Once you have created a blog one of the quickest ways to get backlinks and to start building traffic is to submit your blog to as many of the blog directories that you can find. At least, that is the general advice that everyone will offer. There are however several things that you will need to consider before and during the registration process.
The first question you need to ask yourself is which blog directories do you want to submit your blog to. You can do a search and build a list or you can visit any blog that has a list of blog directories. You could also get a professional service to submit your blog for you. Often, the list provided by a reliable blog is your best starting point as they will generally have some knowledge of the directories being recommended.
Before listing your blogs, grab yourself a free email address from one of the free email services. Once you register your blog details on a blog directory your details including your email address are added to their database. Not all blog directories are honorable. There are some that will either sell their database to advertising companies, or they will use their database themselves to send constant ad related emails. With a free email address you will at least save your regular email from being spammed.
Some blog directories require a reciprocal link on your blog. That is fine particularly if it is a little banner or text link. If they do require a reciprocal link avoid putting it in the footer. It seems at present that search engines such as Google consider links in the footer to be link exchanges or purchased links. This could have a negative affect on your search engine ranking. Place the recipricol link in either your blogroll (for a text link) or in your sidebar. Group the banners together in the sidebar for a better aesthetic look.
Finally, when submitting to blog directories, choose your categories and keywords very carefully. Some directories may reject your blog if it has been submitted to the wrong category. You also want any backlinks that do come from the directory to come from the same niche as your blog. This increases the value of that backlink.
Submitting your blog to a range of blog directories is good PR and will improve the search engine value of your blog – just be aware of some of the pitfalls associated with blog directories.
