Traffic From Web Directories?

2190 days ago

I am posting the big question, do you get any traffic from web directories you submitted your site to? I mean truthfully. I have read in forums that directories do drive...

I am posting the big question, do you get any traffic from web directories you submitted your site to? I mean truthfully. I have read in forums that directories do drive traffic to their listings. But are these forumers telling you the truth? Or are they paid to say that? Or it could be they have a relationship with the directory owner and would like to help out by claiming that it DOES drive traffic to their listings? Me thinks the most likely reason is that they are all directory owners and thus complimenting on each other’s directory will certainly help each other’s bottom line. So beware when you hear such compliments. However, with all these being said, web directories can be a great place for you to improve your Search Engine rankings.

And I need to tell you, if you submit your site to general web directories in the hopes that you will get traffic from them, I recommend you to rethink your strategy. I am pretty sure it won’t work. In fact if it works, you will probably be one of the rare few. I would like to ask you another question, do you visit general web directories to look for sites? The likely answer would be “no”. So if you won’t visit a general directory to search for sites, then do you expect others to?

For me, I have several listings in small unknown directories, but I do have a few in big well-known directories. These hardly sent me a trickle of traffic to my site. However, since my website is actually a directory, directory of directories is one of the main drivers of traffic! No, this does not mean that a directory works, it means that niche directories (or niche sites) do work. Search Engines still can’t quite compare to human edited niche directories. Perhaps in 5 years time we will be able to get good search results?

Do You Think I Should Change the Template of This Blog?

2191 days ago

Seriously, is the theme/template of this blog too plain? Or even too dull for your liking? Heck, could it even be too common since it is the default theme for WordPress?...

Seriously, is the theme/template of this blog too plain? Or even too dull for your liking? Heck, could it even be too common since it is the default theme for WordPress? And if so, what kind of themes do you think will suit this blog? Do you like bright coloured themes or dark colour ones? Or you do like those kind of Web2.0 sites with the funky CSS styled look? How about those flowery things? I am asking because I was too lazy to search for a free theme, and so if you have any suggestion, please comment here. And I hope to attract more traffic and if the traffic demands eye-candy, then I am all for it. Yes, some people visit blogs to look at how good looking that particular blog is. Anyway, the theme should be free because I don’t have the money to pay for “professional” theme makers. I am not a cheapskate or anything, I am really a poor bloke.

Well, any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. It’s so confusing, seeing so many WordPress themes available on the Internet. I sometimes just feel that I shouldn’t even bother. But truthfully, some of these themes are very beautifully done. We sure don’t want to disappoint the creator of the theme by using the default theme. Something like Peter’s Blog – World of Peter.

If you think that I should not change the theme of this blog, please also comment in the blog. I would like to know why you don’t like eye-candy? Do you actually read the contents of the blog? That’s just amazing that someone is reading the blog!

Ahhh….Google Dropping Pages

2191 days ago

Oh no, looks like Google is going to deal me another painful blow. Yes, it is not enough that they are sending my webpages into supplemental, they are now throwing my...

Oh no, looks like Google is going to deal me another painful blow. Yes, it is not enough that they are sending my webpages into supplemental, they are now throwing my pages out of their index altogether! I had my Singapore Business Directory about 3000 pages indexed before, but now, it has dropped to about 1400 pages (plus supplementals as well). It is no wonder my traffic from Google is dropping steadily.

Is it because I did some changes to my directory? I had added a few more internal links to each of the listing’s directory page. But somehow I don’t think it is the cause. My other directories didn’t have their webpages thrown out of the index and they have the same additional links. Can anyone enlighten me, I am really in the dark here. Does having more outgoing links result in some penalty by Google? That’s stupid right? This isn’t really some serious breach of some ethical code. I mean Google is basing their entire algorithms on links. It doesn’t make sense to devalue a site because of internal links. In fact, it would help in navigation which is something Google encourages all webmasters to do – making the site human user friendly.

I think the worst thing about dealing with Google is you can never understand what is happening. I am not the only one, I believe a lot of webmasters are also confused about why their pages are in supplemental too. And why Google remove some pages from their index. The funniest thing, Google doesn’t even tell you why. At most they give you a little vague and virtual useless answer about this or that little excuse.