The Science of Submitting Sites to Directories

Once very simple (only Yahoo was worth submitting), the science of submitting sites to directories has become increasingly complex. There are numerous softwares, sites and services that take care of (or promise) submitting your site to the millions of directories existing today.

Unfortunately, the promise of “Be listed in 10,000 directories with one click” is blatantly false. If you want to be listed in PageRank Zero directories, an invitation to being banned, go ahead. And do not forget to give them a real email, for them to spam you forever.

Real, valuable directories do not accept automatic submissions for 2 good reasons:

1. They need quality data that no software provides or guarantees.
2. They need a human with a credit card, to whom sell something.

Thus, they all have Humanity Tests, like the annoying captchas, or an email that must be read and acted upon.

The directories use different methods to admit new sites: Some require payment, some request a link exchange, that can equal better search engine (SE) ranking. Some require an easy-to-spam email address. A few accept your data for free without compensation: those who need quality links to improve themselves.

This is a classification of directories, according to their admission requirements:

• Really Free
• Paid
• Legitimate, but Request link exchange
• Cheaters

Cheating Directories

So far, I list 8 types of Cheaters:

1. Says free and is not

   After a long form-filling process, they deceitfully demand ransom for your time.

2. Requests link exchange and does not comply

   They demand your publishing first, and they promise a reciprocal link that never comes.

   In our experience, 70% of those who request a link do not reciprocate after 2 weeks.

3. Home page with high PageRank, indexing pages with zero PageRank

   This is not necessary cheating, unless the PageRank is manipulated to flow somewhere else. Most directories start from zero, get PageRank 3 in the home after the first spidering, and do not pass PageRank to their inner directories until they climb to 5-6 in the home page. However, if links to other pages are regularly incorporated in the home page before and more prominently (H1, H2, Bold) than the client listings, the PageRank flows to the privileged pages.

4. Adds nofollow attribute to your links

   This is a dirty trick. Check for the code in the source HTML

5. Adds exclusions to the listings in the robots.txt file
6. Gives no or low priority in the Google sitemap (usually, but not always, sitemap.xml).

   Please notice that Google Sitemap allows sitemaps with other names, and only the webmaster knows which is the good one. So, it .is easy to give low weight to the non-paying links.

7. Insert Javascript in the code that you need to publish

   Popups, redirects, Trojans

8. Delay 4-5 years publication for no reason

   I am talking about Dmoz.org, of course.

The Ideal directories have:

• Fast navigation: fnding the right category is the most time-consuming part of submission to directories.
• No hindrances (some captchas are 10 characters long, have non-letter characters, and are almost illegible because of strange fonts, or low background contrast. What is wrong with only one character?
• Accept triangulation: Reciprocal links are no longer automatically accepted by Google as a sign of quality. Link triangulation or quadrangulation are better.
• Instant publication: ideally, a script checks your link, tests the reciprocal and publishes it.
• SEO-friendly: the directory shall publish your link in a spiderable location, with no restrictions.
• Thematic: there is no more room in the Web for generic directories. Who needs a better Yahoo or Google Directory? Instead, the web will always welcome a new thematic directory, complete and with specific tools for better quality results.
• Good PageRank
• Large number of indexed incoming links
• Listed sites receive some advantage: traffic or better ranking

Good Submission Tools

The good submission tools, either desktop or web based, should have:

• good directory listing, attending the criteria defined above.
• directory selection feature, allowing the site owner to submit only to those directories that fit his/her preferences and budget.
• semi-automated form-filling
• listing detection spider or checker
• tracking and reporting feature

Instructed Operator

An operator able to submit successfully to directories should be aware of the above items, plus have some knowledge of Web editing and FTP. He needs to be realiable, because you will give him access to your site user/password for the link exchange. In some cases, he will need a disposable email account with the same domain as is promoted.

Even with a good submission tool, expect to spend 2 full-time weeks submitting to 1000 selected directories (one every 4 minutes), with link exchanges. If you have cheap offshore labor that could amount to $300, plus $100 for one decent submitting tool.

Provided all these aspects are taken into account, submitting to directories is still the best way to obtain incoming links to any site. Combined with appropriate SEO, (almost) every time it results in better SE ranking.