Directory Submission Starter Guide

By Lauren Haugh

What is Directory Submission?

Submitting your website to online directories is an off-page optimization technique used to gain backlinks (or incoming, inbound links) which can help boost natural search rankings and improve your online presence. It basically involves finding an online directory and submitting your information such as domain and a brief description to be included in the appropriate category.

Three key types of directories include vertical market (industry specific), general purpose, and local business directories. Some directories allow you to submit your information for inclusion for free, while others require you pay an annual or monthly fee (known as paid directories or paid inclusion).

What are some guidelines for choosing quality directories?

It’s worth getting listed in all types of directories, but it’s especially important that you identify where your competitors are and get listed there too. Select a directory based on relevance to your industry and target market.

1. Once you have identified a few directories of interest, check them out to make sure they are reputable, relevant, have a decent PageRank (a numeric value, between 0-10, that Google uses to represent the importance of a webpage in relation to all other pages on the Web), and are up-to-date – all characteristics of a quality directory.

2. Take it for a test drive. Check out the volume, quality, and type of the listings as well as the functionality of the site. If you don’t recognize any of the businesses in your industry and region, or only find one or two listings in major categories when conducting a search, it’s likely that submitting to that directory is not worth your while.

3. Also, reference online forms, blogs, and industry sites to find out what people are saying about the directory you’re considering.

4. Be careful of directories that require you to provide them with a backlink. If this does not make sense to you and you can’t see how your visitors would benefit from it, search for a different directory.

It’s important to note that many of the good, free directories hand-select their listings and do not guarantee inclusion – as opposed to automating this process. In these cases, you may have to wait several months before knowing if you have been included in the directory. Check back with them regularly and follow up if you have questions.

What are some trusted General Purpose Directories?

To help you get started, here is a list of good general purpose directories we recommend:

Free:

Dmoz (The Open Directory Project)

ExactSeek

illumiRate

Paid:

Yahoo Directory – $299/year

Best of the Web (BOTW) – $99.95/year or one-time fee of $249.95

Business.com- $299/year

What are some tips for finding good industry specific directories?

Find industry specific directories by searching online for “name of industry + directory” and research to find the sites your competitors are listed in by going to Yahoo Site Explorer or typing “link: + www + competitor’s website” into a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc).

How do I get listed in local business directories?

Get listed in Local Business Listings via GetListed.org. This is a great tool for getting listed in local search results of Google, Yahoo, Bing and others, determining listing status and finding general information and resources about local marketing. Visit the website and enter your business name and zip code to get started.

Also consider getting listed in others such as CitySearch (data from this site feeds Ask.com and Bing) and Yelp (data from this site feeds Bing and Yahoo).

I encourage you to be proactive and engage in directory submission as it’s a great way to jumpstart your link building efforts and increase your online presence. This is a continual process that deserves regular attention and will pay off over time, not over night. But, the benefits are well worth it.

Lauren Haugh is the Search Marketing manager at Sitepro.com, a web design and development company serving small to medium-size businesses, where she provides clients with Search Engine Optimization and Marketing services. She believes in educating people about SEO/SEM to help them make better, well informed decisions.

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