The age we live in is the age of information and technologies. Especially with the increased use of the internet, information from all around the world can be found at your fingertips.
And so we have the link directory websites, that helps you find the information easily.
With the help of available technologies, you can easily create a link directory website of your own. Link directory websites can prove to be one of the most fruitful forms of online businesses.
Link directories are nothing but repositories of different web pages. Those web pages can be on the same site or on some other website.
The ultimate goal of link directory website is to serve as a one-stop information warehouse for the visitors. So link directory websites prove to be very useful.
In this article, we will discuss the important stages of creating link directory website and a few steps for maintaining and promoting your website.
- Choosing the platform for your link directory website
- Starting with the pre-requisite for your link directory script
- Creating the link directory website
- Promoting and maintaining your link directory website
- Earning through your link directory website
Choosing the platform your link directory website
One of the most important decisions you will take regarding your online link directory website is choosing the platform.
Based on your business idea and requirements, you can choose from various available platforms to create your directory website. The most common ways through which you can create link directories are:
- By using programming languages
- Using the CMS/website building frameworks like WordPress or Joomla
- By relying on directory platforms.
If you are not a technically skilled person, you can either go for a self-hosted link directory platform or a link directory theme for WordPress.
Here’s an in-depth article that will give you more insights on choosing the right platform for your link directory websites. However, the following are the factors that you should consider before choosing the directory platform.
- The scope and size of your website
- The expected traffic on your website and the required bandwidth to handle it
- The amount you are ready to invest in your online directory
- Monetization options and features you want
These are the four main factors you should define for yourself before you decide on your directory platform. Because the performance of your website depends very much on the platform or the WordPress link directory theme you’ve chosen.
WordPress is ideal for any condition because it is free, easy to use and open source. You have lots of options when it comes to WordPress link directory websites.
There are a number of WordPress link directory scripts to choose from. And with the intuitive options available at the backend of your WordPress link directory theme, you can create your link directory without writing or tweaking a line of code.
Stating with the prerequisites for your link directory
The pre-requisites for your link directory website building will be different depending on the platform you choose. For instance, if you choose WordPress theme for link directory, you will need domain name and hosting.
Domain name for your link directory website
However, you’ll always need a domain name that serves as a permanent address of your link directory on the world wide web. The domain name can be registered using any of the reliable domain name registrars like GoDaddy, NameCheap, and Bluehost.
Signup now to get our discount – only $2.95/month.
Templatic Themes fans get a special low price when hosting with Bluehost. Signup and claim this deal.
Choose the domain name carefully because it directly represents your business online. And even though its possible to change the domain at a later scale, it is not recommended.
Branding and legal setups for your business
If you want to kick-start your business with a registered business name and mark, then you can go ahead and start taking measures for it.
However, a link directory website might not start showing instant results instantly. It takes time for your website to make its mark on the internet. Just to start appearing on Google search might take time.
So you can get a lot of time later when you can focus on this part.
Creating the link directory website
Once you are all set with resources planned and acquired to start online directory website, you can start with actual website building.
However, with the available directory software in the market, creating a directory website might take a few minutes or hours.
Here are a few things you must keep in mind while you create your directory website.
Choose the ideal WordPress link directory software
A good design implies a design that is clean and it is easy to navigate to different pages of the website. A website with warm colors, user-friendly interface, and easy navigational facilities is something that can make your users stay on your website longer.
Ideally, for a website with great user experience, proper navigational routes are required. The homepage of the link directory should contain all the links to the important pages of your website.
Besides, the menus should be structured properly. It should contain all the important links arranged hierarchically so that the visitors can find the menu item they are looking for easily.
Once a visitor lands on some page of your website through referral traffic or organic search, the menus and navigation options on your website should be such that the visitors can find the page of their choice easily.
While you choose your WordPress link directory theme, you must avoid unnecessary complications of design. The ultimate goal while choosing a link directory software should be the user experience.
Proper categorization for the listings on your link directory
To start with your link directory website, you will first need to make a list of all the categories(types) of listings you want to include into your website.
There are two main reasons why categorization on your link directory website is important:
- It helps keep your website organized
- It aids user experience by making your website easy to search
The advantages of defining categories of your link directories before starting with your website are many. And so before you start with the actual inception of your website, take a paper and pen and note down all the categories you want.
Once you create your website, you can add all these categories into the list and get started with your website easily.
SEO optimized link directory WordPress theme
SEO is now a principle concern if you really care about the organic traffic. And when it comes to link directory website, we always want maximum organic outreach.
- Go for an SEO optimized directory platform
- Check what advanced SEO benefits your chosen link directory script provides
- Maintain blogs as a means of content marketing
- Even when creating routine pages, follow a keyword driven approach
- Promotions and maintenance
Online Link directory script already has a benefit for SEO as they are rich in content and target a large variety of keywords through diverse listings.
Therefore, little efforts can add up and prove to be very beneficial for your link directory websites.
Promoting your link directory website
Once your website is ready, you must start with the efforts to promote and advertise your website. Here are a few ways through which you can promote your link directory site.
Define the audience for your link directory website
Before you start with the promotions for your website, the first thing you must do is to define your audience. You must know a few things about your prospective customers of your website.
These details will help you shape your website so that it proves to be more useful for your visitors.
When you know who your audience is going to be, you can develop a website customized as per their requirements. In fact, pre-defining the audience of your website is the very first thing you should do.
It can help you at different level’s of your website’s development
- To plan the scope and requirements of your site
- While developing the website and setting up the features
- For planning promotions and advertisements
- While planning and integrating future enhancements
Therefore, defining your audience, before you actually start the planning and development of your link directory website, can help a lot.
Figure out your ideal advertisement channels
You’ll surely need to promote and advertise your website well to make people aware of it. But your promotional efforts can only be fruitful when they are directed in the right direction.
And therefore, it is recommended that whatever promotional platform you choose helps you reach the target audience easily. You can decide the advertisement channels based on the following factors:
- The geographical scope of your website
- The functional area of your website
- Your targeted audience
For instance: If your link directory is concerned for businesses that you can choose the promotional medias like advertisement banners on business portals. or banner advertisements on a business complex, etc.
Depending upon the functional area of your link directory, the ideal medium of advertisement can be different too. And the best bet is to find out brainstorm, research and find out the ideal promotional medium and tactics so that your efforts are not wasted.
Maintaining your WordPress link directory website
Like any other kind of website, your link directory website also needs regular maintenance to keep it going successfully. Maintenance routines are on your link directories are mostly related to the following:
- To check that the website is performing smoothly (User experience)
- Eliminate bugs, inconveniences from your website
- To remove the unnecessary and useless/obsolete data from your website
- Check if your website is up to date and make changes to meet the current trends.
Besides, there can be many maintenance tasks related to security, data management, design & features, etc. So even when you have your website running successfully on the internet, only proper efforts and maintenance can ensure its successful performance in future.
Earning through your WordPress link directory
Link directories are different from simple business or blog sites. They need more resources, time and efforts to set up and maintain.
Therefore, it’s natural for you to expect some monetary benefits from your website. Here are the three simplest ways through which you can make money through your online link directory websites.
Through advertisement banners on your link directory websites
This is the easiest way through which you can make money through your website.
Regardless of the platform, you choose to host your directory website, you can always have advertisement banners in the sidebar and other areas of your website.
Also, you can go for a smart advertisement service like Google AdSense to display advertisements on your website.
Making money through paid submissions
Another way through which you can earn through your link directory website is through paid listing submissions.
Most of the directory platforms come with paid front-end submission systems integrated into their site. All you need to do is to enable it.
You can create the pricing packages of your choice and get started with your website in minutes. The businesses interested in being listed on your website can directly fill up the submission form, pay the required fee and get their listing published on your website.
This is beneficial for you in two ways. Firstly, your website gets fresh new data and secondly, your visitors get one more useful data on your website to search from.
Running Affiliate program on your link directory website
Link directories are a massive collection of web pages distributed under different categories. They serve the link authors as well as your website visitors in the following ways:
For the link authors, Link directories are a direct way of promotion. When they get their page listed among large repositories of similar links, their chances of reaching a prospect user increases.
On the other hand, the visitors can find the link to all the required web pages at one stop. They get a chance to find and evaluate the best options without having to spend time and efforts searching different pages on different websites.
If your associate businesses run affiliate program then you can attach affiliate links to your link directory website. You can request for the affiliate link (which is a special link through which they can track the traffic referred by you). And you can earn the commission when the visitors sent by you to their site take specific actions.
Conclusion
It’s really easy to create link directory website. Here’s an in-depth guide on how you can start your own directory business online.
However, online directory websites are easy to create but relatively harder to maintain and manage. And the performance of your link directory website very much depends on your efforts to sustain it with useful listings and information.
Therefore, you must put special efforts in maintaining your website, promoting it and keeping it updated with useful information.
If you are a directory owner with experience, we would love to hear from you through the comments.