For a long time, one of the first suggestions of many SEO (Search Engine optimization) specialists for improving your rankings on the major search sites was to submit your website to web directories, preferably human edited ones. I assume everyone or mostly everyone reading this article knows the difference between a directory and a search engine. Yahoo.com is directory (everyone has seen that site) because it contains categories of sites organized by subject as opposed to producing pure search results based on the users keyword selection. MSN is an example of a search engine because it produces results based on what words and phrases you imput in the search bar. Another difference is that website inclusion in directories is generally done manually, meaning that a human being actually reviews the site to determine if it is worthy enouph to be listed. These individuals are known as editors. So the question is, are directories still an effective tool from an SEO standpoint? To cut right to the chase, I will say yes, if used properly. First of all, I would suggest quality over quantity. It is probably much better to have a few listings in the top human edited directories (which are considered 'authority sites' by some search engines) such as DMOZ (also known as Open Directory Project although in my opinion it should be renamed the closed directory project because it almost takes an act of God to be listed anymore), Goguides.org, Joe Ant and of course the Yahoo Directory than a bunch of listings on the more marginal directories. There are several others as well which are important. Some of these are hard to get into, while some others are relatively easy. The effectiveness of your directory listings is heavily dependent on how effectively you use the 'anchor text'. The anchor text is simply the title of the link back to your site. This is very important because it tells the search engines how other sites see you and describe you, which in turn guides them in indexing you. So if you have an incoming link from a top authority site such as DMOZ that happens to have your main keywords in the title or the anchor text, you are substantially increasing your chances for being ranked high for those particular keywords. Why do the engines consider sites like these edited web directories to be authority sites? Well partially because they know if a site is listed in a site such as DMOZ then it will have passed the inspection of a human editor. For the search engine spider, which has no eyeballs of it's own, this is an important indication of quality and relevance. And what keeps the search engines in business is giving it's viewers quality, relevant results. The other factor that will be a key determinant in whether or not your directory submissions are successful or not is how well you choose the category. If the category is related to your site then it will be considered a relevant link but if it is not than it may be little better than having your link in a "link farm" as it will appear random to the search engine spiders. So if you want to maximise the effectiveness of your directory submissions choose your anchor text wisely and only submit to the category that matches the content of your website and you should be fine. |
