Directories and search engines play a crucial role in search engine optimization. These are used by internet marketers to promote what have been posted on websites. And right now, there are a number of online marketers who take full advantage of these directories and SE\’s. But sadly, there is still a good number of users and business owners that don\’t realize the value, the potential and by extension the differences between SE\’s and directories. Here’s a brief introduction and differentiation between search engines and directories.

A search engine is a database for all the sites on the internet. You can access this huge database each time you enter keyword searches and receive a list of relevant sites. These SE\’s send spiders or robots to crawl the Internet to look for web pages. These spiders follow links to travel from one URL to another. Once they visit a website, the spider will index or record the text of your web page and store it in the index of the search engine. So if someone looks for a certain keyword at the SE\’s website, the engine will scan the web pages in its index for pages that match to the searched keyword.

The directory on the other hand does not feature the same automation for search engines. The unique thing about the directory is that all submissions are manually reviewed. If you are the one that will submit a resource, then what you should do is to create a short summary for the resource. So here\’s the problem; the spiders of the SE\’s will usually spot the actual matches thus there is a need to be careful in writing the description. It should be kept in mind that the SEO strategies that worked for SE\’s many not necessarily work for the directories. Other suggestions to keep in mind are the need to create good content and as much as possible, the needs to stay off the flash pages. And if the submission is for directories, good content and appealing visuals will make the resource stand out.

Samples of SE\’s

Google, AltaVista, AlltheWeb are just some of the popular engines used online. They write programs known as spiders or robots that functions to locate Web pages read the contents of the Web pages and report the findings back to the engine’s database. These sites do update their databases on a regular basis.

Sample of directories

When it comes to directories, the leading ones are Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project. There is no automation here; instead of automatic submissions, there are manual reviews that are being made. Another unique thing about directories is the manner of organizing the database.

Also, the directory lists the root directory of the site while in search engine; it will list the individual pages of the website. Since a directory includes manual labor of adding sites, it often has to supplement the search results with a engine partner to guarantee the relevancy of the search results. You will notice that there are hundreds of search engines online. But the first thing you need to iron out is your page ranking. Some of the smaller SE\’s may not promise to give you high website traffic, but your listing can give you another source of links hence you can still achieve your overall link popularity on the web. Search engine optimization is not just tweaking what\’s inside the site, rather this also means getting the search engines and the directories involved in your online strategy.

Author Bio: Seomul Evans is a SEO services consultant specializing in organic Search Engine Optimization for Dallas based Organic SEO Company .

Category: Internet
Keywords: seo, seo services, search engine optimization, internet marketing, seo company