Finally, a list of SEO friendly directory websites for instant backlinks!
Got ZERO Backlinks? This List of Backlink Opportunities is for You!
This directory list is ideal for new websites aiming to establish trust with Google, particularly if you operate a small local business. Rest assured, this approach is a safe and ethical white hat link-building strategy for your website. It can contribute significantly to enhancing your website’s credibility and visibility in search engine rankings.
If you have a new website that’s still in the “Google sandbox” (not indexed yet) you don’t want to be aggressive with building anchor rich backlinks.
That could flag your website as spammy! I recommend you wait a few months before slowly getting “money keywords” as anchor text. Be patient when adding new links, quality backlinks pointing towards your “money site” is far better than low quality / spammy links.
You want natural, high authoritative (high DA), quality backlinks for your website’s SEO foundation as all SEO experts want for their back-link building strategies.
More High DA business citations = more quality backlinks pointing to your website
More QUALITY backlinks pointing to your website means a higher domain authority
You need Domain Authority
Yes, you do need great backlinks from a diverse and high number of domains. Don’t believe me? Go to google search and check out the top-ranking websites’ backlink profile. The top search results usually have the highest amount of quality backlinks and domain authority.
That being said, if you’re trying to rank for keywords while you have low domain authority, chances are simply put – you most likely have a low probability for ranking on the first page of Google search results.
When you add your “NAP” to the directories, you want to make sure you select the right city and business category. Some directories may not have your specific industry available but that’s OK. Just select as close as you can. As long as you have your “NAP”, you’re OK.
Ideally, you want to make sure you’re getting directories for your niche business AND the City your business is located. (BIG thanks to https://chrispalmermarketing.com I learned this tip from this SEO guru)
Here’s how you can search for specific directories in Google: “allintext: directory plumbing San Diego”
Yes, they will give you a small and very specific list of directories.
Are you ready for the BIG list of SEO friendly directory websites?
Have this list of things ready in a text document and folder labeled “Directory Backlink Campaign” It just helps because you won’t be making all these backlinks in a day. You’ll most likely want to spread out gaining these new backlinks dripped to your website through a few months.
Make sure you keep a record of the username and password you use to set up these directories because if your business moves or changes the website, etc, you need to update it everywhere! Below is a list of items you need in order for your directory submissions. Some directories don’t need all these items, but it’ good to be prepared because some give you these opportunities.
Most of all, you want to keep your information consistent!
Here’s what you’ll need for your directory citations:
A high-quality image of your logo
A few images of your business or service images/products/menu items
Short business description
Make sure you have a consistent URL such as “https://www.yoursite.com or yoursite.com”
Phone number
Email address
Consistent address
Consistent wording for your business “Buckboards BBQ & Brew or Buckboards Barbecue and Brew”
Any social media account usernames/addresses
Access to your business phone/email if some listings need verification
Be on the lookout for these directory listing opportunitiesHere’s an example screenshot what the fields look like for entering your business information
I hope this massive list of backlink directories does not intimidate you.
Take your time and grow your citations slowly aka drip them. If you have SEO clients. These links may take a while for Google to crawl and discover. It’s best to let Google naturally discover them. And if you’ve got links still on your mind, don’t forget to give your internal links an SEO boost.
ATTN: Shopify store owners – Don’t forget to add these directory backlinks to your eCommerce store. + add these Shopify SEO tips.
PS: Guess what? Your Youtube videos need backlinks too! Follow my Youtube SEO tips here.
If you’re looking for an SEO expert that can submit your “NAP” across the web, contact me!
Thanks for reading my SEO friendly directory websites list. You know what would make my day? If you shared this blog post.
Follow these EASY 5 Tips to Improve Your Website’s SEO. (BOOST website traffic)
Interested in increasing your SEO rankings for free?
By implementing these website improvements, you can expect a significant surge in traffic within approximately 30 days.
What makes this strategy even better is that it applies to all WordPress blogs. These recommendations are particularly crucial for business owners looking to generate more leads and boost their online visibility. Don’t hesitate to take action and follow these tips to witness tangible improvements in your website’s SEO performance.
An Alt tag (Alternative text) is a descriptive label given to each image. Since Google can’t see the text on images or understand what the image is about, you need to describe the image in text. Alt tags help the Google bots “see” your image.
You’d be surprised how many websites do not give every image on their website an Alt tag. You can gain a competitive edge! It takes 3 seconds to type in an image label. Just as it helps to add supportive images to your blog post and service pages, it makes sense to label them so Google understands them too!
You can also be rewarded by Google since many people search in Google’s image search!
People may discover your content by clicking on photos from Google images.
Adding Alt tags is also helpful to users that use text-only web browsers. These are usually people that are visually imaged.
Since we’re talking about adding alt tags, might as well tell you how to add them!
It’s so EASY!
Here’s how to add an Alt tag to an image in WordPress:
Go to “Media” > “Library” > Click on the image you want to add the Alt tag to > Add the descriptive text in the text box field labeled “Alt Text”
Add Properly Named Internal Links
The days of adding links on your such as “click here” are long gone!
There are zero SEO benefits when you add a link that does not describe the content of the linked page.
Many people simply think blogging frequently will boost your SEO, while it’s part of the equation, you need backlinks and social shares.
Actually, you should spend as much time promoting each blog post as you did writing each blog post!
There’s an easy way to get backlinks and an easier way how to get social shares.
The first is by creating an infographic for each blog post and submitting each infographic to a FREE infographic directory.
Second, you can schedule your blog posts to be shared continuously by using a service called Meet Edgar. It’s amazing, and Here’s my Meet Edgar review. (not sponsored)
Speaking of backlinks, you also need backlinks to your Youtube videos. That’s right! Check out my Youtube Advanced SEO Tips here.
Thanks for reading my awesome and effective SEO tips.
I understand these SEO tips can take time to do and if you’re working for a small business, time is money!
It can be difficult to convince the owner of a business to invest either time or money into SEO services or time in allocating an employee to do SEO.
One effective strategy is to post your infographics on various submission sites to acquire backlinks to your blog post or website.
What’s even better is that these backlinks tend to get indexed rapidly, contributing to a swift increase in your website’s domain authority.
Even if you only have a single infographic on your website, you can still submit it to numerous high Domain Authority (DA) domains to gain backlinks. Many of these websites fall under the category of blog 2.0 sites, where you can further benefit by registering your brand and creating a profile that includes a backlink to your primary domain.
Each infographic you submit will secure a backlink to your blog post. It’s worth noting that this list comprises many DO FOLLOW backlinks, which effectively pass link juice to your website. This strategy can significantly enhance your website’s SEO and visibility.
Some of the websites on this Infographic Submission List require you to enter 150 words of an original paragraph with your free submission, along with waiting a few days to hear back if your infographic is accepted. The first 9 websites listed below are super easy to gain a backlink for your infographic. The rest take a while to process but can be worth wait.
Hello to all the new bloggers out there! I’ve put together this straightforward SEO blog post checklist designed especially for beginners.
By adhering to this SEO checklist, you’re already on the right track even before you begin crafting your inaugural blog post.
I recommend bookmarking this page and referring to it each time you create a new blog post, until you’ve become proficient in these SEO blog post techniques.
It’s important to understand that conducting some SEO research is akin to constructing a blueprint. It provides your blog post’s SEO with a robust and reliable foundation for success.
While some bloggers may simply write lengthy posts and hope for the best in terms of ranking, following this checklist will ensure you’re taking deliberate steps to optimize your content for search engines and improve your chances of visibility and success.
If you have a new site with low domain authority, you will want to go after low competition keywords. The low competition keywords may have a lower monthly search volume, but if you’re a newbie website this will be what you’re most likely to rank for. This is something I have to stress to all new bloggers. If you have a new website without authority, you will not be able to compete with big-name retailers.
On the other hand, you don’t want to go after keywords that are not even being searched for!
Heck, it makes me mad when SEO agencies show a client a list of low volume keywords they rank #1 for.
Yes, you rank #1 for keywords nobody is using. You don’t want to waste time and good money on those SEO efforts! Feel free to reach out to me for a keyword consultation. I’m great at finding keywords that will help you rank!
Make sure you use sub-headlines to break up your content. This helps organize each section so people can skim your site easily. It also helps Google understand how in-depth you wrote your content.
Use bulleted lists or numbered lists. Your content will be enriched and may appear In featured snippets.
Add helpful images. Try an infographic or an image that communicates a subheading.
Make sure the quality is 100% and make sure your post is at least 800 words
Here’s my Top SEO Facts Business Owners Overlook. Many business owners need to know these SEO facts that will set the record straight.
It’s 2024 and a LOT has changed in SEO.
There’s no way to expect business owners to keep up with Google’s updates.
In fact, listen to my story of talking to a business owner thinking SEO won’t help him.
Business owners are busy running their businesses.
The majority I meet do not know much about SEO or have been burned in the past. So here are my personal favorite 8 SEO tips I discuss with business owners:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeZSyDeUh7s
1. SEO is NOT a One-Time Purchase
SEO is like playing a game of chess but it’s a game that never ends!
To play chess, one must learn the rules and how each chess piece moves across the board. Your first time playing chess will be difficult because it takes a long time to master. Just like SEO, there are rules and strategies. You know chess is NEVER a fast game. SEO is not a fast process and requires a lot of skills, work, and strategy. There are novice chess players and seasoned experts. I hope this analogy helps. (I like to play chess can you tell)
SEO Facts Business Owners Overlook
Overall, SEO is a long term strategy. If you quit updating your website, building domain authority, building quality backlinks, and optimizing your website – Your competition will outrank you.
2. SEO is NOT a Luxury Service – it’s a Requirement for Success
If your website is not working on its SEO, it will fail. Your competitors most likely have an SEO expert working on their website. You, on the other hand, do not and therefore can expect to never have your blog articles discovered.
3. You Cannot Simply Publish a Blog Post and Expect it to Rank
Post and pray simply does not work anymore.
You have to promote your content. Your website needs to be shared on social media and it needs backlinks from quality websites. In fact, if your website does not have domain authority, your content will most likely not appear in first page results. This is where SEO comes in strong, you need to optimize your site and earn Google’s trust. You should put as much time into promoting your content as you did to create your content. Over time, your content will rank once the page has strong authority. It’s not an overnight process. If you blog, make sure you’re promoting – otherwise it can be a waste of time. When you’re ready to make some updates to your SEO, I have also written some SEO Tips that Work on ALL Websites.
For example, this post:
I will place it on related SEO tip blog posts as related content
Email it to subscribers
Share it in social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram
Make a YouTube video (I made one and embedded it into this post / share the video / do YouTube SEO)
Could make an infographic (see mine below) – share it on Pinterest – other social media
Include it in your email signature
Update this blog post with new information
Respond to blog comments
4. Blogging needs to Be Lengthy – No weak 300-word Blog Posts
Think about the last time you Googled how to do something – or a product review. Most likely the post has over 1200 words and goes in-depth. Meaning it will rank for multiple keywords about the topic. Let’s say I look up a review for a Tesla Model S, I want to know what it’s like owning one – features I’ll love – photos – etc.
5. Your Keywords Need to Be on Your Website
Many business websites do not have enough text on their pages.
My favorite of the SEO Facts Business Owners Overlook! This is something I always have to educate my SEO clients about. People will want me to optimize a website, but they might not like the text I add to the website. You can’t just have an image and a tiny paragraph. It might look pretty but Google needs more info if you want to compete with other websites. Check out your competition.
You simply can’t just have a page that says you are a surfboard shop in San Diego. You need to point out what makes your surfboards the best – how you’re different – show the process of how your boards are handmade, have testimonials from local surfers – video of your boards in action! – go in-depth, more content is needed! The perfect landing page must entice the user and convert them. Google needs text to understand what the page is about. And your keywords along with related keywords need to be there. I can’t rank a page if your keywords are never there. Also, it’s important not to keywords stuff your articles. That being said, only an SEO expert will know how to properly optimize your website.
6. Speed-Up Your Site
There are over 200 ranking factors and website speed is high on the list! Think about it from a user’s perspective. If the site is slow, they’re hitting the back button faster than you can say “bananas”. So, please be sure to optimize your images, use a CDN, and the W3 WordPress plug-in. Here’s how to speed up your site.
7. Get an SSL Certificate
Many web browsers will show frightening caution screens before entering an unsecured website. NOT a good impression for your readers and potential customers! There are free SSL certificates from Cloudflare. Many hosting companies will talk you into spending a TON of money on their SSL certificates and will call you about them often.
8. SEO is Not Cheap
As mentioned, SEO takes a LOT of work. You have an entire chessboard game in action. You can hire a novice or an expert. Just like playing a game of chess, it’s usually the expert that wins the game! I’m transparent in the industry, providing my SEO pricing here.
BONUS SEO Facts below the info graphic!
Thanks for reading: My TOP SEO Facts Business Owners Need to Know
Kudo for you scrolling down to see the bonus SEO fact:
9. SEO is a Profitable Long-Term Strategy!
OK, SEO is not cheap – however it’s cheaper than paying for every click from Google ads.
You would much rather spend money on SEO and gain long-term traffic than quick short-term traffic.
Once you have an established blog or even a blog post that has gone viral, thus gaining quality back-links, you’ll be profitable in the long-run.
You may create evergreen content that is better quality than your competition and makes you an authority in your industry.
10. The bigger your website, the more maintenance and resources your website needs
I have had customers that have over one thousand blog posts and do not want to invest in the additional resources they need! For example, big websites take up a lot of resources. The more popular your site, the more you will need to move to a non-shared server. If you’re on a shared server sharing resources, you could experience downtime thus hurting your SEO. You will also need to check for broken links since over time pages you’re linking out to can change. With more content, you will also need updates to old outdated content as well as refreshing content. You will need to keep an eye out for duplicate content and ensure you’re not committing keyword canibalization. Pages that were once ranking high can go stale and need up to date content. Speaking of more SEO work needed, you may need a larger SEO service package.
All you need to do is log into your hosting account and update your name servers. They make it so ridiculously easy. Copy / paste, wait a moment for your site to update, and you’re done.
You also get a “https://” secured aka encrypted website!
Everyone has been crying tho their momma about making sure their website is https://
Cloudflare has helped me save 2 GB in the last month
Cloudflare blocks or challenges bad requests from hitting my website
They’re making the internet safer
A fast solution for my clients seeking “a little lock”🔐 on their website
You will also want to install the plugin: Really Simple SSL
This ensures your website is coming up with the SSL certificate and helps rewrite any http urls to https. This way you don’t end up with mixed content and a broken lock on your url.
Not ready to make the switch to a “https” website?
I wish you’d make the switch, but hey I got ya. There’s some nifty (who uses the word nifty anymore?) WordPress plugins that can speed up your WordPress website.
Try these free wordpress plugins to speed up WordPress sites page load time under 2 seconds. No matter what host you use and without using a CDN. No paid Services.
Free Plugins to Speed Up Your WordPress Website for faster page load time and SEO that actually work and they’re easy to use.
Fun fact: Speeding up your website will make it rank higher in Google
This is the quickest method how to speed up your wordpress blog using free WP plug-ins. This will only take you under ten minutes and you will see improvements in speed of your wordpress website.
First of all, congrats on making an effort to fix your slow website. There’s so many slow websites out there that drive people crazy. If your blog is using the WordPress platform, it’s not uncommon to experience a gradual slow down in page load time and responsiveness. The bigger your website becomes and your bad habit of constantly installing new plug-ins, WordPress can get cray sluggish.
However, every WordPress website needs a little maintenance for page load time. Here’s how to get your slow blog back up to speed. Ideally, you want to have a WordPress site that loads fast under 2 seconds. Let’s make it happen. 😉
Remove plugins you don’t need! The less the better!
The types of plug-ins that slow down your site are usually: Jetpack, and most related content plug-ins. Delete them if you can handle it. Don’t be a wimp.
There’s lots of posts that claim to speed up your WordPress website, however you only need to install these four to see a big difference. Remember, overall the less plug-ins you have, the faster your page load time.
Ready to make your website lighting fast? I can help you. Don’t forget, I’m an SEO expert in San Diego, ready to help optimize your website. Contact me today for a quote.
OK, can we now talk about the IMPORTANCE of a FAST website host?
Holy MOLEY, If you are paying for a cheap web hosting package, you most likely have a SLOW website no matter what!
Don’t blame the person doing technical SEO for your website if you’re a cheapskate for website hosting.
Here’s the bottom line – the fat ugly truth about having a shared hosting plan is that the resources are shared with other sites on that server. Heck you could be sharing web resources with a popular porn website, meaning that demand for that site is costing your site to slow down! So if your hosting is at a price too good to be true, it probably is cheap hosting that’s shared.
And website speed is becoming so insanely important to Google that it’s most likely costing your website traffic to drop as they favor faster websites.
I’ve worked on a client’s website recently that slowed down to a 4 second load time that was once about 1 second load time. After doing some testing, I discovered the server was the only variable thanks to a https://gtmetrix.com/ test that shows the server response time! You can optimize your images and code all you want but if you have a lame hosting package, there’s no point.
I LOVE Ranking Small Businesses Higher in Google Search Results! My favorite moment is when my clients call me saying… “Jen, whatever you did to our website, we’re finally getting more calls and emails…THANK YOU!!!”
