What Web Directories are?

Web Directories are online catalogs which categorize websites into thematic sections.

A web directory is not a search engine and does not display lists of web pages based on keywords; instead, it lists web sites by category and subcategory. The categorization is usually based on the whole web site rather than one page or a set of keywords. Usually a website is limited to inclusion in only a few categories.

When you submit a site to a directory, it is queued for editorial review. Usually, when you submit, you are allowed to choose the category your site will be placed under, and the desired description and title for your site, details which will show up in a related category. For directory editors, it DOES matter how professional your website is and how appealing it looks. Moreover, before submitting to a web directory, it's highly recommended that you ensure your site is free from broken links and missing image problems. When preparing your site for a directory submission, try first to stress that your site has valuable and unique content.

So, with the directories, there's no concept of "ranking", because once you've been included into the index, your site is ranked within the appropriate category by an independent factor, for instance, alphabetically or according with level of fees paid to be listed. Thus, the concept of "optimization" has no bearing when applied to directories.

What the directories are useful for?

In terms of traffic, these directories are also of little value. The percentage of Web surfers that would prefer browsing categories in a directory over a regular search is quite small; few people tend to dive into the depth of the branchy vertical hierarchy of categories. Thus, on its own your category listing won't bring much traffic.

But, since the directories are compiled by humans and are for humans (unlike search engine listings which are compiled by robots), the relevancy of directory results is very high. Search engines know that and almost all search engine spiders start their regular crawl at a directory. If you are listed there, the search engines will find you during their next crawl, even without your submission.

Additionally, directories themselves have high PageRank values (as a rule). When you are listed in a directory, the directory is linking to your site. This link is considered high-quality and is very good for your overall link popularity, which is an influential factor when it comes to ranking. For search engines that are able to analyze the context of your link (such as Google), your directory listing will be important because your link is supplemented by a relevant description.

Today submission of websites to web directories is considered as a common SEO (search engine optimization) technique to get vital back-links for the submitted web site. One distinctive feature of 'directory submission' is that it cannot be fully automated like search engine submissions. Manual directory submission is a tedious and time consuming.

Risks

Some directories may prevent search engines from rating a displayed link by using redirects, nofollow attributes, or other techniques.

Most of the times you have to pay for your website listing

Another direction taken by many web directories is the paid for inclusion model. This method enables the directory to offer timely inclusion for submissions and generally fewer listings as a result of the paid model. They often offer additional listing options to further enhance listings, including features listings and additional links to inner pages of the listed web site. These options typically have an additional fee associated, but offer significant help and visibility to sites and/or their inside pages.

Conclusion

Your directory listings are important for the PageRank value of your site and thus for your rankings in a significant number of major crawler-based engines.

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Article Directories

Find more about our directories on www.olala.com.au