Webmasters want to get as many visitors as possible to come to their Web sites. This is particularly true if your Web site sells a product or service. Bringing visitors to Web sites has been done in different ways.

There was a time when you could stuff your Web pages with words related to what you sell. Your pages would then show up at the top in search engine results pages when someone searched for those words. This does not work any more.

Search engines have also become wise to other tricks like doorway pages, link farms and many others. And they change their display algorithms to eliminate the effectiveness of various tricks. So what worked yesterday might not work today.

Probably the only exceptions are good content and directory listings. These worked earlier and work even now.

If your Web site is listed in good directories, it could bring visitor traffic directly. Many web surfers search directories like Yahoo and DMOZ for information. If they find your site under the category they are searching, they are quite likely to click through to the site.

More importantly, however, listings in directories are links that search engines put a value upon. The more the number of GOOD links that point to your site, the higher search engines consider your Web site. Links under appropriate categories in well-organized and established directories are examples of GOOD links.

When search engines decide that your Web page is an important source of information, they display these pages at the top of their search results. And when someone searching for some information finds your site on the first or second search results page, they are quite likely to visit your site.

Thus, directory listings help you get more visitors. And such listings could come only if you, or someone else, submit your site to the directories. That is the significance of directory submission.

Directories and Search Engines Bring Interested Visitors

Visitors could come to your Web site from other sources like advertisements. However, visitors who come through directories and search engines are more likely to become your customers.

This happens because people are looking for specific topics at directories and search engines. So they are already interested in Web sites that provide information on those topics.

Visitors who land at your site from search engines and directories are thus more likely to be interested in what you offer. We call such visitors "targeted" visitors. Webmasters would get better business results if they can bring targeted visitors to their sites.

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization

Before you submit your site to directories, you have to "optimize" your Web pages. Optimization means ensuring that search engines would indeed recognize the subject of your Web page. To understand what this means, let us assume that you are selling jewelry.

If you follow the window display tactics of jewelry shops, you might decide to get excellent photographs and fill your Web pages with these photographs. You hope that people would be interested in these beautiful pictures and would come shopping.

Unfortunately on the Internet people do not notice shops as they pass by. They have to be led in some way to your Web site first before they see the pictures you have laid out tastefully.

Search engines, that bring the largest visitor traffic to Web sites, won't recognize that your subject is jewelry from the pictures alone. These engines become aware of sites and their content through automated software that does not have human perceptiveness.

It is words on your Web pages, not pictures, that these automated software would be able to recognize.

So you have to use words to tell the search engines that your topic is jewelry. The word jewelry, and other related words like necklaces, rings, bangles and so on, must appear on your Web page at certain prominent places. The words must also be used at certain places in the underlying code that would not be visible on your page itself.

Another aspect of optimization is navigation.

Often, you would have to include several pages on your Web site to talk about your entire product range. You might also prefer to have separate pages of jewelry, necklace, ring, bangle, and so on. That would increase your chances of being found at search engines.

When you use more than one page, you have to lead not only visitors but also the search engines to the other pages. This is what navigation achieves. And navigation can be done in search engine friendly and unfriendly ways.

If you do not know how to optimize your Web site for search engines, you should seek the help of someone who knows.

Next Comes Good Content

Your Web pages must not only be search engine friendly. They must also have information that the targeted visitors want. Otherwise, all your efforts to bring them to your site would go waste. The visitor would simply click away.

Good content also impresses most directory editors. The editors want their directories to be a repository of high-value sites. Otherwise, visitors would cease to visit the directories. Hence, directory editors prefer to select Web sites that offer good content.

Good content in this case also means "substantial" content. If you have just one page, most directory editors are not likely to be impressed enough to list it.

So provide specific and clear information that human visitors and directory editors are likely to want.

Again, if you can't do it yourself, seek outside help.

Now Comes the Directory Submission Specifics

Now that you have a Web site with a number of optimized pages with good content, you are at last ready to submit your site to directories.

This is one task that many Webmasters neglect because of the frustrations and time-consuming routines involved.

Directories differ in the way they accept and list Web sites. Some accept only "paid" submissions i.e. you have to pay in advance just to get your site reviewed (with no guarantee of being listed). Others require you to provide a return link to their directory from your site. Yet others accept only sites that deal with niche topics or from certain geographic regions.

You might find even the task of finding the site submission page a daunting task. Most directories do no allow submissions from their top-level page.

Then there is the information about your site that you need to provide to each directory. Some need a 100 word-description of your site; others allow 200 or 250 words. You also have to select the best category to submit your site to.

After all these trouble, you would most likely find that there is a weeks or months or even year long backlog that the directory editors have to complete before they review your site.

You also face the problem of whether to pay for a quicker review. Some directories might have little traffic and no weight at search engines that paying for a listing might not be worthwhile.

Above all comes the need for hand-submission. Because automated software submit huge volumes of irrelevant and junk material, directories give low priority to sites submitted automatically. And hand-submitting your site to hundreds of directories, meeting the specific requirements of each, is a time-consuming monotony.

Unless you are familiar with the world of directories and the directory submission process, you are quite likely to waste a lot of effort and probably even money.

Yet again it is better to have it done by a specialist.

How to Select A Directory Submission Specialist

Check first of all that the specialist would submit your site by hand. Automated submissions are useless if you want to get into good directories and not just into junk-filled link farms.

Secondly, look at the process that the specialist would follow. Would that person select directories that have some weight with search engines or bring good traffic? Would that person provide you a full report of the submissions done, in a way that you could verify these?

Additionally, you would benefit greatly if the specialist could help you with creating good content and with search engine optimization.

By outsourcing directory submission and the other tasks, you could focus on your business instead of spending a lot of time trying to learn unfamiliar things.