If you own a website and you're looking for ways to generate traffic towards your site, then you've probably heard about directory submission. One of the most preferred methods of link building, directory submission is used by webmasters to increase the credibility of their website. How does this happen? That's what we're here to discuss.

Of all the millions of websites out there, each one has common goals ? to build a high reputation and get a lot of visitors. Reputation, in internet jargon can also be called as authority and is often gauged by the Google Page Rank or the position of the site in the search engine results page (SERPs). So say you are selling curry and the keyword you are targeting is ?Indian curry? then your goal is to be on the first page of SERPs. To do this, you need to have a high page ranking. PR 4 is usually indicative of a high authority. But how do you get to PR 4?

Thorugh link building of course! When we say link building, we mean having a link on one site which is pointing to your site ? something that redirects Google spiders from a certain site to get to your site. This is where directory submission comes in. Most directories are already human edited so someone actually checks what your site is all about and whether your description and category matches what you wrote in the submission form. Sometimes, if these don't match, editors might reject your site and you have to resubmit. Other websites will also require that you put an HTML link from your site to theirs, making it a link exchange. Why the need for links?

Well, Google usually gives those sites which have a lot of links pointing to their site a higher page ranking! But we are just not after the number of links, we also want quality links. This means you need to make sure that the site you are linking with is relevant to your site so if you are selling curry, then you shouldn't link with sites which features musical instruments, unless you are selling Indian curry in particular, and then you can link with a site selling Indian musical instruments, etc. Through manual directory submission, you can choose the category where your site belongs so you can be sure that you're going to get a higher page rank.

But getting a high page rank isn't the only reason for link building. As a matter of fact, getting a high page rank isn't the end goal. Getting a high page rank and building as many links as you can is focused on getting traffic ? the more people visiting your site, the better. Again, we are talking about targeted traffic ? we want people who are already interested with the product or service we are selling as this gives us a higher chance of making a sale. That's the reason why you need to link with a site relevant to what you're offering, this way, you don't waste resources trying to convince people who are not interested with what you are selling.