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Directories

Directories can be an important source of inbound-links. The Open Directory Project <DMOZ: http://www.dmoz.org/> and Yahoo! are two examples of themed directories. Look up the category that corresponds most closely to your site's contents. These directories are also a source of much frustration as suggestions can take many months, if ever, to be included. DMOZ is particularly chaotic in some areas as it relies on volunteer editors who are sometimes prone to nepotism. Both provide a boost to PageRank, although this can be spread quite thinly over a large number of outgoing links and both guarantee that the site will also get spidered by the Google and Yahoo! search engines. There are many other directories ranging from general to trade and local lists. These can be found through Google or Yahoo! by searching for: keyword(s) directory.

This raises another question, is a good PR6 inbound-link with no relevant anchor text (the ubiquitous: click here springs to mind) better than a PR5 link with relevant anchor text? Given that the PageRank shown on the Google Toolbar is a non-linear scale (each jump in PR is worth something like 8 times more than the previous level) it may still be worth going for the PR6 link as it will be possible to distribute its effects through internal links, all with good, keyword rich, anchor text.

Competitors

Another source of potential inbound-links is from sites that link to your competitors. Most search engines support the "link:" query operator to show inbound-links. On Google this is actually a bit misleading as it includes internal links and excludes many backlinks that are less than PR4. Use Yahoo! to get a better picture.

Directories

Competitors

See Also