Choosing the title, description and keywords

When submitting your website to any directory you are required to provide some details. Most of the time, this information includes the title, a short description, some keywords, a valid email address and, of course, the URL. So why would you care about those?

Step 1 - Choose your keywords

Every website has a piece of information it offers to visitors. Judging by this, you can try to predict what phrase would an average person looking for your website use in the search engines. However, try to come up with more specific keywords and avoid general terms. Do not try to target a very high searched keyword because, in most cases, you will have an outstanding competition. Instead, focus on terms that are not so popular and that have a lower competiton. The idea is that it is better to be at the top in the result pages for an insignificant keyword, than be at the 50th page for a competitive one.

Step 2 - Create your title

A common mistake made by many webmasters is putting your url as the title. Instead try to put a couple of your primary keywords in it. For example if you own a pet shop and your URL is www.jimmyspets.com you should fill in "Jimmy's pet shop". Why? Because search engines take into consideration the anchor text (the text that gets linked) and in the end your website will show up higher in the SERPs.

Step 3 - The description

The description must not be too long or too short. About 200-250 characters should be fine. Be careful not to boast (for example "The best site on the web!!!", "THE GREATEST PAGE!") because it will only attract rejection from directories. Instead, use a precise, to the point description that clearly states what your website is about and why should somebody visit it.

Step 4 - Your email address

You should also pick a single email address that you will fill in when submitting. Take notice that, by submitting your email address to many websites, you are likely to receive a lot of spam. Therefore it is good practice to create an email account for the sole purpose of submitting your website. This way you keep your personal address clean.