Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition

Working with Directories

It’s a not-so-well-kept secret that one of the best approaches for getting better rankings in the search engine listings is to enter through a back door by working with the two most important structured directories: the Open Directory Project (ODP) and the Yahoo! Directory.

Understanding Taxonomies

A directory differs from the index used by a search engine because a directory uses a structured way to categorize sites, sometimes called a taxonomy. In addition, sites are included in a particular category in the ODP and Yahoo! directories only after they have been reviewed by human editors. You can search within directories (just as you can search in a web index such as the one compiled by Google). But it’s common to use a directory by following its taxonomy, drilling down through subjects to find what you want. For example, suppose you wanted to find resources related to alternative photo processes, such as creating daguerreotypes (a nineteenth-century print technology). Using the Open Directory taxonomy, shown in Figure 3-12, you would drill down through the categories Arts→Photography→Techniques and Styles to find topics including Alternative Processes.

Note

You can think of the index of the Web compiled by search engines such as Google as being like the index of a nonfiction book. In contrast, a taxonomic directory is much more like the table of contents for the book: it is organized according to the book’s structure, and you can drill down by part, chapter ...