Directory Submission the Truth

Indiscriminately submitting your website to countless online directories is not only a waste of time but potentially a harmful practice especially if some of these directories have been flagged as suspicious and black listed by the search engines.

Relevancy is the word to remember. We are not saying directory submission is a bad thing (once your on site optimisation is 100% complete)- in fact relevant directory submission is recommended if the directory scores well for your related search terms and has it's own content on the subject.

“Directory Submission- targeted and relevant directory submission should be sought as part of any external link building program but the bulk of your initial SEO work should be on site optimisation before taking these last step off site optimisation techniques”

Any directory link would then be worthwhile and relevant so the traffic sent to your site would be complimentary and your site would prove positive user experience. Remember we have already stated that link quality is the key to SEO link building and major search engines such as Google are constantly modifying their algorithm to take this into account!

Google and Directory Submissions

Gone are the days of the more inbound links the better and Google are detecting which sites take care to achieve natural, quality links over useless SEO based attempts at manipulating search results!

Google has to maintain relevant results and will ultimately reward the sites that long term aim to provide the beneficial content Google's customers require - not the sites that pay the most or spend the longest building 1000's of pointless inbound links just to make their site appear important! (don't kid yourself this is exactly what auto submit program's and SEO company packages promising x amount of directory submissions are doing!)

The most popular Directory Submission

Arguably the most important human edited free to submit directory is the DMOZ open directory project. A few years back having your business here was almost a requisite for top 10 search engine ranking.

Unfortunately as the directory is human editable there are now lines of thoughts that website's are being ignored for submission due to bias and corruption and therefore the search engines no longer give such weight to a link from the www.dmoz.org directory.

It is a shame, but a fact that links from the dmoz are no longer as good for your site's SEO as they once were in securing top SERP positioning.

Are there really 100's of relevant online directories to submit to?

The truth of the matter is for UK businesses there are not 100's of relevant directories for you to list your business website in! The best test of this is to perform a Google search for your general business description - go through the result pages and visit the directory based sites to find which are relevant... (this is our approach when we are requested to build external links and why we don't promise 100's of directory submissions!)

Most directories are set up to generate revenue through paid for submission and the truth is this form of directory can not help your own website's search engine positioning so we advocate only paying for submission for gaining relevant targeted traffic to your website.

There is no SEO benefit to being in 1000's of directories

The truth is being in 1000's of directories will not help your SERP positioning in the major search engines which is the whole point of SEO work in the first place. Concentrate your time and money on what will improve search ranking for your site. Thorough on site SEO optimisation is the first step before considering any off site work.

What is the directories purpose or revenue generator

One of the most crucial aspects to look at when considering directory submission is what is the purpose of the directory. Is it designed purely as an attempt to providing relevant content and improving the internet's usability?

Does it have ppc (pay per click) advertising - if so then this could be a good sign as the directory designer would want to ensure relevant content so that the directory grew in size and relevance driving traffic and generating massive income through the pay per clicks it received.

Search Engines ignore paid for advertising

Paid for advertising should not affect search engine positioning so the major search engines will not consider paid for links within their SEO calculations. If you have to pay for your directory submission bear in mind it won't help with your SEO long term but it may still provide relevant inbound traffic so make your decision based on your businesses internet marketing budget not on your SEO efforts.

Pay very close attention to the quality of other outbound links

When deciding to approach a directory for submission one last quality check you should undertake is to analise the other outbound links for the page you hope to be listed on.

Are these links relevant to your business? Remember the search engines will view all these pages outbound links as an overall reflection of the relevance of the page content so if you are the only company that will be relevant surrounded by "pointless" links the search engines will not view the directory in very high steed!

Check the directories backlink's to your target page

Again prior to submitting you can also look at what pages on the web actually point to the page you intend to be linked to from. This will give you an idea of the sites that will be sending traffic to the directory - if these sites are also relevant to your business it is likely to be a good directory listing and prove qualified, relevant web traffic and so will be a good thing for SEO.

Use the directory yourself

Imagine you are a normal web visitor to the directory looking for a particular service. How easy is it for you to find and do the results provide you with web links that are beneficial - if yes then it would appear to be a good directory to submit to - if no then one to avoid, use your own common sense!