1) Listing in this directory is FREE to members of Yes!Hotels .org only.
When you joined Yes!Hotels you were not made aware of this extra free bonus of the directory because we didn't know we could pull the deal off with the domain name and use it - solely for our members. We are not charging you for inclusion into it. Lots of hours has gone into the design of the database. Lots of hours has gone into actually building the pages which carry your details. Lots of hours have gone into submitting the site to search engines so that you can benefit from a listing.
We think the least you could do is reciprocate...and place a link back.
2) Your fellow members are linking.
 Let us explain how Google works. Now there are all sorts of levels of knowledge within the membership but I need to explain this in a way that all members can understand. Please don't think this is patronising or that I am talking to you in too simple terms...I just need to explain in simple terms why a link is valuable.
Some of our members have a great internet presence. Some of them have PR4. That means they have a Google PageRank of 4. PR goes up to 10 and is partly a measure of how Google prioritises listings. Google uses many methods but lets concentrate on this one for now. PR4 is quite good for a hotel site. There are not many hotel websites in Blackpool that have a PR of 4 or above. Those that do have certainly spent a LOT of hours optimisng their website to make it very friendly to search engines such as Google PLUS they will have a considerable amount of links pointing at them. Getting good quality links coming in has also taken them a lot of time to develop.
Now most search engines, such as Google, send out "spiders" to crawl the web and gain information from any site they can find and report it back so that Google can sort and filter it.
When it comes across a site, a PR4 site, for example it will also read what sites that site is linking to and make a note that they also need to pay a visit to those sites in case there is anything interesting there that they can store. 
Now for a PR4 site to link to a PR0 (thats ..zero) it can only help the lower site. For the PR0 site to link to the PR4 site...its not helping much in the way of getting it any extra "brownie points" with Google. So it's a one way street. The PR4 sites, however, may decide to link to us because they can see that there is good potential for the domain and that it will quickly develop better PageRankings. Plus they will also get more traffic anyway.
But, as has been pointed out to us by a PR3 site and a PR4 site (that are members) it's not very fair on them if we include members sites that choose not to link back and if we choose to adopt a policy to let the member decide whether to link back or not then they will simply choose not to link to us...and basically everybody loses out - it will take a LOT longer for us to get good PageRanking for us...and therefore longer to start getting you good traffic and enquiries.
We agree with them.
We think the least you could do is reciprocate...and place a link back.
PageRank isn't the only thing that Google uses to prioritise listings. Members could be helping themselves a LOT more by making some simple modifications to their sites. If anybody wants some FREE advice drop by the forum on Yes!Hotels where you can get a free critique of what is right and what is wrong with your site. Another FREE service from Yes!Hotels. If members could improve their sites they'd get more traffic...and this directory would benefit by getting traffic from better PageRanked sites. Everybody would win!!
3) The links can be as unobtrusive as you want - but there are some points we need to get across.
Linking to us so that the text is nearly the same colour as the background it is on...makes it nearly invisible. Now search engines such as Google watch out for this. They are aware that many a website has tried to trick them by placing these invisible links and actually it has a detrimental effect on the sites that are being linked to. Google thinks..."Hey...this looks a bit shifty..lets knock it down a peg or three"
So if you do link to us we require that the text is in the same colour as the rest of the text on your site. Furthermore we require that the link is a TEXT link and that it comes to our front page NOT YOUR INDIVIDUAL LISTING PAGE. Google reads the words that are being linked. So, for example, a link such as www.blackpoolhotels.org won't quite work as well for us as Blackpool Hotels Directory. In the former its all one word to Google...in the latter its three individual keywords. That's another reason why we don't want an image or logo linked to us. Because Google can't actually see what words are within the image so although it will store the link (and will be better than nothing) it can't store the link in an area it has set aside for "Blackpool Hotels". So our preference is a TEXT link with these specific keywords "Blackpool Hotels Directory"
4) But it will make my site look ugly
Not necessarily. Place it at the bottom..in the "footer" of your site. Maybe you have a © Copyright 2009 text in small case - place it above that or next to it like this:-
We are listed in Blackpool Hotels Directory
© Copyright 2009 My Great Hotel
A good example of a link to us that is unobtrusive (but will work for all the members) is here:-
Red Rose Holiday Flats Blackpool [new window]
Notice the link to Yes! Hotels and Blackpool Hotels Directory at the bottom of (every) page? Now a casual viewer would NOT normally notice those links at the bottom ..its in a slightly smaller font size ...its outside the area where Red Rose are "selling" themselves but its beneficial for BlackpoolHotels.org (and that includes you, by the way, if you're listed with us). By linking to Yes!Hotels also it increases our brand awareness, gets that site more traffic too and we all benefit from that too - so although the link to Yes!Hotels isn't essential - its nice if you do link to that too.
So...it's unlikely that a viewer of your website will examine the small print at the bottom - but we know that Google's little spider will!! (He looks everywhere!)
5) OK...you've convinced me. Can I get a listing?
Yes. Of course. As long as you are a current member of Yes!Hotels and have placed a text link to us as described here. If you previously had a listing but were "culled" then simply email us and we'll re-instate your listing. If you are a member and havn't previously had a listing then please go to the Registration Page
Once again...this wasn't meant to be patronising. I needed to explain it in a way that everybody could understand.
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