Directory Submission

What is a Directory?

A directory is another way of searching the web to find sites about a particular subject. But instead of typing in a specific phrase, you instead look through different categories to find a website that has what you’re looking for.

Some directories are better than others. The more professional and valuable directories have human editors that examine each website before allowing it to be included in the directory. These directories are far more useful as they filter out poor quality content, to ensure users are only presented with relevant information.

Directory Submission

Submitting your website to these online directories has for a long time been considered a fundamental part of inbound link building. They’re seen as offering a quick and easy solution for boosting search engine rankings and increasing the amount of exposure a website receives.

However, website marketers all seem to have different opinions on the best way to go about directory submission. It really boils down to a battle between quality and quantity. You see, whereas some people believe you should submit your site to every possible directory you can, others say the key to success is only submitting to the most reputable ones.

At Big Bang SEO, we very much believe in the latter reasoning. Logic dictates that by only submitting a website to high quality directories and those that are targeted to a specific subject, you’ll be seen as a quality website with relevant content. It’s likely that by submitting a website to thousands of poor quality directories, you’ll not only waste time and money, but could even damage your search engine rankings.

Editorial Policy

Search engines will often only take directories seriously if they have a good editorial policy. This means that only directories that earn a search engine’s trust, by carefully reviewing the sites that make it into their directory, will be given any credibility.

So when you’re looking for a directory to submit to that will aid you in improving your search engine rankings, it’s a good idea to look for those that have a strong editorial policy in place.

Search engines are constantly monitoring directories to assess the quality and relevance of the content that’s being listed. They only want to give credit to directories that list the best information and throw out the trash.

Assessing a Directory

There are plenty of things you can do yourself to determine whether or not a directory is worth submitting to and if it is likely to help you improve your search engine rankings.

For starters, do the obvious and try searching for something on the directory yourself. Pretend your looking for some specific information and see if you can easily find what you’re looking for. If you’re presented with long lists of useful websites, then it’s likely the directory is of a decent quality. However, if there are lots of poor quality websites or links that look as if they’re in the wrong category, then it might be best to steer well clear.

Do a search on SEO forums and blogs to see if the directory is mentioned. If lots of people are recommending a directory and have enjoyed success by using it, then that bodes well. However, make sure the people writing the reviews aren’t in anyway affiliated with the directory, as it might just be a clever marketing ploy.

Also search for the directory itself on Google, Yahoo and the other engines to see how it ranks. Search for the name of the directory and if it doesn’t come out anywhere near the top; it probably won’t be the best directory to submit to.

Use a tool like Yahoo Site Explorer to see how many links the directory has. If there are thousands of other websites linking to the directory, then it’s likely that it will be both reputable and able to provide you with a bigger boost in your own search engine rankings.

Look for clear evidence of the directory refusing to list websites or throwing them out for having poor content. This shows that the directory is taking pride in its listings and offering a quality service. This is highly appreciated by the search engines.

Finally, is the directory free or do you have to pay to be listed? Most paid directories have a responsibility to maintain relevant listings and are normally of a superior quality. However, that isn’t to say that all paid directories are great and all free directories should be ignored (take dmoz.org for example). There are many paid directories that don’t offer value for money and there are free directories that offer excellent benefits. But in the majority of cases, you get what you pay for, so for the best results be prepared to invest.

Personal Touch

There are literally hundreds of different tools out there that offer to submit your website to thousands of directories with just the click of a button. These automated submission tools should be avoided as search engines are able to identify patterns and will penalise your website for trying to cheat.

Automated submission tools will also only submit to low quality directories, meaning it’s highly unlikely that you’ll enjoy any success, even if you manage to get away with using them.

At Big Bang SEO, we only deal in manual submissions, taking the time and care to add websites to the best directories, in the most relevant categories and with targeted titles and descriptions. By doing this, we can achieve great success with directory submissions.

Rewards

If you take the time to properly assess all of the directories you look at before submitting, you’ll be rewarded.

For starters, people visit good directories often so you’ll get lots of additional visitors to your site on top of all those that you already receive from search engines and other traffic sources. You also get a quality link back to your website from a reliable source. And because you don’t have to link back to them, it’s a one-way link, which is far more valuable. And because the links you get from quality directories hold so much weight, you can expect to see an improvement in your search engines rankings very quickly.

Big Bang SEO Directory Submissions

As stated, at Big Bang we only believe in manual directory submissions. We use all our expertise to identify the best directories that seamlessly fit together with the website we’re submitting. Aside from taking care of submissions to the big name directories such as Dmoz, Yahoo and the many others, we also target directories that are specific to the market that a website competes in.

You see, whether it’s loans, gardening, poodles or whatever else, there’s nearly always a directory that’s specific to an individual market. Search engines will give far more credit to websites that have links from other sites covering the same topic. Therefore identifying quality directories that are closely related to a website is key to success. We can also spot low value directories a mile off to ensure a website stays well clear of being negatively associated with listings that can significantly damage your overall SEO efforts.

By handing over your directory submissions to Big Bang SEO, we take care of absolutely everything and use our wealth of experience to make sure your website appears in all the right places.

If you’d like to discuss a directory submission campaign with Big Bang SEO, please feel free to contact us for further information.