One of the main reasons we are going through all the seemingly tedious trouble of developing a link directory is to help improve your web site’s ranking.

Go design group.com has learned through trial and error what to look for when considering a link partner.

What we look for before considering a site for link exchange:

In most all cases relevancy counts
We accept most links that are related to our site(s). We are an advertising design and web design agency, so it only stands to reason that we look for and will link with sites that have related content.

<title> TAG
If your link directory has several categories each page should have its own unique title describing the page. Rule of thumb here again is relevance counts. As an example, we normally do not exchange links with sites that have a <title> of “links,” “untitled,” or titles that are the same on all link directory categories pages.

An example of a good <title> for a page that is targeting illustrators:
<title> Illustration and Design Directory, Product Illustration Directory, Link Directory for Illustration</title>

<META> TAG
Your meta tag should include at the very least:
<meta name=”description” content=” your description here”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=” your description here”>

Full Example:
<title>Illustration and Design, Product Illustration, Link Directory for Illustration title>
<meta name=”description” content=”Add your link to our Illustration and Design link directory, design illustration, product illustration”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”illustration link directory, product design, cartoon drawing”>

<h1>
This should be the title of your page
Example:
<h1> Illustration and Design Directory, Product Illustration Directory, Link Directory for Illustration</h1>

How many links do you have on a page?
There should not be any more than a total of 50 outbound links to a page. Have more than 50 outbound links? Create another page and yes, you will have to start over with the TITLE and META TAG for your new page.

Once you set a text link to a page do not move it from that page.

Matching Domains
Your link page or link directory must be hosted under the same URL:
Example: if your home page is:
www.123.com
your link page or link directory should be something like
www.123.com/link.html or
www.123.com/link

Our link on your site should be no more then 3 clicks from your home page.
We look to see if the page our link is set on has a PR3 or better and is indexed on Google.

We will absolutely not exchange links with sites that have flash media, dynamically generated link directories, link farms, pornography sites, or gamboling sites.

We check robots.txt files to make sure you have not added your link page(s) to that file.

Weed out your dead weight
To help keep you up in the rankings and bots flowing check your link directory regularly for broken links.

Bots love new content to index
Try to set goals for yourself add 20 new, good link partners a month.

Site Map
Add all your link directory pages to your site map. Your site map should be one click from your home page. Please note: all links should be virtual links i.e. <a xhref=”http/www.123.com/link.html” >link directory </a>