Gaining free traffic to your site using directories

New webmasters are always faced with this harsh reality of the web: just because you build it, doesn't mean people will come. You may have just designed the greatest website in the world for your chosen topic, but without visitors it is just some random code in a vast digital wilderness. There are many volumes written on techniques to gain visitors to your site, but this article will focus on links and particularly directories. One of the most important ways to gain favor with the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) is to have other sites linking to your site. These are known to the webmaster crowd as "backlinks". The more backlinks your site has coming in, the more clout your website has with the search engines. Trading links with other commonly themed sites is one way to gain backlinks, but this can be time consuming and difficult. An easier way to gain these invaluable links is to submit your links to directories. Directories come in all types and categories. There are general directories, specific topics, free, paid, reciprocal required, and many more. By submitting your new site to a directory, you gain a valuable one-way back link to your site, with only a minimal amount of effort. These links are generally permanent as well. I suggest starting out by submitting your website to free directories at first. Once you become more experienced at determining the value of each directory, you can consider paid inclusions. But free is always good to get started. An example of one such free directory is http://www.directoryvault.com. Choose directories that are human edited, as they will usually have a higher quality of links in their database. Search engines look at who is linking to you as well as how many sites are linking to you. A link from a "bad neighborhood" will damage your standing with the search engine. It is also important to read the submission guidelines before submitting your site for acceptance. This leads to a better chance of being included in the directory and saves time for both you and the directory's owner. Some directories have very strict guidelines and long approval times, while others are a little more lenient and faster. Be sure to pick the correct category for your link, and write a concise, accurate description. Directories owners love this, and will happily approve your link. Once you start building these links, your site will start receiving the traffic it deserves, and you will be on your way to a successful website. So start submitting today!