Web Directory Submission
posted in SEO |How are web directory submissions and search engine rankings related?Ofcourse the search engines taking many factors into account while ranking your website. A few of them are:
- How relevant is the content of your website?
- How is that content organised?
- How much relevant content you have?
- How is the navigation and inter-linking on your website organised?
- How many relevant outgoing links you have and what anchor texts you have used?
- How many incoming/inbound links you have from external websites, and how well do those websites rank on various search engines?
The last point comes into force when you submit your link to various web directories. While submitting your link to a web directory you should be careful about its PageRank. If it its PageRank is healthy then it means the search engines regard it as a “trustable” web directory. Some of the highly ranked web directories are:
- Open Directory Project/DMOZ - A highly rated web directory that is free. When you submit your website it is reviewed by an impartial volunteer and then, if accepted, included under the appropriate directory.
- Yahoo! — Yes, it is a directory too. They charge a hefty annual amount (more than $300) but if they accept your website (the payment is not a guarantee of acceptance) it pays great dividends.
- LookSmart - A general web directory that can make your website visible on its network websites such as MSN, ABOUT.com, Netscape, Inktomi, Info Space and Cnet.
You can find some more directories by search on Google.
Why should you submit your website to web directories?
You may wonder why take all this trouble to submit to web directories when it is better to focus on search engines? Well, first of all the search engines voraciously consume information on these web directories because the links over there are already validated.
Second, since all the major web directories are well-ranked on various search engines they attract lots of traffic through the search engine result pages. Many people, hard pressed on time, directly go to web directories rather than the search engines because all the websites are listed under appropriate categories and hence it is easier to find the right links there. You can get lots of direct traffic from these web directories. In fact direct traffic from web directories is highly relevant because people click your link under the appropriate category or sub-category.
Directories are a great way to accumulate valuable links, build credibility and boost your website’s visibility.
Back when the search engines started tracking link popularity as part of their ranking algorithms, they were looking for links that pointed to websites and counted them as votes for that website. When people found out that having links pointing to your website was important they started doing reciprocal link exchanges. Because link popularity could now be manufactured, the search engines gave different amount of weight to links depending on what type they were.
One way links seemed to be more powerful because that most likely meant that one website was linking to another because they wanted the visitors to their site to know about the website they were linking to. It was a unbiased “vote” for that website. There is debate on whether one way text links are more important now than reciprocal links but in my opinion, I would say they are more important to search engines. (Cool tool to calculate link value)
A legitimate way to help build your one way link popularity is through directory submissions. The key to remember when it comes to building your link popularity through directory submissions, is to always try to get links from related websites. Try to follow the theme of your website and submit to directories whose users would gain something from following that link and visiting your website. When submitting to web directories make sure you choose the most relevant category for your website.
Web directories become an important part of the overall link building mix, especially when you submit to directories that offer a one way link. Whether you are submitting to free or paid web directories, every little bit helps.
What About Directory Submission Software?
There are many versions of automated directory submission software out there. Using directory submission software can make the submission process faster, but there are some disadvantages in doing this. For example, some web directories can track if submission software was used when someone submits to their directory and they will not accept the submission because they have in their terms not to use automated software like that. Also, doing submissions that quickly will not appear as natural to search engines when they see hundreds of new links at once. If you feel like you really want to speed up the process then we recommend paying a directory submission service to help you. They will do directory submissions by hand to as many directories as you want.
