You probably already know that, generally speaking, the more quality links there are back to your website, the better your Google rankings will be.

First, what do I mean by “quality”?

3 basic attributes of “quality” websites include:

1. Have content that is very useful to people
2. Well established in a well defined or uncontested niche with lots of web traffic
3. Reputable and official in some way like Government extensions like gov or govt (eg if you were an accountant, a link to your website from ird.govt.nz would be awesome)

If your website is good, you’ll probably get lots of links back to your site (“backlinks”) anyway, but it is tempting to accelerate the process.

I get email spam from Indian/Indonesian based firms offering link building services every day (my Gmail spam filter struggles to keep up).

They make big promises “#1 Google ranking guaranteed” and they use industry jargon (llike “whitehat” and “PageRank”) and specific promises to try to impress “20 links on PageRank 3 blogs + 20x PR4 + 10x PR5…”

You must be wondering:

• Can you trust them?
• Do you need them?
• Are their link building techniques legitimate?

No, no and no.

Here are 5 reasons why you should never hire anyone to build links to your website:

1. As a rule, never support any offer delivered via SPAM. It just encourages more spam.
2. If they are spamming you, they are offering this deal to the whole planet therefore if they get thousands of customers the techniques they use lose effectiveness
3. Think ahead: Would thousands of links back to you on random blogs be useful to your potential customers? If not, Google will ignore them eventually if they don’t already
4. It could actually damage your Google rankings, if they use “black hat” techniques for you which Google has identifies as attempts to game the system
5. Google is trying very hard to deliver increasingly localised search results so a link to your website from a website in Cambodia about chickens is becoming more and more irrelevant

So what can you do?

Do it yourself:

1. Write useful articles on your website that people will want to link to and share
2. Register your website with New Zealand based online business directories
3. Write useful and value-adding comments to blog articles about your industry

Never hire anyone to do it for you, they will just take your money, and any benefits you get from the work they do will last 5 minutes.

In January 2010 I wrote a list of the best free online New Zealand directories. It’s time to update this list.

Some of the business directories I originally listed have disappeared, been abandoned, started charging, or became too complicated to work with.

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. 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
7. 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)
8. NZWebZ.co.nz
   • Ok
9. ZipLeaf.co.nz
• “In growing stages, clean/sharp graphics, up to date functions. Promising” – [Thanks to James for his review]

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?

A friend of mine asked to check his rankings this morning, because he was surprised to see a huge improvement in the ranking of his website since last time he checked just 2 weeks ago (and he hadn’t changed his website since).

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

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. 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
7. 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)
8. NZWebZ.co.nz
   • Ok
9. ZipLeaf.co.nz
• “In growing stages, clean/sharp graphics, up to date functions. Promising” – [Thanks to James for his review]

Quality Non-NZ Directories That ARE Worth Your Time:

1. Squidoo.com
2. …

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.
3. NZDirectory.co.nz
• Demands a reciprocal link
• “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]
4. 2cu.co.nz
• Error at very end of process which deleted all my work
5. DirectoryNZ.net
• Hideous

NZ Directories That Have Died

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. Gopher.co.nz (Worth a closer look)
2. SosNow.co.nz (For tradespeople)
3. NZsbDirectory.co.nz (NZ Small Business Directory and Travel Guide)
4. WebsiteDirectory.co.nz (looks ok, but asks for reciprocal link)
5. NewZealandWebsites.com
6. IndexNZ.com (Ghastly!)
7. LinkNow.co.nz (Hideous)
8. BizDirectoryNZ.com
9. GoNZoz.com
10. Go4NewZealandBusiness.com
11. FindMe.net.nz
12. FindItOnline.co.nz
13. mKiwi.com
14. Finden.co.nz
15. ZoomIn.co.nz (map based directory)

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
4. GoSmart.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.

In a previous post “Think you know the rank for your website in Google? No you don’t“, I explained how, every time you do a search using Google, Google learns a bit more about the search results that you  like (especially if you are logged in with a Google account), and next time, shows you more results like that rather than starting from a blank slate.

Earlier this month, Google announced that is going to begin to personalise your search results even when you are not logged in.

This means that if you often check the ranking of your website in Google, don’t be surprised if you see your website climbing up the rankings – but don’t be happy, because it is only climbing up the rankings from your point of view, everybody else will see your website at a much lower ranking!

So what can you do to check the ranking of your website in Google?

In my previous article I recommended RankTracker for getting an unbiased ranking for your website in a Google search.

I have recently come across an alternative: CuteRank

4 Advantages of using CuteRank to check the ranking of your website in Google

1. You can type in your url, the keywords and choose the Search Engines you want to check all on one page (RankTracker forces you through a “wizard” interface with several steps)
2. The free version lets you save the results for one website (RankTracker doesn’t let you do any saving)
3. When you install CuteRank, you aren’t asked to install other software at the same time (RankTracker is pretty pushy in that department)
4. CuteRank saves your search engines choices (RankTracker defaults to a American-centric  list)

2 Criticisms of CuteRank

1. The interface emphasises the history of your rank, rather than drawing attention to today’s ranking
2. Google.co.nz results are available but not “pages from New Zealand” (but probably coming)

Conclusion

I propose you install both and decide for yourself which style you like better. But the important thing is that either is better than checking the ranking of your website in Google yourself, because your search results are increasingly personalised for you so your view of reality is distorted.