Monday, March 18, 2013

Chapter 12: Web Directories

Web directories may appear 'pre-Google', but submitting to the best directories has got the advantage that the audience they attract includes individuals who have an interest in a specific topic and, if this really is your topic, you will get to your audience directly.
Web directories existed before the various search engines (SE's), particularly Google, were popular. As their name suggests, web directories are places where differing resources are brought together. Web directories consist of huge amounts of links for websites, arranged in various categories. The websites in a Web directory are listed in a certain order (usually alphabetic but it's not always so) and users search through them.
Although a lot of Web directories provide a search function of some sort, they differ from SE's in 2 ways - the majority of directories are managed by humans and the URLs aren't gathered automatically using spiders but, rather, submitted by webmasters. The benefit of Web directories is that, regardless of how clever spiders become, if you find a human to see and always check the pages, there's a lesser chance that pages will become classified in the incorrect categories.
The disadvantages are that the lists in web directories are occasionally outdated if no human was there to do the editing and checking for a while. This isn't that bad, though, because search engines also deliver pages that may not exist any more. Sometimes, therefore, you may have to hold on 6 months before being featured in a web directory.
The 2nd big difference - no spiders - means that you need to actually submit your own URL to the particular web directory yourself, instead of sitting and waiting for a spider to travel quickly to your website. Happily, this really is done only one time for every directory, so it's maybe not that bad.
When you get featured in a specific directory, generally, you are able to stay there for the length of time you desire and await people (and SE's) to locate you. If a hyper-link to your website appears in a decent Web directory, this is good because first, it's a back-link and 2nd, you boost your visibility for spiders, which raises your opportunity to be indexed by them.
Therefore, you should submit your index page (homepage) URL free to as many of the high PR Web Directories as possible. The top one's we have listed below:
You will find a large number of web directories but, certainly, the most popular one is DMOZ. It's a general purpose web directory that also accepts links to a myriad of websites. Other popular general-purpose web directories are Ezilon.com and Yahoo! Directory. The Best of the Web is among the oldest Web directories, also it still keeps to high standards in selecting websites. Other top websites include: The Goguides.org Directory, The Business.com Directory, The What U Seek Directory and The Index King.
In addition to the general purpose Web directories, there's also many specialised ones. For example, The Environment Directory offers links to environment websites exclusively, and The Radio Directory shows a large number of radio channels globally, sorted by format, country and so on. There's also many local Web directories which may be great if your website is directed at a local audience only.
Using DMOZ, Yahoo and specialized search resources like The Search Engines Directory, you'll find by yourself many Web directories which are associated with your market.

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