Most of the time people put too much emphasize into link exchange and traffic buying, hoping that such effort will give them a boost in PageRank (PR) and web traffic.

No doubt link exchange and traffic buying are helpful to a certain extent, but in long run they don’t really do a website good. A lot of webmasters tend to overlook a more exercise: web directory listing.

While web directory listing may look as if it serves the same purpose as link exchange and traffic buying, think again – they are somewhat different.

First of all, I realise that many people do link exchange just for the sake of getting more link juice and therefore a higher PR.

If you’re going to play by Google’s game, you must also remember that Google believes more one way linking than reciprocal linking. If that isn’t all, Google prefers linking from websites of the same category.

Therefore link exchange does not necessarily drive a better PR. And neither does it drive more traffic especially if the link is to a website from a different category not to the interest of the readers.

Link exchange may result in traffic boost among first-time visitors, but there is no use to have “touch and go” visitors who will probably never come back again.

A mediocre restaurant may claimed itself to be top-notch and cheat people into buying their food, but conversion would hardly take place for a second time.

For directory listing however, a URL submitted will be parked under the right category and therefore, the linking would have a greater value.

Web directories like Beacon may require customers to pay a little, but traffic that comes from these sites are definitely more reliable as URL listings have been properly organised in accordance to different categories and visitors are likely those who are truly interested in your site.

This will eventually increase web bounce rate and its returning traffic.

Some people may argue that paid directory listing is violating Google TOS. However take a look at this video:

If the directory you would like to submit your listing to are doing what Yahoo! directory and Best of the Web Directory (BOTW) are doing, your website will NOT be penalised:

• The directory only approves quality site submission – not everyone pays should get listed.
• The directory should have strict listing approval guidelines.

In a nutshell, directory listing is actually a pretty neat way to get high quality to a site and should have been appreciated better.

I logged onto MSN this morning to see this very unusual virtual scene:

But I thought my MSN barely slept!