Directories and Their Importance for Positioning in the Search Engines

What is a Directory?

A directory is a web site that contains a categorized listing of links from around the web. It works similar to a ‘Yellow Pages’ where you can find full listings of companies that you need. Directories aid you in locating the ‘best’ and most informative links for a particular category. For example a category may be called ‘Health’ and in this category there is list of links that may include medicine and dentistry. Directories contain categories into which links are separated. They can also have sub-categories to make the division of links more specific.

Why so Important?

All SEO experts agree that the importance of link building is one of prime importance to search engine optimization. There are several reasons:

1. You gain more exposure by adding your website to web directories. 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 that are in a hurry directly go to web directories rather than the search engines because all the websites are listed under appropriate categories and so it is easier to find the right links there. You can get lots of direct traffic from these web directories.
2. Directories are a great way to accumulate valuable links. They are a vital tool in building link popularity and as a result help improve search engine ranking. They are an excellent source of inbound, one-way links (a one-way link without requiring a reciprocal link), which are the most powerful types of links to help build link popularity.
3. The search engines' voraciously consume information on these web directories because the links over there are already validated.

What You Need To Know About Getting Your Link Listed

There are a many and varied directories on the web from general directories that include categories for almost everything, to specific directories that contain categories to match specific areas of interest e.g. web sites about dentistry. Link building does not mean scattering your links all over the Internet, it is linking to relevant sites that can possibly bring in traffic to your website. Getting listed in quality directories such as DMOZ or Yahoo can be more beneficial for your link popularity than a lot of links from smaller, newer directories. So it is useful to know which to submit to.

While submitting your link to a web directory you should be careful about its PageRank. This system is used by Google to help determine a page's relevance or importance. If it’s PageRank is healthy then it means the search engines regard it as a “trustable” web directory.

The Process

Each directory has their own process. Some directories require a fee and others do not. When you pay to get your link listed in a directory it is normally added within a week and it is guaranteed to be added whereas a directory that offers a free listing can take anywhere from a week to several months to add your link, and there is no guarantee that your link will be added.

When submitting a link to a directory you will more than likely be asked to provide the following information about your web site:

• URL
• Title
• Description
• Keywords that describe it

As much as possible place keyphrases that describe your web site into the Title text and Description text you submit. When a directory asks you to provide keywords that describe your web site it uses these keywords to locate your site when someone performs a search within the directory. So for example if I submit the keyword ‘dentist’ I have a better of chance of being listed in the directory’s search results when someone searches within it using the keyword ‘dentist’.