13 Permanent One Way Links

Link building is one of the cornerstones of ranking on the first page of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live and other search engines. Many directories and websites will give you a link in exchange for you linking to them a practice known as reciprocal linking. Although this works you can get more SEO benefit from a site that links to you without a link back which is known as a one way link. You may be thinking, oh great, another list of places to buy links but put your pocketbook away because all you have to spend is your time.

I personally was able to submit mivamerchant.com to each of the following directories this month (April 2009) so it is fresh but over time may change.

Before going through each directory there are a few ground rules for directory link building. Always search the directory for your business name and URL to make sure your site is not already listed. It is very common to get removed from a directory because you submitted twice and the directory webmaster thinks you are spamming. Because of this keep a log (I prefer spreadsheets) with the directory URL submitted, date of submission, title & description used. Completely read the submission guidelines and terms of use since each directory has its own editorial guidelines. Failure to follow submission guidelines may result in your site getting rejected. You also want to change up the site title and description you give to the directories. This can be variations of your business name or a keyword phrase coupled with your business name. Only submit your website to a directory once, even if you don’t get accepted.

Now that the rules are out of the way, read on for some link building goodness.

DMOZ – Open directory project, one of the oldest and most authoritative directory around. Trusted by all the search engines along with being free, just navigate to the appropriate category for your website to submit.

IllumiRate – Navigate to the appropriate category to submit your website very similar to dmoz.org. Carefully read the submission policy since they have some very specific requests.

Clickey – You will need to request a password from Clickey with a valid email address from your domain. Use your domain name along with the password Clickey emails you to submit your URL.

Arakne Links – I highly recommend you pick a category (after searching for your domain) prior to filling out the submission form because the form cleared itself upon selecting an appropriate category. There is a 3 day quick review if you give a reciprocal URL but I would just wait for the review and one way link.

SearchSight – Very straightforward submission process with only 6 form fields so you can get a link in less than 5 minutes.

SmartLinks.org – Smart Links is the only directory on this list that has no automation. You must email the directory owner your site name (title), URL, description then an editor adds you if and where deemed appropriate by the editorial team. I would recommend sending a link to the category you think best represents your site to help make it easier on the editor.
oneMission – Another free directory that you must navigate to the category for your site and then click “Add a link”.

NetInsert – Find your category, you should be getting used to this by now, then submit your website. If you have ever used webmaster tools or had to verify site ownership for another service then NetInsert’s process will be a little more familiar. You must add a Meta tag or other line of text into your store front (SFNT) page. Easy to do in the Miva Merchant admin.

MavicaNet – Just like most of the directories above navigate to the best fitting category then add your link which is really your website URL.

SoMuch.com – I was a bit surprised with somuch.com since it talks about a manual review process and the URL I submitted got accepted right away. In fact, I navigated to the category and saw my URL immediately.

Jet Links – Jet Links is yet one more directory where all you need to do is find the right topic area, fill out the submission form and go on about your day.

LdmStudio – Must use root domain (i.e. mivamerchant.com) and pick the right category or you do not pass go resulting in no link to your site.

Search-O-Rama – All you need to do is put in your website URL and a valid email address. The search form resulted in a 404 page, this might be a short term issue but if you are going to skip only one of these directories this is the one I would skip.

There you have it, 13 permanent one way links via web directories that won’t cost you anything except some of your time (or one of your employees). As you visit each of the sites above a few common items come up in the forms so it may be helpful to prepare text for these form fields in advance. I recommend saving this off in a text document or spreadsheet such as the one you use to log all your link building efforts.

• Website URL
• Email address (use a general one just for link building)
• Title (Business name, Website name or Keyword Phrase + Business or Website name)
• Description (Describe your site in 250 characters or less)
• Keywords (what you want to show up for in search engines or directory searches)

Do you want to see more posts on link building? Leave a comment letting us know.

If you are looking for someone to handle your entire link building campaign remember that Miva Merchant also specializes in SEO services for ecommerce sites.