Online directories are online guides that organize websites by subjects. Submitting your website on these online directories can influence your SEO results. The following takes a look at the top 10 directories to be listed on for SEO purposes
What is a Directory?
Online directories systematize websites into subject-based categories and list them in an alphabetical manner in order for easy viewing. Editors evaluate the content of websites and organize them into sub-categories that will then be placed within the directory. The editors that categorize the websites look at various factors before placing them within the directories. Online directories take into consideration the commercial versus non-commercial and geographical components of a selected website. In short, a directory is a database that contains information that has been optimized for reading. These directories also contain search portals for traffic to browse and search for keyword look-ups.
SEO and Directories
The process of SEO involves the evaluation of your existing website. Tweaking of content and text within web pages is carried out in order to make your website more visible on search engines. SEO optimizes your site by using high-quality keywords in your web articles. By doing this, search engines can recognize and trust your website enough to place it in a higher page ranking. By getting your website listed on high ranking directories, your site has a better chance of obtaining high-quality traffic, ultimately leading to more purchases and an increase in your return on investment (ROI). Some directories require payment to list your site.
Top 10 Directories to be listed on for SEO
- dir.yahoo.com - launched in 1995 and has a page rank of 8.
- www.dmoz.org - launched in 1999 and has a page rank of 8.
- www.lii.org - launched in 1998 and has a page rank of 8.
- www.business.com - launched in 1998 and has a page rank of 7.
- www.botw.org - launched in 1996 and has a page rank of 6.
- www.sunsteam.com - launched in 1999 and has a page rank of 4.
- www.jayde.com - launched in 1996 and has a page rank of 4.
- www.cannylink.com - launched in 1997 and has a page rank of 3.
- www.chiff.com - launched in 1998 and has a page rank of 3.
- www.qango.com - launched in 1998 and has a page rank of 3.
These directories are used by search engines as older sites rank well and are trusted by Google. These directories will snowball more traffic to your website and ultimately get your site trusted and well ranked.
Web Directory Facts
- Web directories existed before search engines came into being.
- Online directories contain mass amounts of links to sites, these are arranged alphabetically.
- The directories are edited by humans; therefore URL's are not gathered or spidered. Rather they are submitted by site owners.
- The advantage of the directories being edited manually is that you do not have to worry about being classified under the wrong categories.
- The only disadvantage of directories is that the information available for traffic to browse may be outdated.
- The directories do not have spiders so you will need to submit your URL to a search directory.
- By your site being listed on a directory, you will have backlinks and your site will be visible for spiders to index.
- Dmoz is a very popular directory as it accepts links of all types of sites. It is however extremely difficult to list your website on Dmoz and can take a very long time. Dmoz also only lists sites with noteworthy content.
Conclusion
Online directories help in optimizing your site for visibility within search engines. They also give your site a good starting point in terms of exposure and provide the needed information for traffic to get hold of your business and possibly make purchases of your product or service.
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