I have been asked this question on many occasions and I have observed several forum posts on the subject. I believe that submitting to good directories can help your SEO efforts. The reason that search engines like directories is because they do a small part of their job for them. Most good directories are human edited this means a real person has to review your website so it confirms to the directories guidelines.
Most good directories have guidelines that a website has to conform to get listed. These usually involve making sure your website doesn’t contain spam and that you have submitted it to the correct category.
Finding a Good Directory.
It is not a good idea to just start submitting to the first one you find as some are better than others. Look for well structured directories that are easy to navigate. If they don’t have many entries this does not mean they aren’t any good it may mean they are a young directory. Also beware of the no follow rule, some directories but this on their entries to boost their own website. This won’t help you though as this tells the search engines not to count your link. This won’t help your SEO one bit.
How to Submit
Before you submit to a web directory make sure you read their guidelines as you don’t want to get it rejected. Directories can take a long time before they list your website due to backlogs. So getting it wrong can set your listing back months.
There are thousands of good directories out there it’s just a matter of identifying them. This can be very time consuming but can yield good rewards in the long term. Which is what SEO is all about, working on the long term strategy.
Author:
Kevin Gallagher
SEO Manager for Moovin On Up
Website Design and Ecommerce Solutions
