Using Search Engine Operators for Easy Link Building

A lot of time and money can be put into the design and development of a company’s website as they move into the daunting world of online retailing. Of course nowadays, especially given the weather Britain has encountered recently which has prevented people venturing to the high streets, you really need to be online if you want to compete with your competition.

So you have bought your desired domain name, you have designed (or paid for) your website and it has just gone live as you launch the site that is either going to earn you your crust or is a bit of fun/provides some kind of helpful service to others. Let’s assume this is your shiny new portal to online sales, you now need people visiting your site. There are various ways of boosting traffic to your site as blogged about here. There are, however, some easy ways of finding such places as free and paid directories to begin spreading the word about your new site.

If you are a regular reader of these blogs, you will know that ‘Link Building’ is a powerful method of building your reputation with Google, whilst trying to avoid places such as link farms and link exchanging. So where do you start trying to find free or even paid directories where you can submit them your site?

Google! (Or your preferred search engine )

The power of Google is often underestimated and a bit like Photoshop or an Android mobile phone, you may be comfortable using it but deep down you know it can do more, it’s just being informed of its capabilities. That’s why we are here to help!

Search engines have been around long enough now that most people know that you can search using +, -, OR and “quotation marks”. However there is more to searching than this, so make the most of it. Below is a list of search operators that are useful for finding potential  link targets or directories that you can submit your site to.

Search Criteria	Description
site:yourdomainname.com	This will list all pages that have been indexed under your domain name.
link:yourdomainname.com	This will give you a list of sites that link to your website.
inurl:keyword	This will list all websites that contain your keyword in their URL.
allinurl:keywords	This will list all websites that contain all of your keywords in their URL.
intitle:keyword	This will list all websites that contain your keyword in their page title.
allintitle:keywords	This will list all websites that contain all your keywords in their page title.

Combinations you can use in order to find directories:

Search Combination	Description
keyword + “inurl:directory”	This would list all websites that contain ‘directory’ in the URL and that are related to the keyword.
keyword + “intitle:directory“ keyword + “intitle:resources“	This would list all sites related to the keyword that contain ‘directory’ and ‘resources’ respectively in the page title.
keyword + “inurl:list“ keyword + “intitle:list“	This would list all sites related to the keyword that contained ‘list’ in the page URL and the page title.
keyword + “submit site” keyword + “submit url“	This would list all sites related to the keyword that contain  ‘submit site’ and ‘submit url’.
keyword + “directory list”	Again, this would list all sites containing the keyword and ‘directory list’.
keyword + “add url”

keyword + “suggest url”

keyword + “suggest a url”

keyword + “submit a site”

keyword + “submit your site”

keyword + “add a url”

keyword + “add a site”

keyword + “add listing”

keyword + “add your listing”

keyword + “submit a listing”

keyword + “submit listing”

keyword + “submit your website”

These search terms are identifying websites containing the keyword and are primarily directory submission sites.

 

As you can see you need to conduct your search, exploring every combination when identifying directory submission sites. This can be a timely exercise, but can be performed by anyone and provided you stick to free directories, this method costs you nothing more than the time you invest into it.

So there you have it, link building can be made easy by the use of Google’s powerful search capabilities. Just be sure to have a quick look at our blog about Google’s penalties to refresh yourself with the potential dangers of embarking on an aggressive link building campaign over a short period of time.