Some SEO experts and online marketeers think web directories are dead. That may be right for general web directories that have been penalised by Google for selling links, but niche directories can still provide a good quality link to your site because they actually offer a web surfer useful information and provide a relevant link to your site.

Bloggings Most Wanted is a blog directory that lists and categorises a wide range of blogs from Travel Blogs to movie and video blogs, and the ever popular Make Money Online Blogs. Is a link from a directory like this worth the money? Well, that depends on your site and how well it fits in with the other sites in it’s category. That’s the benefit of a niche directory – the other sites listed are more likely to be relevant to yours.

Niche directories like this are a useful resource, for both surfers and bloggers looking to promote their blog.

Building links to a site is the most critical factor if you are looking to rank highly in the search engines. A great place to get these links is from blogs. Links within blog posts have several advantages over other links types such as text-link ads.

• The links are often found quickly by the search engines because blogs tend to be indexed quickly.
• The links appear more ‘natural’ because they are embeded within text and don’t look like paid link.
• If the whole post is about your site, the links are in context and can naturally use keyword-rich anchor text.
• If the whole blog is about the same theme as your site, the link becomes even more powerful.
• Posts appear on the front page first, so your link is initially on the page which is viewed the most has the highest PageRank.
• Posts are often archived in categories, which means it will be on the same page as lots of related content and links.
• Finally, a post usually has it’s own page, where the links to your site will remain forever.

So where do you find blogs willing to review your site? One source is the brokerage sites that act as middlemen between bloggers and advertisers. Examples include reviewme.com and payperpost.com. You pay a premium for this service, but the blogs are usually of good quality and often provide traffic as well as link popularity.

Site review blogs and web master blogs are another good source. They are usually cheaper and some even allow you to write your own post. Good ones have a number of categories for posts, which keeps a post alongside relevant content once they are off the home page.  Crea-futur.com is one that has categories ranging from automobiles to mobile phones.

Probably the best, but most time consuming method is to search for relevant blogs and directly approach the blogger. It may be neccessary to be more flexible about your requirements, i.e. the number of links to your site, the anchor text used and deadlines, but it could be worth it for a very natural link back from a highly relevant site.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)  is all about helping a site to rank highly in search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MS Live by targeting the keywords that are going to attract the right customers. A good SEO company can help analyse your market and determine which are the best keywords for your site.

Traffic from MS live, Yahoo! and  the numerous other search engines is usually tiny compared to Google, so most online businesses and site owners want to improve Google ranking above everything else. How do you do this? Well, the most important factor is the number of links pointing at a site (backlinks).

Links are seen as votes for a site and basically, the more links the better. One of the easiest ways to get these links is from directories – you submit your site to them and they list it in categorised pages. Some directories require a fee to review your site but there are also thousands of free directory sites. IF you are going to submit to them in a big way, a directory submission service or software can save you time and money.

A lot has been written about web directories and their usefulness for Search Engine Optimisation. Recent efforts by Google to crack down on the link selling market have hit directories hard – especially the big boys. But there are still quaility small directories out there that offer good value.

Directory-King has a very simple, clean layout (maybe even unique – at least I haven’t seen it before!) making it easy to navigate. There are a wide range of categories to choose from and the categories are supplemented by articles and news feeds, which helps to keep the content fresh and unique. Features like this help to make a directory stand out from the crowd for visitors and search engines.

And, as well as the standard directory listings, the site offers a variety of frontpage & sitewide advertising options.

Good features and good value make this directory well worth a look.

Best of The Web Directory is offering a massive 25% off advertising.

The offer includes all new submissions and sponsorship advertising in their general web directory and blog directory.

Just submit before the end of March and use the promotional code: SAVEBIG

Here’s the submit page. It’s one of the oldest and most trusted directories so it is well worth getting a listing there (even Google still likes it – it has a PR of 6).