Internet Directories Create Advertising Venue

Creating a website that attracts a lot of online visitors who are interested in your products and services is one of your important goals as an online marketer. A dynamic website that has lots to offer is essential. Finding people who are interested in your products or services is also critical to your business growth.

There are many methods of advertising that will attract an audience. Some of them are more global in nature while others are focused on targeted traffic. Targeted traffic are those people who are most likely to have an interest in your products based on their searches, use of keywords, websites visited, and other criteria. Finding these potential customers is the way to expand your business.

Among the many methods of online advertising, it’s important not to overlook the importance of Internet directories. Many of these directories are free while others come with a fee. Some work and some don’t. Internet directories are simply a group of Internet sites that are compiled and organized by subject alphabetically. Users can visit a directory site, click on a subject, and a list of relevant websites appears.

The Internet uses two different types of directories to help people locate specific information:

Academic and professional directories such as Britannica Online, InfoMine, and Librarians Index to the Internet. These directories are often for scholars, researchers, statisticians, and other professionals.

Commercial directories for general audiences such as About.com, JoeAnt, and Yahoo! Directory, among many others. These resources are available to the general public and they offer millions of resources by subject.

Internet directories are very popular and as you consider adding your website and business to these directories, you need to understand how they work. Search for your products and similar products using your search engine. As you search, use a variety of keywords, specify locations or geographical locations, and see how products are listed and identified.

Review several of the Internet directories to see how subjects are categorized. You’ll learn a lot about the organization of the directories and how to better categorize your website.

For example, visiting a directory and clicking on “Health” will take you to a sub-directory.

There you can choose ‘children’s health’, ‘dental health’, ‘education’, ‘pet health’, and many other sub-categories.

Clicking on ‘children’s health’ takes you to an even further breakdown of categories such as ‘child psychology’, ‘childhood obesity’, ‘immunizations’, ‘teen health’, and many more.

Moving deeper into the director for ‘teen health’ leads to ‘sex education’, ‘teen pregnancy’, ‘teen smoking’, and you guessed it – MORE!

As you progress through each level of sub-categories, you’re presented with a listing of websites or you can continue to refine your search.

This exercise gives you a better idea of how subjects are categorized and how you can include your website on the directories. You’ll likely want to have your website included in a more general category, but will probably also want to include it in a specialized detailed directory for more targeted traffic.

Now, you’re ready to find directories that are most relevant to your content and website. Use your search engine to locate directories by subject and evaluate them. Find the ones that you believe are most applicable to your business and get started.

Listing your website in an Internet directory can put you in front of your target audience and help you attract more visitors and potential customers.