Search Engine Optimization Basics

Top 10 article submission sites -

http://www.webpronews.com/, Page Rank: 7, Alexa Rank: 14,536
http://www.qarchive.org/, Page Rank: 6, Alexa Rank: 1,786
http://www.articlecity.com/, Page Rank: 5, Alexa Rank: 41,377
http://www.articlebiz.com/, Page Rank: 3, Alexa Rank: 92,151
http://www.selfseo.com/, Page Rank: 3, Alexa Rank: 49,086

http://www.ezinearticles.com/, Page Rank: 6, Alexa Rank: 333
http://www.articledashboard.com/, Page Rank: 6, Alexa Rank: 42,902
http://www.articleclick.com/, Page Rank: 4, Alexa Rank: 42,147
http://www.articlemarketer.com/, Page Rank: 4, Alexa Rank: 41,411
http://www.goarticles.com/, Page Rank: 3, Alexa Rank: 18,786
Top 10 Press Release submission sites -
Some of the best paid press release directories are:
Prweb.com – PR7, Alexa 1,826 Compete Rank 2,708
PRLeap.com – PR5, Alexa 37,288 Compete 106,168
24-7 Press Releases (Recommended!) – PR5, Alexa 12,205 Compete 38,727
Pressat.co.uk – UK Press Release Distribution

1. Best of the Web
Paid Submission $149.95 USD (Renewed Annually) or
$299.95 USD (One Time Fee)
Submit: http://botw.org/helpcenter/submitcommercial.aspx

2. Gimpsy - Active Sites for Active People
Submit: http://www.gimpsy.com/gimpsy/searcher/suggest_compare.php

3. GoGuides
Submit: http://www.goguides.org/info/addurl.htm

4. Google Directory - Powered by the ODP
Submit: Use the Open Directory Project

5. JoeAnt.com
Submit: http://www.joeant.com/suggest.html

6. ODP - Open Directory Project - dMOZ
Submit: http://dmoz.org/add.html

7. Skaffe - The International Directory
Submit: http://www.skaffe.com/info/addurl.php

8. WebSavvy Directory
Submit: http://www.websavvy.cc/add.php

9. Yahoo! Directory - Paid submission review $299.00 USD (Renewed Annually)
Submit: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/

Penguin update 2.1

For companies that have been hit by the Penguin update, one common theme appears to be a severe lack of natural links :

Five common issues these sites are all facing:

Paid text links using exact match anchor text: For companies that want to rank for a certain term (such as “red widgets”) one way to accomplish this is by buying links from other websites with that exact matching anchor text. This is against Google’s guidelines, as Google would consider this a paid link that exists solely to manipulate Page Rank, rather than to provide any value to visitors.
Comment spam: Two things proved problematic for websites trying to unnaturally rank for specific keywords: signatures in comments that contained exact match anchor text; and people who used a Spam user name (e.g., Best India SEO Company) as exact match text.
Guest posts on questionable sites: Although guest post are a legitimate way to earn links to your site, sites dinged by the Penguin had links pointing to their website from sites filled with low-quality articles where the focus was on the anchor text rather than the content.
Article marketing sites: Thin content featuring links with exact match anchor text were another common factor among affected sites.
Links from dangerous sites: Do you have inbound links from sites that have been flagged for malware, numerous pop-ups, or other spammy issues? This was another factor that caused websites to lose their Google rankings, so links to and from web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” are a danger.