Once very simple (only Yahoo was worth submitting), the science of submitting sites to directories has become increasingly complex. There are numerous programs, sites, and services that will (or promise) to submit your site to the millions of directories out there today.
Unfortunately, the promise of “appearing in 10,000 directories with one click” is blatantly false. If you want to appear in PageRank Zero directories, an invitation to be banned, go ahead. And don’t forget to give them a real email, so they’ll spam you forever.
Real, valuable directories don’t accept auto-submissions for 2 good reasons:
– they need quality data that no software provides or guarantees.
– they need a human with a credit card, to whom to sell something
So everyone has Proofs of Humanity, like annoying captchas, or an email that needs to be read and acted upon.
Directories use different methods to support new sites: some require payment, some request a link exchange, which can equate to better search engine (SE) rankings. Some require a spam-friendly email address. A few accept your data for free without compensation: those who need quality links to improve.
This is a classification of the directories, according to their admission requirements:
-Really free
-Paid out
-Legitimate, but Request link exchange
-Cheaters
misleading directories
So far, I list 8 types of cheaters:
1-It says free and it is not: After a long process of filling out forms, they deceptively ask for a ransom for your time.
2-Ask for link exchange and do not comply: they demand your publication first, and promise a reciprocal link that never arrives.
In our experience, 70% of those who request a link do not respond after 2 weeks.
3-Home page with high PageRank, indexing pages with zero PageRank: This is not necessarily cheating, unless the PageRank is manipulated to flow elsewhere. Most directories start from scratch, get PageRank 3 on the home page after the first search, and don’t pass the PageRank to their internal directories until they go up to 5-6 on the home page. However, if links to other pages are regularly embedded on the home page earlier and more prominently (H1, H2, Bold) than customer listings, PageRank flows to the privileged pages.
4-Add no-follow attribute to your links: This is a dirty trick. Check the code in the HTML source
5. Add exclusions to listings in robots.txt file
6. Gives little or no priority in Google’s sitemap (usually, but not always, sitemap.xml). Note that Google Sitemap allows sitemaps by other names, and only the webmaster knows which one is good. So it’s easy to downplay links that don’t pay.
7-Insert Javascript in the code you need to publish: popups, redirects, trojans
8-Delay 4-5 years publication for no reason: I mean Dmoz.org, of course.
Ideal directories have:
-Quick Browsing: Finding the right category is the most time consuming part of submitting to directories.
-No obstacles (some captchas are 10 characters long, have non-letter characters and are almost unreadable due to weird fonts or low background contrast. What’s wrong with a single character?
-Accept triangulation: Google no longer automatically accepts reciprocal links as a quality signal. Triangulating links or quadranging are better.
-Instant Publish: Ideally, a script checks your link, tests the reciprocal, and publishes it.
-SEO-friendly: The directory will post your link in a crawlable location, with no restrictions.
-Theme: there is no longer a Web site for generic directories. Who needs a better directory than Yahoo or Google? Instead, the web will always host a new thematic directory, complete and with specific tools to obtain better quality results.
-Good PageRank
-Large number of incoming links indexed
-The listed sites receive some advantage: traffic or better ranking
Good shipping tools:
Good shipping tools, whether desktop or web-based, should have:
– good list of directories, according to the criteria defined above
– Directory selection feature, which allows the site owner to submit only those directories that fit their preferences and budget.
– semi-automatic form filling
– spider detection listing or checker
– tracking and reporting function
Trained operator
An operator capable of successfully submitting to directories should be aware of the above items, as well as have some knowledge of Web and FTP editing. It needs to be trustworthy, because you will be giving your site username/password access to the link exchange. In some cases, you will need a disposable email account with the same domain that is being promoted.
Even with a good submission tool, expect to spend 2 weeks full time submitting to 1000 selected directories (one every 4 minutes), with link exchanges. If you have cheap labor abroad, it could run to $300, plus $100 for a decent filing tool.
As long as all these aspects are taken into account, directory submission is still the best way to get inbound links to any site. Combined with proper SEO, it (almost) always results in a better SE ranking.