One of the best ways and the first thing online business owners
ought to do to help their Website promotion is to list their
site with directories. They should start, of course, with those
that are most popular. The more traffic that comes to the
directories the more traffic that flows to the sites that list
there, and the higher their search engine rankings.

Listing with directories is not difficult at all. In fact, it's
probably the easiest promotional step. What's important,
however, is that the Webpreneur understand the difference
between search engines and directories.

Directories are places where users go to find websites, just
like they do with search engines. However, there are significant
differences between the two. While search engines normally
accept almost any site or page that is submitted to them without
looking at its quality, directories usually only accept sites
that offer quality information. Because all sites submitted to
directories are reviewed by humans, sites that are of low
quality rarely get accepted.

Of course, what this is saying is that no one should try
submitting a Website to a directory without first creating a
top-notch site. The three most important directories to which
any entrepreneur or online firm should submit are massive and
can do much to drive Website promotion. These are DMOZ,
Looksmart and Yahoo. The submission process for directories is,
as we mentioned earlier, fairly simple. Almost every directory
is made up of categories, which are in turn broken down by
subcategories. Each of these subcategories is made up of sites
whose content relates to the subcategory topic. The first step
of submission, therefore, is determining just the right category
and subcategory for the Website - the one that will best help
its Website promotion.

A business owner can either keyword search the directories,
using keywords that best describe their own site, or simply
browse through the directory. It's important to keep in mind
that it's not possible to change the chosen subcategory and
category, so should the Webpreneur choose wrong the submission
may be rejected. If not rejected, the bad choice can have a
negative impact on what could have been great Website promotion.

Before actually submitting the site to directories, it's vital
to read the directory's instructions and rules on submissions.
Most directories will ask for the site's title and a description
of the site as part of the submission process. This should be
short no more than 30 words and should sound like an impartial
reviewer wrote it. No hyperbole here, or your Website promotion
hopes for this directory will be dashed. Help for this can be
found by reading the descriptions of sites already listed in the
same subcategory. Remember, they were accepted!

Follow their direction. Making sure the description contains a
couple of the major keywords that describe your site is a
crucial part of effective Website promotion through the
directory, but cramming it with keywords will only get the
description - and the site - rejected. It should read naturally,
like a well-crafted sentence.

It can take several weeks for a Website submission to be
accepted or rejected. If accepted, the applicant will get an
e-mail. If rejected, he or she generally will not hear.

About the author:
Dustin Cannon is owner of JustArticlesVIP.com and writes on a
variety of subjects. To learn more about this topic Dustin
recommends you visit: Team
Builders