Automated Directory Submission. Can It Improve Search Engine Rankings?

The concept of off page optimization is really all about building up your site's credibility. As more sites point to your website, Google analyzes the quality of those links and in turn, passes that link value to you. The more quality web sites that refer to your site, the more popular your web site becomes. All of this can be summed up as Google PR or Google Page Rank.

The first step was to make sure that the site had all of the necessary characteristics that would make it easily accessible by search engine spiders. After applying the proper navigation, meta tags, and keyword application we evaluated the site for size and loading time. After this optimization was complete, we identified a few key link building strategies.

One particular link strategy is related to directory submissions. Essentially you find directories that are well established and relevant to the subject matter of your own web site. The site I was working with had about 300 directories that would be ideal for a site like has. As a result, and due to the urgency by which he wanted the work done, we chose an automated directory submission service.

After we used the service for directory submission I was shocked by the results. The keyword phrase that we were trying to improve ranking for was impacted negatively. In fact, rankings declined by more than twenty three positions. One might challenge my results saying that even if there was a negative effect from the automated submission that it wouldn't happen that quickly. I beg to differ based on a fairly controlled test.

During this time period, my team was not focused on any other type of link building effort. Because the impact on search engine rankings was so immediate and so detrimental, I can only conclude that it was directly caused by the directory submission activity. I suppose there really are no shortcuts to SEO success.

If you are familiar with search engine optimization and building links to improve your search engine ranking, be cautious of automatic submission services. Whether it be for search engine submission or directory submission, you can damage your current rankings. Major search engines seem to be catching on to automatic submission sites and are having an impact on results. I still encourage you to submit your website to a small number of choice directories but do it one site at a time.