Stay up-to-date with the world of search!

Do you know what is doing in the world of search? If not, then check out the following search marketing related news stories. Read more

Note:  I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  There are a lot of changes going on at SEM Basics (one’s that I think you’ll appreciate).  When things settle down I should be able to start posting more frequently.  In the meantime, here’s a blog post that I started a few weeks ago.  I just quickly “finished” it so that I could post it to the site.  You should find it helpful.

I’ve started to take a closer look at the list of directories that I mentioned in my previous post.  Here are my initial findings:

• SEO Kit list of Powerful Directories — it seems to me that this directory is out of date (for instance, included in their list is the Zeal directory, which has been defunct for a while).  As such, I have chosen to ignore this list.
• The Strongest Links — I’m not sure how useful this list is.  That is to say, I don’t see what information this list provides that I can’t find elsewhere!  The only information on this list which looks interesting is something called “saturation”.  However, as far as I can tell the site doesn’t explain what saturation means.  Therefore, given that there are other, quality list of directories out there, I’ve decided to leave this list off of the short list.
• List of Strongest Directories according to SEOMoz’s Page Strength tool — Very clever and, it seems, very useful.  The idea of this list is to check “the page strength of all the paid directories listed in Bob Mutch’s comprehensive listing and then ranked them in order of page strength.”  What’s more, he eventually added more paid directories.  This is a great resource as it can help prioritize the order and importance of paid directories.  This is certainly a resource that I will have to come back to and look at more in depth. 
• Quanta’s List of the Cream of the Top Free Web Directories — Quanta’s list seems more useful for their niche directories than for anything else.  While they claim to have a list of the “cream of the crop” directories, I didn’t find any information which explained how it is that they know this.  Therefore, I have no reason to assume anything about these directories one way or the other.  On the other hand, while I don’t know the quality of the niche directories, I do admire the quantity of niche directories listed.  At the same time, no particular niche is so large that the individual directories within it can’t be checked out on a need-to-know basis.  Given that for now I am only concentrating on general directories, Quanta doesn’t make the short list.  However, I’ve noted them for that time when I do look into lists of niche directories.
• AddUrl.nu’s list of free SEO friendly web directories - Here is a list on par with Info Vilesilencer’s list.  Indeed, Jim Westergren (the author of this list) has a partnership with Dan at Info Vilesilencer and they “help each with data collection to maintain their lists”.  As with Info Vilesiencer’s list, the directories on addurl are SEO friendly directories.  Also, I’ve checked out Jim’s website from time to time and if you take a look around you’ll notice that he knows a thing or two about SEO.  In other words, if Jim says that these directories are SEO friendly then I trust that they are SEO friendly.  What’s more, there are a HUGE number of directories on this list (almost 1000).  What’s more they are all free!  This list certainly makes the short list.
• Top Directories - It doesn’t seem to me that this list adds much of value to the other lists.  As such, it doesn’t make the short list.
• Best Web Directories - This site looks like it could have a lot of useful information.  In particular, I like their ranking criteria.  I’m keeping it on the short list until future evaluation (although I imagine that it will stay on the list).
• Paid Directory List - Doesn’t offer anything than than Aviva’s strongest directories list.  As such, it doesn’t make the short list.
• Directory Critic   - I’m not sure whether or not to include this list on the short list.  They claim to update the list on a daily basis; however, I did notice a discrepancy between the PR ranking of Ezine Articles according to the Google Toolbar and their PR ranking according to Directory Critic (according to the Google Toolbar they have a PR of 6, according to Directory Critic they have a PR of 4.  This makes me wonder about how well they maintain their list. 
• SEO Company’s list of web directories -  Looks interesting, but doesn’t seem to be up-to-date. 

Well, that’s about it for now.  Enjoy!

What the experts have to say about content, PR and sales

Blogs are an excellent source of information. Below are some links to blog posts that you may want to check out. Read more

EXT>Find search marketing related jobs!

Are you looking for search marketing related work? If so, you may want to check out these job listings. Read more