Web directories are online catalogues that list other websites according to their contents. Directory submission is one of the best ways to get natural quality links for your website. The more directories you list your website with, the more inbound links you have.

So, submitting your link to free directories is a must, except for those that require a reciprocal link for your site to be listed. Ultimately, it’s about you to decide whether to give a reciprocal link or not. Just keep in mind that search engines will not penalize you because of your incoming links, but your outgoing links can do much harm to you. If you link from your site to a known spammer or so-called bad neighborhood, your position in the search engine result pages could suffer. Most of the directories that require a link back exist only to gain link weight for themselves and are not worth your time.

You can find many companies offering fast, easy and free directory submission software on the Internet. Conduct a search for “Directory Submitter” or Link Directory Submitter in Google, Yahoo or MSN and you will find many websites that offer these types of programs.

We also recommend that you avoid the directories which require a payment for a site to be included. Many paid directories are launched solely to make temporary money. Their owners will promote the directory and try to inflate its PageRank to attract submissions and then switch to yet another new directory using the same bait. Many also have been banned or penalized by search engines for the practice of selling links without editorial review.

There are thousands of such directories out there. Choose the directories wisely. Remember that it’s not only the popularity that counts, but the quality as well.

Choosing the right ones to submit your site can take some time, work and knowledge. We recommend that you use a directory submitter tool. This is the easiest and quickest way to submit the site to web directories. Link submission software already has a large database of directories included within the program and automates the site submission process.

Certain directory submission tools provide you with the ability to submit your website using different titles, descriptions and keywords sets. Why? Because this makes each site submission look unique and natural. And we know that search engines hate artificially made links. Another nice feature of link submission software is form auto-completion. This means that the program automatically fills the directory submission form in with your website’s information. You just need to select the proper category and click Submit. So, website submission software is also the more time saving method of link building because you don’t waste your time for searching the Internet for themed directories and entering the site’s details manually.

Website submission software is absolutely the best SEO technique because it allows you optimize your new and existing websites as frequently as you would like and doesn’t cost your anything.

I’ve just scratched the surface in the article presented. You can find a lot more valuable information about how to increase your site popularity by building quality one way links here: Free Link Building Guide