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Improving Search Results, Chapter 3: Directories and Social Media

Make Your Ministry Website More Visible By Using Directories and Social Media Websites.

Now that you have conquered Google by increasing your PageRank, and other search engines by adding Meta Tags, you can still improve your search engine results. By adding your site to directories and social sites, you can improve your church website’s credibility which will move your site up the chain of search results.

Directories

Directories are man-made lists of websites. Each site that is added to a directory is evaluated and deemed one of high quality. So being added to one or more of these directories is seen by search engines as a thumbs up from peers, which influences the order in which they list sites in query results.

Three directories you should add your site to:

DMOZ
Yahoo Directory
ZoomInfo

DMOZ
A volunteer-run directory hosted by Mozilla, only sites with quality content will get listed here. New sites are less likely, and since it is managed by volunteers, it can take time to get added. DMOZ is the largest human-edited directory of the Web, so if you aren't listed here, search engines will be given a reason not to list your site at the top of results. Add your site to DMOZ.

Yahoo Directory
Yahoo's Directory unfortunately is not free, it costs you $299 per year. But its size and name recognition might make it worth your while if you care deeply about improving your search results. Add your site to Yahoo Directory.

ZoomInfo
This directory and search engine is geared more toward businesses, but allows you to create an informative profile. You can add a searchable profile for your ministry and link to your website. ZoomInfo has profiles on more than 37 million people and 3.5 million companies, so it can be valuable to have on your site's "resume." Create a profile on ZoomInfo.

Social Networking and Media Sites

These sites can be used to drive more traffic to your website. More traffic means more respect from search engines and a better search ranking.

Three social networking and media sites you should add your site (and its content) to:

Facebook
Del.icio.us
Digg

Facebook
We all know that Facebook is great for keeping in touch with old friends from the past, but it can also help you increase your Web traffic and boost your search engine results. You can create a free group and allow people to become a "fan" of your ministry. You can also link to your website and post news and event updates (which you can link to news and events on your site) to drive more visitors to your site. We thought that we should take our own advice and recently created a group. If you are an existing client or are thinking about becoming one, why not join the iMinistries Facebook Group?

Del.icio.us
If you create compelling content on your site, your users will share it with others on this web-based bookmarking site (learn more about Del.icio.us here). The best avenue for creating the kind of constantly changing content people share is in our blog feature. Here you can discuss your weekly sermons more in-depth, and allow your visitors to add comments. You can share your insights on relevant topics or events. If you haven't started a blog, visit this help file to find out how you can do so today.

Digg
Digg is a site that allows you or your visitors to submit and rate articles. Each article can receive diggs, or votes, from Digg.com users. More diggs means articles move closer and closer to the Digg homepage or its topic homepages. If you or visitors to your site submit articles and they are compelling enough to become popular, this could mean increased traffic to your site--and we now know that high-traffic sites get listed higher on search results. To submit articles, you must first create a free account.