Who doesn’t want better rankings in Google? Isn’t that the point? One of the most important parts of SEO and the surest way to see your site climb up the rankings is to get high quality links pointing back to your website. But what constitutes a “high-quality link”? Links from sites that have a high value to the search engines are good sites to link back to your site. Search engines place value on the site by how much free and useful information it has on it. Sites of value have many sites pointing to it, telling the search engines that it is a relevant and important source of information. Types of sites that produce high quality links

• Reliable news sources
• Educational Facilities (.edu websites)
• Encyclopedias
• Information Portals specific to your topic or industry
• Forums
• Blogs
• Link Directories

The fastest and easiest way to get links back to your site is to submit to Directories. There are thousands of directories, both paid and free, to which you can submit. Paid directories usually are better than free ones, because there usually is more important information on a paid directory. Also, there is someone to approve listings, and make sure that yours gets up in 72 hours or less. With free directories who knows how long it will take you to get listed (if at all) and who knows what kind of spam, porn, gambling and undesirable content is on the free directories. Links in paid directories usually run from anywhere from $10 – $300 most of which are usually in the $30 – $40 price range. A couple things you should know when submitting to link directories:

• You won’t get much traffic from the directories themselves – The average internet user these days has no idea what a directory is. The days of people actually searching directories for sites has been long gone. Traffic is not what its about. It’s all about building links. You’ll get more traffic from Google when all the links back to your site skyrocket you in the rankings.
• Have good, varying descriptions – You will need to come up with descriptions of your site for the directory listings. usually these are 50-200 word descriptions. Make sure they are rich with your top keywords without being overstuffed. Also, make sure the descriptions for each directory are different. If you use the same exact description over and over Google can think your submissions are automated and therefore spam.

Below are some directories to which you can submit, to get you a good start.

Directory	URL	Price
Yahoo! Directory	dir.yahoo.com	$299
Best of the Web	www.botw.org	$69.95
GoGuides	www.goguides.org	$39.99
JoeAnt	www.joeant.com	$39.99
Wow Directory	www.wowdirectory.com	$37
Site-Sift	www.site-sift.com	$29.95
Uncover The Net	www.uncoverthenet.com	$49
Gimpsy	www.gimpsy.com	$40
Librarians Internet Index	www.lii.org	FREE
Site Snoop	www.sitesnoop.com	$10
Browse8	www.browse8.com	$35
01 Web Directory	www.01WebDirectory.com	$49
Starting Point	www.stpt.com	$99
Web Beacon	www.web-beacon.com	$39.99
Rubber Stamped	www.rubberstamped.org	$29.95
Illumirate	www.illumirate.com	FREE
Massive Links	www.massivelinks.com	$24.95
This Is Our Year	www.thisisouryear.com	$24.95
SevenSeek	www.sevenseek.com	$40
Aviva	www.avivadirectory.com	$34.95
Azoos	www.azoos.com	$89.95
Skaffe	www.skaffe.com	$39.99
DMOZ	www.dmoz.org	FREE