possibilities.

Becoming successful is not impossible.

It is a choice you make through a decision. Every day, step-by-step, you may climb the mountain of success if you’ve decided to do so, if you’re committed to accomplish what the others think impossible.

Design your future now.

Prepare to receive what you desire.

Thanks to the phenomenal advances made in cognitive science and the development of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), personal change, personal transformation, has come a very long way.

In fact, personal growth is no longer a mystery.

NLP has brought to light that change, transformation and growth can be fast, reliable, and even fun. It has shown us that we do not need to spend thousands of hours slaving away to increase our creative-thinking abilities.

By practicing a few simple exercises and applications, you can start your creative juices flowing, and you may even amaze yourself at the quality and quantity of good ideas that you can come up with to expedite your success.

It can allow you to achieve something you seek within days and months as opposed to years and decades. That’s the power of the progress science has made on how the brain works, and also how you can have your mind to be your best ally in achieving anything you want.

Learn to live as you like by no longer living as you dislike.

Are you ready to get on the road to success and fulfilment?

Bear in mind, much like everything else in life, success requires practice and massive, consistent action.

“Success doesn’t mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle.” – Edwin C Bliss

Hani Al-Qasem has been a self-improvement educator for more than 18 years.

You can download your copy of “Wealth Attraction: How To Reprogram Your Mind For More Money” FREE eBook where you can begin the automatic reprogramming of your brain for wealth, success, and abundance, in just six easy steps.

Live Your Life To Please God

Open your Bible to 1 Thessalonians 4:1 it says… Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. Go ahead and highlight that scripture.

Will you trust God to teach you in the way you should go? You need wisdom to live for His righteousness, His love and devotion to Christ Jesus. You see, you have to develop the habit of listening to God. He may give you direction you have never had before. Like what? God wants you under the influence of His Word. God wants you to live by godly principles in His Word.

God wants you to give Jesus first place! This is vital for your Christian walk! Jesus is your connection to the throne of God. You see, in this world, it is very easy to become distracted from God. Many people follow some other path apart from God’s will. But the foundation of all spiritual truth is obedience to God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible tells you to praise the Lord! He is truly worthy of worship. Love no one not even yourself – more than you love God. Every morning you should be asking God to fill you with His presence. You want to be filled by the Spirit so that you’re led by Him. You love the Word, study the Word and learn the Word. Why? To live your life to please God. His Word is true wisdom for you to walk in His instructions.

If you want to live your life to please God give His Word a place of first priority! Scriptures will come alive on the inside of you. You’re knowing God for yourself and the importance of being led by the Spirit of God. Many people won’t like the new you, but you’re not living to please people, you’re living to please God.

You don’t need people approval when you have God’s approval! You want the praise of God more than the praise of people. Quit worrying about what everyone thinks and do what God has put in your heart.

God will put a new testimony in your mouth! You may think there is a lot wrong with you, but there is also a lot right with you. God is continually shaping and molding into the person He wants you to be. Stop focusing on what you can’t do, and start focusing on what God can do.

Serve God and worship Him and continue to seek His will. How? You have to establish a passionate relationship with God’s Word. Believe His Word, trust His Word, study His Word, thank Him for His Word. But always remember the devil will do everything he possibly can to lure you away from God. The devil does not want you to grow in the knowledge of King Jesus.

Many people never seriously read the Bible! But you need to be a student of God’s Word and doer of God’s ways. Be a Christian that reads scripture and prays. The Holy Spirit won’t adjust to you, you must adjust to Him! Use your voice to worship Him and lift up the name of Jesus! Now, raise your hands and say, “I live to please God, more and more!”

Older posts »