WEBSITE DIRECTORIES

Website directories have long been an important part of a link and web traffic building campaign. 

There are literally thousands of directories on the web, many offering free URL submission.

The lion’s share of these directories accept submission of the domain name (homepage) but not internal pages.  For example,  these directories will allow free URL submission of www.emakemyownwebsite.com but not www.emakemyownwebsite.com/creatingbacklinks.php.

Think of website directories as huge indices divided into category, subcategory, and often multiple subcategories of subcategories---sort of like a card catalog in a library of 50 years ago, only mind numbingly more tedious for anybody who manually submits website directory-to-website directory.

This is a good place to illustrate what I’m talking about. 

Suppose you want to make a free URL submission of your website about Costa Rica real estate to DMOZ.org.  Look at the process you’ll be forced to undergo.

You’ll start by picking the category “Regional” which will take you to another page containing many regions.  You’ll search through “Central America” to click on “Costa Rica.”  Great!  You’re halfway there!

Well, maybe halfway.  You see, when you finally have drilled down to the correct category, many of these website directories will direct you to yet another page where you have to fill in more data (or be asked if you’d like to pay $$$ instead of taking advantage of their free URL submission).

Once you've finally gotten to the directory's Promised Land, you'll need to add a synopsis for the readers to see---one for every directory.  More minutes.

What an utter, total waste of your time.  

Don’t misunderstand.  These directories are a good way to promote your website and get back links and traffic but you really should use technology, not manual labor, to rapidly thumb-through that massive electronic card catalog and submit the URL to the correct subcategory.

There’s a wide selection of website directories:

·      Free submission – enter your website URL and you’ll be listed free

·      Reciprocal link – some directories require a back link (a link back to them) from your website in return for getting a listing in the directory

·      Paid submission – you will pay a one-time or recurring fee reviewing or listing your link

·      Featured listing – the link is given a premium position in a category (or multiple categories) or other sections of the directory, such as the homepage—think paid advertisement

·      Free or paid – Some website directories require payment unless you become an online editor

·      Niche Directories—Specialized directories

·      Deep Link Directories---Allow submission of pages inside a domain, not just the homepage

Automating Submissions to Website Directories

You'll have the choice of either manually submitting to directories (the historical, archaic way), hiring somebody to do this for you, or automating the process with cheap software.  Most people do the first until they get bored (which is usually pretty quickly). 

You shouldn't manually submit yourself or hire somebody to do it for you.

Here's why. 

Manual Submissions.  You'll typically spend 10-15 minutes (no exaggeration) wading through the various categories and subcategories of directories before perhaps finding the correct subcategory to manually submit your url to one directory.  Then another 5-10 minutes building the synopsis describing your site.

You will spend hours, literally, lots and lots of the most incredibly boring hours of life submitting to a few dozen directories.     

Outsourcing.  Alternatively, you can hire somebody else to submit to website directories.  There are web submission services in the States and Europe but they tend to be considerably more expensive than the web submission service capital of the world: India.  Now, if you only ever plan to have a single website, this might make some sense.

Automate.  The best option for most people is to to buy a software package that automates the directory submission process and do the submissions themselves (typically about 30-45 seconds per submission).

Why is buying, rather than outsourcing, the most sensible, cost-effective thing to do?

Two big reasons:

1.  Time Efficiency.  30 seconds beats the daylights out of 15-20 minutes.
2.  Cost Efficiency.  When you outsource, the service uses the same sort of technological software you can buy.  And, if you have, or plan, more than one website, owning the software beats outsourcing hands down.

Here's a screenshot from the program I use and recommend, SubmitEaze:

The screenshot shows that there are 1,470 website directories (in the free directories module)to which the website www.costaricavacationsblog.com is submitting its URL.  Notice that the software shows the Page Rank of the web directories on the left, the categories and subcategories on the upper right, and the description of the site that will be posted to the free web directory (you can program as many different description boxes as you like and the software will rotate them).

The software has several modules, 4,000 directories (free, reciprocal link, and paid directories) and now has an included article directory module as well with about 1000 article directories).

It's perfect for multiple websites.  As of this writing, I have 18 or so sites which, would cost hundreds of dollars to outsource.  My cost per submission?  Less than half a penny each.

Now, of course, perhaps you'd like to find and manually submit to website directories.  In that case, bear in mind that there are thousands from which to choose, so look over these high PR directories (submit to a few of these free directories and you'll see why automation is the way to go).

I guarantee that in the time it takes you to manually submit to a couple of these directories, you could have submitted your website to 50 directories!

If time is money, use technology for goodness' sake and, at least try SubmitEaze free trial. 

Promote Your Website with High PR Directories

Here are 20 high PR Website Directories.  Some are free, some require a one-time payment, a few require renewal every year.  I’ve selected them for their page rank so, if you choose to manually submit, rather than use technology, you can do so. 

A word:  When you see a price followed by the letter "y" that denotes a subscription price per year.  Myself, I prefer free.

 

You may have noticed that I've mentioned high PR (Google Page Rank) website directories on a number of occasions.  The reason for this is that Google's ranking algorithm looks not only to quantity, but also to quality, of back links.  Links coming to your site from higher ranked directories appear to carry more weight with Google than links from lower ranked directories, though a link is a link so get as many as you can!

Whether you choose to buy SubmitEaze, some other website submission software, outsource, or submit to one directory or another, is your option.

But, if you want to build traffic, get back links, and increase your website's important Page Rank, submitting your URL to website directories is an important part of your campaign.

Combine it with article writing, blog posts, and social bookmarking (Google favors diversity of back links) and you'll quickly climb ahead of most of your competition.

Go from Website Directories to Traffic

Go to E Make My Own Website homepage