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It seems that Google doesn't count backlinks from Zeal, perhaps because Zeal's jhtml prevents spidering. There's therefore no PR value in a Zeal listing.
Zeal, though, feeds Looksmart, so getting a Zeal listing gets you a Looksmart listing. However, Looksmart is grey-bar, so there's no PR value in this either.
But! MSN uses Looksmart's directory, and MSN is high-PR. So, the question:
Is the PR value of a Zeal listing derived from the PR value of an MSN listing? Do MSN backlinks pass PR?
(P.S. I know that MSN is good for referrals, but please: this is a PR question only.)
There are now around 143,000 www.zeal.com pages in the index, including Zeal directory pages. The pages must be getting spidered but can the spider follow the links?
Secondary question: If there's no PR from an MSN listing, then does that mean that there's no PR value in a Zeal listing at all?
Tertiary question: Even if an MSN listing doesn't pass PR to your site, might it help Google to find the site?
Thanks again...
You are very unlikely to rank well in the SERPs without a semi-decent PR, and a single link from a PR2 site will not do you much good. Sure, it will get you into the index, but it is unlikely that you will rank well.
We're talking non-commercial semi-niche here, though I suspect you're right anyway. The site is about fifty pages, so there are a fair few internal links reinforcing keywords. The top sites that I eventually hope to be in amongst for my main keywords are PR5s and a couple of PR6s. In other SERPs that interest me there are some PR3s that rank pretty well (top ten/twenty). If DMOZ comes through for me with a PR6 link on a page with thirty others then how far is that likely to get me? How many more links like that would I need to hit, say, PR4?
Two other directories you should investigate are GoGuides and JoeAnt, neither is yet very popular but I believe that both are viable long term investments.
Niche directories are very useful, check DMOZ (or directory.google.com) for directories in your field.
My PR2 link is from the refreshingly efficient people at JoeAnt. I've submitted to GoGuides but am still waiting *yawn*. Same goes for Yahoo *yawn*. Patience isn't a strength of mine :(
Not sure it's worth the $60 for a PR2 though....
TJ
> You'd expect to get the JoeAnt listing pretty quickly - you have to pay for it!
Not really, you have the choice of paying for it or volunteering as an editor. The sign-up process for volunteer editors is very easy and fast.
pedent,
> Patience isn't a strength of mine
You will need lots of it in this field, or else you will be infinitely frustrated.
>Not really, you have the choice of paying for it or volunteering as an editor. The sign-up process for volunteer editors is very easy and fast. <
I went the free, volunteer route. The five sites I suggested (only one of which was mine) were all listed within ten minutes.
> You will need lots of it [patience] in this field, or else you will be infinitely frustrated. <
Then this will be a wonderful character-building experience, a great time of personal growth. :)
Thanks for your help in this thread.
Thanks for the info Mohammed - I'll look into that.
TJ
This is my first site, so I'd like to see where I rank in the SERPs with basic optimization only: i.e. theme pyramid structure, keyword-conscious page naming and keyword-conscious internal linking.
And to think that most first-time webmasters are worried about how to use tables and where to get hideous animated graphics :)
Still haven't decided what to do about graphics. Not my strength. I hear that if you use the phrases "retro-cool" and "content is king" enough, preferably while muttering about Google only indexing 100k of your page, then you can get away with pretty basic design. *fingers crossed*
For example, need a nice magnifying glass (or maybe microscope would be cool?) image for your "search my site" icon? Get a real one, stick it in the scanner (yes I know it's a 3D object - trust me, try it), port into photoshop and play with the brightness/contrast settings until you get the background effect you need (e.g. white).
Invert images also can look very cool and give you a white background or black background depending on what you need to blend into your page.
Use a little lateral thinking if you want to be a little more clever with it. Think of objects that graphically represent what you're trying to say and stick them in the scanner and play with them.
Give it a go. Most of the graphics available for sale or free on the internet are utter junk.
<EDIT: one technique I've been playing with lately too is taking these scans and running them through an adobe filter that turns them into vector graphics. That produces some very good effects>
TJ
Well, I did say lateral thinking and not literal!
TJ
You'd expect to get the JoeAnt listing pretty quickly - you have to pay for it!
Actually I spent the $39.99 to get my site listed and it got looked at (and some broken elements pointed out) in just a few hours.
Good looking directory actually. :)
