Submitting to Directories: A Comprehensive Guide - Link types and Page Visibility
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Link Types
The first and most important consideration is the link type. There are two types of links: Simple Link and a Redirected Link. You cannot discover the difference by clicking on them -- the results are absolutely identical, but from the perspective of a link campaign - the difference is fundamental. As far as Link Popularity is concerned, the Redirected Link is absolutely worthless. Here is why:
A Simple Link is a link that contains the target URL of the site and directly points to it, as in this link: http://www.target-site.com. On the other hand, a Redirected Link points to a URL inside the current site, usually to a script file, and the address of the target site is passed to the script as a parameter, like this: http://www.this-site.com/jump.php?www.target-site.com. You can check the type of links used by a Directory by observing the 'Status bar' while hovering your mouse over the links.
When a Search Engine visits a Directory that uses Redirected Links, it does not get from it the 'vote of confidence' for the linked sites -- as they do not show up as links at all! If anything, such links only 'strengthen' the internal script page, as there may be thousands of links pointing to it. Your site, if listed in such a Directory, will not see any of it.
Page visibility
This is another obvious and logical consideration. To gain Link Popularity, the Search Engine must 'know' that you are listed in the Directory. In other words, the Search Engine must capture the pages of the Directory and index them. Only then can it add the link from the Directory to your site - to your link popularity. This measurement is also known sometimes as 'Search Engine Saturation'. You can check the Search Engine Saturation of any site by using the appropriate search command in the Search Engines themselves, or you can take advantage of one of the freely provided tools such as Market Leap.
When examining the results, do not just look for the highest total figure. As mentioned above, Link Popularity is now used by most (if not all) Search Engines. Find out if the Directory has good 'presence' in all the Search Engines. You will soon discover that some Search Engines are notoriously difficult to get indexed by, while others are relatively easy. A good 'spread' of Page Visibility among several Search Engines increases the chances of your site being picked up and indexed by them too. Thus, not only will you gain in Link Popularity, but also your site will be present in their index!
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