November 15th, 2007
There was a time not too long ago that if you needed a boost in the Search Engine Rankings all you had to do is submit your site to hundreds of Internet Directories and watch your website or blog crawl up the SERPS.
Fast forward a few years and that’s not necessarily the case any longer.
Oh Directories, How I Use To Love Thee
As I said above, in the past Directories were a short cut to a bundle of backlinks that would help your rankings.
So what has happened?
The same thing that happens to many good things on the Internet.
Spammers.
Many Directories, especially free Directories, are nothing more than Made For Adsense sites and Spam ads.
The Search Engines, especially Google, have gotten very good at weeding out these Spam Directories and devaluing links from them.
Will links from these sites to your site hurt you? Not in my experience, but why would you throw good money at a fruitless effort, not to mention the time and trouble of submitting your site to all these Directories?
Shoemoney had an interview with some top SEO experts a while back and they believed that only Directories that sent traffic to your website were worth the money. You have to be you own judge as each site is different, but I like them for backlinks also.
Where Have All The Good Directories Gone?
I know some of you may be asking “Are there any Directories worth submitting my sites to?”
Of course there are. Unfortunately most Directories worth submitting your site to are paid Directories.
The reason many paid Directories are still beneficial to website owners is because the better ones actually review websites that are submitted. Not all websites will be accepted. It’s these types of Directories that Google actually likes due to the “Trust” factor.
Having your sites listed in better paid Directories will lead to additional backlinks from other websites. Granted, most of these additional backlinks will be from sites with lower authority, but they’re backlinks none the less.
Tips For Making The Most Out Of Your Directory Submission
Hey people. If you’re going to pay for a submission to Directories, take your time and do it right for maximum SEO benefits. I’ve seen sites submitted to paid Directories that had the lousiest descriptions and no anchor text. What a waste of Money!
Here’s a few tips for submitting your site to Internet Directories.
Forget about paying some so called “Directory Submission” company to submit your site to hundreds of Directories for $20, $40 or $50. Most of these are automated submissions which return very little to nothing at all on your investment. If you choose to have someone else submit your site, make sure actual humans are hand submitting your site to each directory and then ask for a report that will show you which directories your site was submitted to and whether or not it was accepted. Expect to pay a few hundred dollars for this service.
If you really want to take advantage of Directories, go ahead and pay the admission fee to top Directories. You can easily drop a few thousand dollars on submission fees to the top 50 Internet Directories. Consider this a good investment for your website, especially if this is a website you plan on keeping for long term.
Don’t keep submitting your site over and over. Many Directories will blacklist your for this. This is why many Webmasters get into trouble by having someone else do it. They keep blasting Directories with your website via automated software until the Directory blacklist your site. Many times the unaware website owner doesn’t even know their site has been blacklisted.
Use anchor text. If you’re going to the trouble and expense to submit your website to Directories, take full advantage of the submission by using Anchor Text. Also, never use the same Anchor Text over and over. Use several related keywords for Anchor Text pointing back to your site.
Spread out your submissions. Want to grab Google’s attention quickly? Then submit your site to many directories at the same time. When Google Bot finds all those links pointing back to you site at one time, bad things can happen. Spread out your submissions over a period of time. This is another reason NOT to use a Directory Submission service or Directory submission software.
Use good descriptive descriptions. Just like Anchor Text, take the time to use good descriptions. A good description can set your site apart from all the other websites in your chosen category.
Make sure the Directory page you submit too is actually indexed in the Search Engines. If the Directory or the Directory Page you’re submitting to isn’t indexed, you’ll receive little, if any, benefit.
Go Deep. Make sure the page you submit to the Directory is relevant to the category. If you have a website about Pets including sub pages on Cats, Dogs and Birds, submit your inner pages to relevant categories for maximum benefit.
Forget Directory wide links. Forget about submitting to Directories that promise you site wide links. This too will get Google’s attention. Google will likely not value these links due to the lack of editorial integrity, ie; trust and authority, of the Directory.
The Top 25 Directories Your Site Should Be Submitted To
If you want to take advantage of Internet Directories, here are the Top 25 that you website should be submitted to.
1. www.dmoz.org
2. dir.yahoo.com
3. www.lii.org
4. www.business.com
5. sbd.bcentral.com
6. whatuseek.com
7. cannylink.com
8. 123world.com
9. www.botw.org
10.www.goguides.org
11.www.joeant.com
12.www.gimpsy.com
13.chiff.com
14. gango.com
15. www.americasbest.com
16. mavicanet.com
17. jayde.com
18. uncoverthenet.com
19. rlrouse.com
20. elib.org 21.avivadirectory.com
22.http://www.directory.v7n.com/
23..ezilon.com
24.site-sift.com
25.isedb.com
In Summary,Internet Directories can still be beneficial to Webmasters. However, not all Directories are created equal and a Webmaster needs to be careful as to which sites they submit their site too.
