Your Search Engine Optimisation Expert – Sheldon Nesdale

Got an email late last night from Google providing me with 20 free Google Adwords Vouchers valued at NZ$125 each!

Thank goodness for that, since my last batch of Adwords Promotional Credits expired on New Years Eve just over 2 weeks ago, I was starting to think they had forgotten about me.

Would you like to try Google Adwords?

If you haven’t tried internet advertising with Google Adwords before, I can help get you started and provide you with one of these NZ$125 vouchers as a bonus.

Call me on (07) 575 8799, or email me.

Find out more about Google Adwords.

Today I was asked for my secret list of the best free online New Zealand directories.

Since I just started giving away my Search Engine Optimisation ebook for free, I might as well share my list of NZ directories too.

The funny thing about free online directories is that they might be free to get a link on them back to your website, but it can cost you the most precious resource of all – TIME.

Some registration processes can take up to 30 minutes to work through.

Is the pay-back (in terms of a high quality back-link) justify the cost of your labour?

Sometimes it doesn’t.

But you’re in luck, my list is here to help.

Why is it important to add your website to these directories?

Because every link back to your website is an indication to Google that your website is important.

This search engine optimisation technique is often called “link-building” or “back-linking”.

The best place to start your link building is by using human edited directories because Google favours them.

List of The Best FREE Online NZ Directories (In Priority Order):

1. Dmoz.org (New Zealand)
   • Worldwide directory actually, but has 2-thumbs-up from Google, so put a link to your website here first (and it can take ages before it is approved so you might as well start the process now)
2. Finda.co.nz
   • In my opinion the very best online directory in New Zealand. An official Google partner. Automatic submission to Google Maps, UBD.co.nz & Wises.co.nz. Easy to use. Good looking profile pages
3. NZS.com (“New Zealand Search”)
   • Really good quality. Great looking graphics. Good profile pages.
4. HotFrog.co.nz
   • Impressive presence in Google.co.nz for a variety of searches.
5. Zenbu.co.nz
   • Very cool map-based business directory.
6. MadeFromNewZealand.com
   • High quality. Lots of features.
7. NZPages.co.nz
   • Good, clean, “minimalist” directory.
8. Google Local Business Centre
   • After your free Finda listing has placed a marker on Google Maps for you, “claim” your business using Google LBC and add more details about your business
9. Yalwa.co.nz
   • Global directory, with dedicated subdomains to New Zealand cities.  Free text in the description field, you can add hyperlinks (this is rare)
10. NZWebZ.co.nz
    • Ok
11. ZipLeaf.co.nz
    • “In growing stages, clean/sharp graphics, up to date functions. Promising” – [Thanks to James for his review]
12. NZDirectory.co.nz
    • “Clean/sharp graphics, up to date functions, PR 5 with a lots of categories with PR 4/3, Alexa rank isn’t too bad either” – [Thanks to James for his review]

Quality Non-NZ Directories That ARE Worth Your Time:

1. AboutUs.org
2. Squidoo.com

Criteria For The Best NZ Directories:

To get on the official list above, the directory must meet most of these criteria:

1. Does Google like it?
   • Does the directory often appear in Google.co.nz Search Engine Results for a variety of NZ searches?
   • How good are the directories own Search Engine Rankings?
   • What SEO techniques does the directory use?
2. Is the process of adding my website to the directory easy, intuitive and quick?
3. Will it provide a clean hyperlink to my website?
   • “No-follow” hyperlinks are of little use to us
   • Redirection “tracker” hyperlinks are not as good
4. Is the website approval time short?
5. Are the other websites in the directory high quality? (Eg, have the webmasters let spammy websites through?)
6. Can I specify my own anchor text for my hyperlink?

Other NZ Directories That ARE NOT Worth Your Time

1. NZSearch.co.nz & SearchNZ.co.nz
   • 5 years ago these directories were great because there was little else to choose from, but the web developers abandoned it long ago and it has slowly rotted away.  Badly in need of an overhaul.
2. PiperPat.co.nz
   • Crude, old, but effective (Page Rank 6!). But I have had no response to my requests for additions for over 6 months.

Other NZ Directories I Haven’t Reviewed Yet

If you have used any of them, please write a short review of your own, in the comments below.

1. SearchZone.co.nz (Looks promising actually, worth a closer look)
2. Gopher.co.nz (Worth a closer look)
3. SosNow.co.nz
4. DirectoryNZ.net
5. NZWebs.co.nz
6. NZsbDirectory.co.nz (NZ Small Business Directory and Travel Guide)
7. WebsiteDirectory.co.nz
8. WebLinks.NewZealand.co.nz
9. AccessNZ.co.nz
10. BizNZ.com
11. NewZealandWebsites.com
12. IndexNZ.com (Ghastly!)
13. KiwiDirectory.co.nz
14. LinkNow.co.nz (Hideous)
15. BizDirectoryNZ.com
16. GoNZoz.com
17. Go4NewZealandBusiness.com
18. FindMe.net.nz
19. FindItOnline.co.nz
20. mKiwi.com

List of NZ Directories You Have To Pay For:

For the sake of completeness I thought I better start a list of “paid-inclusion” directories too, so here it is.

1. Yellow.co.nz
2. WorkBoot.co.nz
3. iLook.co.nz

Is There a New Zealand Directory Missing?

What other New Zealand directories do you think should be added to any of these lists? Add them in the comments below.

This morning I was setting up a new client in Google Adwords and went to apply one of the 20 NZ$125 promotional codes that Google issued me in October 2009, but I got the error message “sorry, that promotional code has expired”.

I tried the next one on my list, and the next one, and the next one, all with the same result.

I emailed Adwords Help Desk and got a quick reply to tell me ALL 20 of the credits had expired just 6 days ago! Damn!

That’s NZ$2500 worth of free internet advertising I wasted because I didn’t use it! (by the way, each credit can only be applied once to a brand new Adwords account)

If I had any idea they were going to expire so quickly I would have just given them away.

After scouring the internet for people in a similar situation I found the blog article of Hillel Stoler who was giving away his Adwords credits for free. So I applied and he emailed me the code a few minutes ago and it worked! Now I have the credit that I promised my client, fantastic!

So thanks to Hillel for getting me out of a jam

I think he has a few left so if you are in the same situation as me, act fast, and ask for a Google Adwords promotional credit from him on his blog.

Everybody likes to search for their own ads on Google to check they are running correctly.

But sometimes they don’t show up so you get a bit nervous.  These questions may be running through your mind:

• “Why aren’t my ads showing up?”
• “Has my budget run out? What have I done wrong?”
• “How come my competitors ads are showing and not mine?”

This may be due to one of Google’s fraud protection measures which detects your IP address, and if lots of clicks are coming from your computer everyday it might hide the ads from you.

Or even worse, your ads do show up and you are causing unnecessary impressions, and, if you click on your ads yourself, you are causing unnecessary costs too.

There is a better way.

You can check your own Google Ads by using the Google Adwords Ad Preview Tool:

• You can pretend to be in any country
• Views of the ads do not count as impressions (therefore maintaining your Click-Through-Rate)
• You can click on the ads as many times as you like, there are no costs for clicking

If you use Google Adwords you may be aware that you have the ability to specify where in New Zealand your ads will be displayed.

For example, if you had a small Tauranga business and you were only targeting local customers in Tauranga, then you could choose “only Tauranga” from the list.

In fact, you can even draw a circle around a single building or a city block and just get your ads to appear on computers in that area.

Unfortunately it doesn’t work.

It’s a real shame.

It doesn’t work, because New Zealand’s IP address system is all screwed up.

Anybody in New Zealand can have just about any IP address so it can’t be used to accurately determine the geographic location of computer you are using.

It’s easy to test.  Use this IP address lookup.  Does the map pin point to Auckland even though you are not in Auckland?  I thought so. There’s your proof.

It’s a damn shame.  Imagine being able to target your customers that accurately…

Oh well, I know a few tricks to compensate, so call me on (07) 575 8799.

- Sheldon.