Especially for a new site, submitting to
directories is a useful thing to do. It
gives you some immediate links and it gets
you going in the search engines. It often
gives you control of your anchor text (the
underlined words), and lets you deep link
into important inside pages. If you can
afford $299 for the Yahoo! directory, you
can get a powerful traffic jump for a short
period of time while your site is labelled
"new" and sits at the top of its category.
However, submitting to directories is not a
silver bullet by any means. It's just one
little cog in a big machine. We recommend
that you pick a list of 10 - 15 quality
directories, pay the submission fee (or
you'll be waiting til the next millenium),
then get on with the real work of search
marketing. When you submit to
The Open
Directory, which is the most important
one of all, make sure you site is squeaky
clean and working properly. You only get one
shot at it, and they are strict. Follow the
guidelines closely. Below, we have provided
some of the better directories to use --
everyone doing search engine optimization
has their favorites. Stay away from
directories with too much advertising,
especially "run-of-site" ads for products
like casinos and drugs.
Local and Vertical Directories
There are many local
directories covering all regions of the
country -- from as small as your local town,
to state or region-wide. There are also many
vertical directories, covering specific
niches, from catering to health to
automotive. You can find many of these at
www.ISEDB.com.
You may also want to
take a look at a directory that we started
in November of 2006, called
www.ListLocalBusiness.com. List
Local Business is a network of stand-alone
business directory websites, each one
organized into local market areas. The
network includes more than 50 local business
categories, with a diverse range of
businesses such as real estate, carpet
cleaning, plumbers, lawyers, accountants,
and so on. If you own a catering company in
Chicago, for example, you would go to the
Local Catering Directory and add your
listing to the Chicago page. The listings
are free to local businesses, and include a
direct link back to the business website.
All the directories are accessible through
the main website,
www.ListLocalBusiness.com
Click
here for a full listing of all the local
business directories currently available
under the List Local Business umbrella.
Directory Submissions