Just as websites were once jammed with keywords, and user-experience was immaterial to your SEO, now having great content and a positive user-experience is vital. So to with directories, some have survived the test of time and are still important for SEO today, others have lost all merit and often vanished from the web entirely.
Having links from directories is also no longer enough to rank well with Google, and creative, engaging guest posts on relevant sites that backlink to your website will go further than submitting to directories.
As an SEO agency, this is great news, as it means the job now involves writing engaging content, creating infographics, and striving for excellence, which is far more satisfying than the old black hat methods that used to work, but no longer do.
If you repair cars in Washington, own a furniture shop in Paris, or have a games platform usable by anyone in the world, then the best directory for you will be different. There are also international directories, some catering for multiple languages, most catering for a single language. And looking through the first few pages of the results to see if any directories or lists appear. As well as niche directories, there are a wide range of generalist directories that cover pretty much any topic imaginable.
One way to find the best directories is to compile a list then run them through a tool like Website SEO Checker , pictured below. This provides a wide range of stats about a website which overall give a good indication of how successful a site is and how much a link will benefit you.
The most relevant are as follows:. To avoid any risk of a penalty, if asked for an anchor text that the directory will use when linking to, go with your company name, rather than a keyword. Think about what unique selling points your business can offer and focus on this. For an American audience, focus primarily on the benefits of your product or service.
For a UK or European audience, use a mixture of selling the benefits and describing the features. If you plan on doing multiple directory submissions, you may wish to use a dedicated email address for it, to avoid getting spam afterwards, though make sure you use the correct postal address, phone number and web address, as having these consistent throughout the web has been shown to help with local SEO.
Directories are far better than they used to be, so most have a decent search interface where you can check if your site has already been indexed, however one way to be sure is to search in Google for:. Some local or niche directories can charge anything up to a few hundred dollars to index you e. While the tactics mentioned above will probably get your site penalised in about 3. Proper directory submission practices should be a part of every SEO campaign and offer considerable benefits:.
Read the tips below to help you get the most out of your directory submission activity. Any SEO who has spent a lot of time doing competitor analysis knows that what constitutes a winning link profile can vary from industry to industry. Try to check the link profiles of three to five different competitors for a more accurate view of what it takes to rank well in any given industry. This essentially means directories that are human-reviewed , and more often than not, paid too.
The best way to check whether a directory is worth submitting to is by checking the quality of the other listings on the site. If your business predominantly serves the UK, try also using the following searches to find relevant local directories:. Some of the most prominent blog directories include Technorati , Alltop and Botw Blogs. Submitting your site to directories that are penalised or banned from Google is a waste of time and could even harm your rankings.
To check whether a website is banned, do a site:domain. If no results are displayed, then steer well clear. List 1 — SEOmoz List. Keep a spreadsheet that contains the following:. Recording all of these things may seem like a pain, but it will save you loads of time in the future — trust me! Links that are buried more than two pages deep in a category are not only unlikely to be seen by users of the directory, they are also not likely to be considered very valuable by search engines.
In most directories there will be multiple categories that relate to your business, so select the one that has the fewest listings to give your website the best possible chance of a high-tier listing. And so website owners will be able to boost search engine rankings and attract more users through this SEO technique.
Submitting your website to online directories is undoubtedly one of the most effective strategies for building up your backlink profile. And you can submit your site through these different types of directory submission:. Increased Online Exposure — Some directories will ask for a fee to be enlisted with them, while others do it for free. If you own a small business, we recommended you submit your website to local web directories first and target all the consumers near you.
0コメント