Last week a client called me excitedly exclaiming that theirGoogle PageRank had jumped a notch and their targeted keywordterm now ranked #23 (up from #45) for their competitive searchphrase. I asked the client if he'd been notified by Yahoo thathis site was now included in the index after we had submittedit three weeks ago. "Yes," he said, "but why are you changingthe subject?"

"I'm not changing the subject. Inclusion in Yahoo Directory isthe most likely reason for the jump in both your searchposition and your PageRank. Remember when you doubted thevalue of inclusion in the Yahoo Directory and I pushed forsubmission anyway? Now you know why I insisted."

That seemingly expensive Yahoo Directory listing has onelittle known benefit to your website. It is the most importantand valuable text link you could ever purchase. That one linkfrom one source will do your ranking more good than any othersingle link (except possibly the Open Directory).

Many webmasters look at potential traffic referred from theYahoo Directory as the determining factor for submissions,when that is not the best reason for inclusion - It's the linkvalue that matters above all else in this case.

I've had several SEO clients see a leap in ranking fortargeted search terms a week or so after that Yahoo Directorylink goes live for them. Many clients have argued with meabout the value of that Yahoo Directory text link. But at$299, the yearly fee is cheaper than many of those commercialtext link ads sites and does far more for your ranking insearch engines OTHER than Yahoo.

Why? It's purely the value of that link. Search engines knowthat only sites of a certain quality level will submit and getaccepted into Yahoo Directory. They know that seriousbusinesses will pay that yearly fee, while marginal or hobbysites will not pay that $299 every year. Surely there is somelevel of value assigned in search algorithms to inclusion inthe Yahoo Directory.

It's a little known technique for gains in ranking which isbased purely on empirical observation over time. But theresult of inclusion in the Yahoo Directory is the same forevery client, every time - their PageRank ratchets up andtargeted search terms suddenly take a big jump just a week ortwo after inclusion. The same is true of inclusion in the freeOpen Directory Project at http://DMOZ.org .

I've seen client sites jump from positions on page three atMSN search to top 5 positions on page one of the MSN SERP'sfollowing inclusion in the Yahoo Directory. Now we aresubmitting this same client to the Open Directory for the 5thtime in as many months hoping for elusive editors to add thesite, leading to another jump in search position and PageRankif and when they get around to adding the site to the DMOZdatabase.

You do know that Google uses that Open Directory listing intheir own directory, don't you? It's worth submitting andresubmitting until they finally include your site. It reallyis worth the trouble to keep trying, no matter how long theyignore your submissions.

One caveat always applies to Directory submissions! They mustbe done with great care applied to keyword phrases used in thesite description. That single line of text you submit in the"Site Description" text box on the submission page willstrongly affect your keyword phrase ranking in OTHER searchengines for a very long time.

Take care in crafting a keyword rich and effective descriptionfor your site. I always request that clients either have mesubmit for them or use text I've written for them in thatdescription. If you do it badly, it will be re-written by aneditor who cares more for categorization than keywordrankings. Be Careful!

Before you run off begging for reciprocal links from slickwebmasters or purchasing text links of dubious value from textlink outfits, submit to Yahoo Directory and pay the $299 (or$24.92 monthly) for the most undervalued text link available.Then swallow your pride and re-submit to the Open Directoryuntil they finally include your site.

Rock your rank with dynamite text links! Yahoo Directory and theOpen Directory Project.

Copyright © August 23, 2005

Mike Banks Valentine operates http://Publish101.comFree Web Content Distribution for Article Marketers andProvides content aggregation, press release optimizationand custom web content for Search Engine Positioninghttp://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htmRSS: http://RealitySEO.com/atom.xml