To help you decide, answer these questions:

• Will the link improve your users experience? Will the link add value?
• Are the links relevant to your industry? Or are the links completely random and unrelated? (eg you sell shoes, but the link goes to an life insurance website)

If they are completely random, don’t do it.

Recently, I was curious about what an Indian based SEO company would do as a free trial for one of my clients. All they did was add a link to my clients website to their own websites which already have hundreds of irrelevant links. Not useful. Not valuable. Not effective. Here is one of their websites.

And if these spammy link farm websites are tricking Google at the moment and are actually getting decent rankings themselves, what will Google do when they take a closer look? They’ll delete them from the Google index, that’s what.

Here’s what Matt Cutts from Google has to say on the subject:

In summary: no.

• Definition for “Internal Hyperlinks“: Linking from one webpage on your website to another

When your webpage is quite long, it can be useful to provide “jump-to” links a.k.a. “named anchors”, or “within-page links”, to help users jump down the page to the section that is of interest to them.

This technique is often used on FAQ pages (Frequently Asked Questions), like this.

Today, for the first time, I saw these named anchors appearing in Google’s Search Engine Results for one of my websites:

Interestingly, Jacob Nielson (web usability guru, who I follow very closely), advises not to use “within-page links” because users expect hyperlinks to go to a different webpage and they can be disorientating.

But I think if you put a small heading like “On this page:” above the list, and wrap a border around the list to distinguish it from your content, I think they are usable.

Give it a try.

His website is www.Door.net.nz and his rankings were:

• door knob – 1 & 2
• door knobs – 2
• door handles – 2
• door handle – 2
• door lock – 3

But using free software called RankChecker, I was able to get his his ranking for these keywords without Google distorting the rankings with personalisation.

His true rankings are:

• door knob – 13
• door knobs – 15
• door handles – 39
• door handle – 36
• door lock – 41

This is the most dramatic example of “Google Search Personalisation” that I have seen.

How did this happen? Why are the results so different?

Did you know that if you have a Google account and you are logged in when you are doing Google searches, then your search results are personalised to you?

Google has been doing this for years, but recently even people without Google accounts who are not logged in are having their search results personalised to them.

Why is Google doing this?

Because Google wants to show you results that you like, so they are collecting data every time you do a search and monitoring what results you click on. So next time you do a similar search, they will show those results higher in the rankings.

Thats exactly what happened to my friend.

This means, that it is even more important to use a third party rank checking tool such as RankTracker or CuteRank to check the search engine rankings of your website.

Related Articles:

• Think you know the rank for your website in Google? No you don’t
• Another Way To Check The Rank of Your Website In Google

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.