~~ GET LISTED ~~ IN THE PRESS ~~ FREE SAMPLES ~~
~~ AREACODE MAP ~~ LINKS ~~ TIPS & TERMS ~~

To add or update Your Listing and link, CLICK HERE

Parking is only $100 per page per year. This is very reasonable considering LimoRaces.com already provides more for free than some directories charge over $1000 a year for. LimoRaces.com attracts 26,000 new customers a month but we only process about 1000 requests for service a month. This means that for every request that you receive, There are 30+ customers contacting companies directly through LimoRaces. Parking takes a customer to your site sooner, greatly increasing the chances that they will reserve services from your company.

SAMPLES

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We can capture an image from your website or create an image for you. Generally the image should show one or two vehicles and your company name/logo and local ten digit phone number. If you would like to create your own parking spot, the JPG image should be W 250 X H 140 pixels.

LimoRaces.com is a free public service limousine directory. No pay per click, lead or impression. A return link is appreciated but not required. When Your site is ranked by search engines, a spider will check Internet wide for links to your site. The more places your site is linked from, the higher your ranking will be. Directories that fail to provide a direct hotlink to your website, or hide your URL in a database or stream of code may be intentionally inhibiting your ranking in an attempt to keep you dependent on such services.

Most of the traffic to your phone and website from LimoRaces.com is unknown to you unless you ask or access referring URLs in your statistics. LimoRaces.com traffic is only visible to you when the a customer uses the Service Request feature on your local page. SAMPLE REQUESTS

OFF SEASON, Most users will surf through the sites on your local page and call a company directly when they find what they are looking for on your site. PARKING your company on the top of your local page will bring a potential customer to your site sooner.

Call Justin Gibbs at 513 658-1959, Or email LimoRaces@aol.com

LimoRaces.com
412 Liberty Hill #1-D
Cincinnati OH 45202

Free search engine submission and web tools

How to find directories that would increase your Search Engine Rankings

Directory submissions if done right could be a great way to increase the number of links to your website and hence increasing your rankings. One major benefit the directory links provide is that the link would be from a highly relevant category to your site, which now days could be a factor in deciding the theme of your site and helping you rank better for keywords related to that topic.

When doing directory submissions there are several factors to look for in picking the right directories and not wasting your time or money.

A- Does the directory have a PageRank?

Check if the directory has a high PageRank. A PageRank of at least 4 is preferred for the main page. Also, check the internal category pages of the directory to see if PageRank is passed on to the internal pages, most importantly you want the category that your site would possibly be listed under to have a at least a PageRank of a 2. The way the Google PageRank system works is that a link from a higher PageRank page will give you a higher value. Getting links from low value PageRank sites is a waste of time, unless you think the PR will go up sometime in the next few months.

B- Does the directory use dynamically generated pages that have trouble getting indexed in search engines?

A quick way to find out if the category pages of the directory are getting indexed would be to use the site command in Google and Yahoo to see if there are many pages that are indexed. The command is typed in the following format in Google search box:

Site:www.domainname.com

If you see hundreds of pages listed with their own unique title tags and descriptions, that is a good sign that the directory is search engine friendly and you should continue to the next step. If not, forget about using this directory.

C- Does the directory give you direct link to your site or does it use a tracking code?

Some directories will not give you a direct link to your domain, meaning they will also not pass on a link value or PageRank. The easiest way to check for this is by holding your mouse on some existing site in the directory and check the URL appearing on the bottom of your browser. If the link shows a tracking URL, then you have your answer: stop right there. Skip submitting to that directory.

If you see a direct link to your site that is a good sign, but still does not mean they are linking directly as they could be using a JavaScript to hide the fact or they may be even using the new Google “Rel” Tag. At this point you need to check the source code of the site, by doing a View Source on your browser or using our PageSnooper tool: http://www.submitexpress.com/snooper/

Check the source code of the site to see if the links are a direct link using HTML tag such as:
<a href="http://www.submitexpress.com/">Submit Express</a>

If it is a JavaScript link, or a tracking URL or if it has a Rel NOFOLLOW tag, then you also want to skip this directory. The Rel NOFOLLOW Tag will be something like this:

<a href="http://www.submitexpress.com/" rel="NOFOLLOW">Submit Express</a>

The Rel NOFOLLOW Tag tells Google and other search engines not to follow that link or give it credit. It was created for site owners to control spam on Blogs, forums and guest book type sites, but some others have started using this tag to try and keep PageRank Value from passing on to other external sites and keep their own rankings higher.

D- Does the category that you are submitting to have too many sites listed?

Preferably you want to be listed on a page of the directory that does not have too many other sites listed. We prefer 25 sites or less per page and no more than 50 at worst case scenario. Google has published in their Webmaster Guidelines page to keep links under 100. However, the way the Google PageRank system works is that the more links on a page the lesser value is passed on to each site, so you should try to find categories that do not have too many other sites listed.

E- Does link credit get passed on to the sites listed in the directory?

Pick several random sites from the directory, preferably from pages with at least a PR 3 and check their backlinks in Google, Yahoo and MSN. In Google and MSN you would check by the following syntax:
link:www.domainname.com

In Yahoo type in this format:
linkdomain:www.domainname.com

What to look for here is to check the results and see if there is a link from the particular directory appearing in the search results. This might be a little time consuming if you get hundreds of backlinks in the results. If the link command is showing hundreds of links for the site you checked, it is probably good idea to skip checking that one and go back to directory and pick another site to check. Keep doing this until you find a site with less than 50 links. Then go though the search results to see if you can find a result showing a link from the directory.

In past experiments, we've found that most of the time Google would not show backlinks to many of the sites we checked from the directories in question, especially if the PageRank of the category of the directory we were checking was less than 4. However, this does not mean it is a bad directory. Keep checking several sites, maybe about 10-20 and if you find at least one backlink in Google then that is a very good sign.

Usually Yahoo and MSN display more backlinks then Google does, so it also could mean that directory links could benefit you more in Yahoo and MSN, more than in Google. If you do not find backlinks in Google to justify a submission to the particular directory, do not discount that directory, because you could still get a benefit in rankings in Yahoo and MSN.

F- Should you choose free directories or fee based directories?

Many free directories are tough to get in due to the volume of submissions they receive. In addition, many are not actively adding new sites as the owners are either too busy or already make enough money from advertising or paid submissions to bother looking at free submissions. However, if you have the time and you feel that the free directory you are looking at is an important one and there are signs that it is getting updated often, then go ahead and submit to them, if the above criteria pass.

In the other hand fee based directories offer a guaranteed review within a few days, but not necessarily a guaranteed inclusion. Make sure to read the submission criteria before you submit, because sometimes if your site does not correspond to their standards, then your site would get declined and you would most often no get a refund. There are hundreds of directories that have a low submission fee of $20.00 to $40.00 that are defiantly worth the price. There are a few such as Yahoo and business.com that charge much more, which should still be considered due to their popularity and authority.

G- Should you choose general directories or industry related directories?

In our opinion both general directories and industry related directories would benefit your rankings as long as they pass our criteria above. In addition, some industry specific directories might bring you additional traffic, so you should definitely try and find specific directories in your industry and consider getting listed in them.

Now we are going to do some of the leg work for you and recommend some good directories that we have found based on the above criteria. Please note we have broken down the directories in free or fee based, but some directories might have both options, which would be indicated.

Free Directories:

Open Directory : This is one of the most popular directories. It is a human based edited directory that is owned by AOL. Hundreds of other sites use the data from this directory for their own directories. Most importantly Google uses this to power their Directory section. A link in DMOZ is a huge ranking factor due to its popularity. However, it is very tough to get listed in DMOZ as it is volunteer based and many volunteers are too slow in editing sites. You might be looking at an average of 6-month listing period. They also have very strict listing criteria.

Joe Ant : Free submission if you become an editor or $39.99 one-time fee, for fee based submission. Main page is PR 6 and many internal category pages have high PR.

About.com : About.com is a huge information and resource site. Many categories have their own editors that write articles on regular basis and sometimes recommend related websites. If you believe that you have a quality site that is unique in content or offerings, then write to the editors and request a mention or link.

Wikipedia : This is not exactly a directory. It is an open source encyclopedia that anybody can contribute to in real-time. In most pages you are allowed to suggest some related sites. If the topic is not too competitive then chances are if you add your link, it will remain there for a long time. However, in competitive topics we have found that links get removed very quickly, sometimes within hours. Anyway, it does not hurt to try.

Fee Based Directories:

Yahoo: $299.00 (Annual Fee)
A listing in Yahoo directory is very beneficial in rankings, especially in Google. Most Yahoo directory pages have high PageRanks. We highly recommend paying this fee to get listed in Yahoo, especially if the category you would be listed under has at least PR 3 or more.

Business.com: $199.00 (Annual Fee)
Business.com is a B2B directory, so you can only submit if you provide services or products to businesses. In certain occasions some consumer sites get through the cracks, but most often you might get declined if you submit a consumer related site and loose your submission fee. Business.com recently raised their directory submission fee from $99.00/yr to $199.00/yr. Up until that time we were always highly recommending a listing in Business.com. However, with the fee hike, there might be better places that you could spend this money and you should only consider getting listed in Business.com, if you are in a highly competitive industry and the category that you would be listed at has at least a PR 3.

GoGuides.org: $39.99 (One Time Fee)
GoGuides.org was formed by an ex-editor of the original GoGuides Directory which was part of Infoseek. Infoseek was bought out by Disney several years ago and renamed to go.com and the GoGuides directory was put to sleep. This directory has done a good job to bringing back to life a similar version of the old directory. The main page has PR 6 and many internal pages have high PR.

Gimpsy: $40.00 (One Time Fee) or Free
Here is another directory with a PR of 6 and internal category pages having high PR's. The fee based submission will also list you in the top of the category for 90 days. The free submission states that it would take over 4 months to get reviewed, so we do not recommend that option. They will also refund you $20.00 if your submission is declined.

Best of the Web: $29.95 Regular Sites and $49.95 Adult Sites (One Time Fee)
This one has a PR of 7 on the main page and many internal categories of PR 5. This is one of the oldest directories on the net and has been around since 1994.

Microsoft Bcentral Directory: $49.00 (Annual Fee)
The main page has PR 7 and most internal pages have high PR. The only problem with this one is that it lists 10 sites a page, so new submissions might end up on the bottom or last page which has the least PR. Before you submit, check the category that fits your site best and go to the last page to see if it has PR of at least 3.

3- New Google HTML Tag Disallows Link Spam

Google has launched a new NOFOLLOW tag to be used primarily for Blogs, Forums and Guest Book type sites that get a lot of link spam. This is to prevent spammers from getting credit on their links. The site owners need to implement this on their programs so that the tag gets inserted automatically.

The tag is in this format: rel="nofollow"

So for example, if your HTML link tag is as follows:
<a href="http://www.yahoo.com/">Yahoo</a>

Then you would do this:
<a href="http://www.yahoo.com/" rel="nofollow">Yahoo</a>

MSN and Yahoo are following suit and have already announced that they will support this tag.

Here is more info about it:
http://www.google.com/googleblog/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html

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Chapter one

Designing your site for traffic includes offering good content, easy navigation and a logical flow. Additionally you must also build your site to draw traffic from the search engines because if you can obtain high search engine ranking, you can enjoy free traffic.

It's important to note, however that good ranking won't do you much good without a well designed site and a well designed site can't bring you visitors if no one knows it's there. Both high ranking and good design need to work together.

How do we pull all this together? Let's take a look.

A word about Design

A huge mistake I see many website owners make is that they get caught up in making their site cute. They love the little animations, buttons and dramatic backgrounds. What they fail to consider is that these things are worthless if you don't offer good content, easy navigation and a logical flow.

First of all don't try to be everything to everyone. Design your site around a theme, preferably a niche theme. Don't confuse your readers with links all over the page. Design a logical flow.
Lead your viewers to where you would like them to go. Leave plenty of white space and keep your pages organized. Clearly state at the top of your pages what you are about and what you would like your viewers to do. I don't recommend long flash pages or pop-ups. I find that the majority of internet users find them annoying. The demand for pop-up blockers is a good indication that viewers don't want to see them.

Thirdly, offer good content. Provide information on your site that will help viewers solve a problem. Offer information that they might not get elsewhere. Write reviews regarding your products. Write newsletters and articles and most importantly offer something of value for free. Give your viewers a reason to come back. It will also build trust in you.

Traffic builders

Good search engine ranking can bring lots of visitors to your site. It often takes a few months to rank well but the payoff is lots of qualified traffic. While it's not practical to depend solely on search engines for traffic it can complement your other advertising campaigns nicely. Aiming for high search engine placement is always a plus. Keep these in mind when developing your site for the search engines:

I suggest focusing on only one keyword or keyword phrase per page of your website. This may not seem like a lot but if your site has 20 pages you can focus on 20 keywords. Each page should be considered a landing page for your site.
If you have proper navigation on your pages it will easily allow viewers to see everything you have to offer.

Include your keyword or keyword phrase at the top of your page as well as in at least one header phrase. Also work the keywords into the body of your text as often as you can without sounding redundant.

Your keywords should be in the Title tag as well as in your page description tag. Many search engines no longer look at the keyword tags but I recommend using them and including the plural forms as well.

- Alt Tags
Search engines don't index images, therefore any text on your site that is presented in image format won't get indexed. If your telephone number, city or state is only displayed in an image, this key information will not be indexed by the search engines. To solve this problem, always include your keyword searchable info in fine print at the bottom of every page. You can also enter the image description in the ALT tag. To be sure that the search engines recognize all the content on your site, fill in your ALT tags with
your keywords. This will boost your keyword frequency and help your site achieve better ranking.

- Linking
Search engines will rate your site by who is linking to your site, so it's important to establish quality, related links. This can be accomplished in a few ways. One way is to establish reciprocal links with other like sites. When exchanging links be sure to include your keywords in your site title. Review the page you are exchanging links with. Be sure it is a site that you find easy to navigate and informative.

Finally, don't let your site become stale. I have found that my search engine rankings improve when I periodically add new pages to my site and keep the content new and fresh. Follow these tips and 2006 may be your year for traffic.

The Next Chapter

The Road to Better Results
By Shawn Campbell (Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. http://www.redcarpetweb.com/ )

A lot has changed in the way sites are optimized for search engines since last year. For one thing, Google is not the only search engine worth looking into anymore; Yahoo has definitely managed to take away some of Google's oomph over the past twelve months. Another important change is that the intelligence of the search engine spiders and algorithms has increased dramatically. So without further ado, I will present you with a standard search engine optimizing process.

Keyword Research

Nothing can be done until you know what your target phrases are. Keyword research must be done to find out what people are actually typing into the search engines. For example, do they type in "medical insurance" or "health insurance" more often? Is it worth targeting the keyword "dental insurance"? What do your competitors think its clients type?

Keyword research usually begins by asking the client what they think are good keywords and by looking at your competitor's Meta tags and text. You then have to brainstorm to find new and related keywords that were not previously thought of. The use of Wordtracker, Overture, and Google AdWords' estimates is indispensable. If you use the "KEI" offered at Wordtracker, don't fall into the trap of giving it too much worth. It is a good tool to help discover keywords that have not been exploited by the competition, but the really important number is the amount of traffic each keyword generates. Finally, create a chart to determine the relationship between keywords used. For example, there is no point promoting dental insurance if your site does not offer it. Texts

The next step is to write the text. Hire a specialized writer to put the text together. Ideally someone who has been trained in Internet writing, Internet marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO), or get advice from professional SEOs, marketing experts, and usability experts. Work with the client to get a feel for what is needed for the site. Then use all these skill to put together the delicate balance needed between selling to people, selling to search engines, and making the text interesting/useful to read.

Domain Selection

Once the text is written, come up with a catchy domain name for the site. Try to include part of the keyword in the domain, and to think ahead so that the domain can be expanded into the title. Our site www.gloriousbahamas.com is a good example of a domain with a keyword in it that is catchy and clearly stated. The keyword for that site is "Bahamas real estate", so having part of the keyword in the domain will help in the long run.

Title and Meta Tags

From the domain name, you can then create a title with the full main keyword in it (such as Glorious Bahamas Real Estate). The title is the most important text on the site. The Meta tags include the description tag, and the keyword tag. The description is what the searchers will see in many search engine results, so it must have the keywords in it and, more importantly, it must sell the site. Write a description that is objective, not subjective. Zeal has some good advice for titles and especially description writing at The keyword tag is done just in case some engines still use it (though very few still do), so don't pull your hair out over it. Just list 10-15 keyphrases and try not to repeat any single word more than three times.

Link Campaigns

The key is getting good sites to link to your site. Going after web sites with related content, sites with good authority in your web site's field, and sites that are "popular" are the priority. Getting only reciprocal links is not the goal, getting the aforementioned sites to link to you because you have good, valuable content is the goal. Sites that do reciprocal linking usually have hundreds of links on their link pages and these will add very little value to your site. Don't waste your time with reciprocal linking. Only link to a site if doing so will increase the value of your site in the eyes of your clients.

A link campaign is a lot of work, and it involves a lot of frustration and rejection. You have to approach bigger sites and sell the value that linking to your site will bring them. For every 20 sites you approach, you will be lucky to get one to link to you. You have to be persistent, consistent, and determined.

Conclusions

Optimizing a site is no longer something you can do and then forget about. For a site to succeed in the search engines today, it has to constantly be changing and growing either in content or in links, and ideally in both. It has to appear that the site is the life and soul of its creator, and that somebody cares enough about it to pay attention to it. Because after all, if the creator doesn't care, why should the search engines?

More...,

One feature of the current business environment is the mass acceptance of the Web as a business and social information tool. Much like television became the defining medium of the four decades following WWII, the Internet has become the defining medium of the 90's and 2K's and the growth of the search industry is being driven by advertising. The only tried and true business model for search engines is to treat webmasters as advertisers and somehow charge them for the privilege of a listing. This is being done mainly in three ways, Paid-Placement, Contextual Distribution, and Paid-Inclusion. In the case of Yahoo, a combination of the paid-placement and paid-inclusion is being tested but free listings are still possible to achieve. Paid advertisements are the revenue generators but search engine users continue to prefer the regular, "Organic" listings.

Organic Listings are the loss-leaders of the search engine industry. Although all the smaller search tools require payment for inclusion in their databases, both Google and Yahoo continue to provide listings for any website for free. Organic listings are seen below the "Featured or Sponsored sites" and are the results generally clicked on first. While it is very difficult to manipulate these listings, a good SEO can usually get their client's site placed in the Top10 with a concentrated campaign. Repeated surveys of search engine users confirm that Organic listings are the most trusted listings. While search engine users trust these listings, and a good SEO can generally get placement in an advantageous spot, many website owners choose a campaign based on organic listings and paid advertising in order to guarantee they will be found easily and quickly by searchers.

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