Online Directories

A big part of SEO is to encourage incoming links to your site. Google, along with other search engines, places value on the quantity and quality of other web sites that link to your site.

There are a number of ways to generate links to your site, and one of the first you should consider is free listings with online directories. Resist the temptation, at least initially, to upgrade from a free listing to a premium listing. Just get listed.

Always use 'www' in front of your website, e.g. www.yourdomain.com.au

Enter a unique description of your business, including your important keywords, for each directory. Some search engines penalise you for using duplicate content, so mix it up.

Essential Directories for Australian Web Sites include

Google Local Business Centre
This is a very important and useful directory to be included in. You list your business and include your business location on a Google map. This is essential if you want to appear on the map in local business results for 'keywords'  near 'your area'  that appears at the top of some google search results.

True Local
TrueLocal is owned by News Limited and listings automatically display on Google Maps, Yahoo!7 Local Search, several mobile phone networks, some GPS and over 125 websites across the News Digital Media Network.

Yellow Pages
Listing with the Yellow Pages includes your business in the Yellow™ Directory, Yellow™ Online, Yellow™ Mobile, Sensis.com.au, Sensis® 1234 and potentially WhitePages.com.au.

Other popular directories include

• Hotfrog
• Aussieweb
• Startlocal
• dLook