Directories

Yahoo Directory

    Sources say that Yahoo initially operated as a human-edited directory in the late 1990’s. When the official crawler-based search engine became fully functional in 2002, the company still maintained the directory, which continues to accept site submissions as of the present time.

    The Yahoo! Directory can be accessed through http://dir.yahoo.com. Submissions may be categorized into dozens of groups, including health, business, home, society, sports, sciences, and more.

    Submitting to the directory service of Yahoo allows for the free option and the paid option. Accounts for paid listings differ in rates depending on the features selected by the web master. Paid listings are given a little more priority than free ones, and the Yahoo! Directory provides you with reviews for your site. Submitting to the said directory can be done from this link: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro.

    When you perform a search on the Yahoo! Directory, you can do so and the results will all be coming from the said directory, and not the Yahoo web search engine.

    The guidelines that need to be followed when submitting links to the Yahoo! Directory are also the same as for getting a listing on the Yahoo search engine. Sites should not contain material that are candidates for spam, as well as the proper web design elements should be there, with no hidden links, hidden text, or hidden content.

Open Directory (DMOZ)

    Also known as ODP, or the Open Directory Project, DMOZ is the acronym for directory.mozilla.org, and is said to be the largest open content directory in operation around the world today. Often compared to the Yahoo! Directory, most experts claim that getting listed on DMOZ is less of a hassle.

    Furthermore, it has been said that the Open Directory Project is the only major directory present that allows free submissions. As discussed previously, Yahoo accepts paid submissions, and web masters who wish to be given more priority are encouraged to sign up for paid accounts to get listed.

    The ODP is edited and maintained by teams of volunteer copywriters and editors. From their home page, interested parties who want to become editors and reviewers on DMOZ can send in their applications.

    Sources say that there are millions of unreviewed submissions to the directory, which may make citations a little difficult for persons who gather data from directory listings. It can take a few days or even longer before a directory submission can be reviewed and listed.

    You can find out more on submitting to the ODP from this link: http://directory.mozilla.org.

Google Directory

    The Google Directory can be accessed from the following link: http://google.com/dirhp. The categories and the links that are listed under Google Directory are the same ones that are submitted and edited by the DMOZ or Open Directory Project.

    The extra twist that Google adds to the major directory, ODP, is that Google Pagerank is used to help sort the links in the lists based on importance on the search engine. As it will be explained in chapter 7, Google Pagerank is only one of many parameters that help the major search engine in ranking pages.

    Google allows searches within the directory, or even from the search engine, just like in Yahoo. When search queries made on the Google search engine, Google also looks through relevant sites listed in the Google Directory, and includes them in the search engine results pages.

    Since the ODP mans the Google Directory, submissions can be done through DMOZ. As mentioned before, the submitted sites are all reviewed and edited by human staff, so the time it takes to be listed may vary.

Lists of Other Directories

    If you really want to have the SEO advantage, then it pays to broaden your options. Submitting to other directories help increase the popularity of your link, and can build up traffic since the source can be various avenues, not just Google, MSN, Yahoo, or DMOZ.

    Below is a list of some universal directories you can submit to, as well as a few regional directories that specialize in submissions per country.

About.com – This is a large directory that caters to dozens of categories, with hundreds of expert writers providing content.

Ezinearticles – As an article directory, this site houses hundreds to thousands of submissions with various categories. Writers who submit their content can leave their URL as part of the article, so readers can readily be linked to their homepage.

Business.com – This directory offers paid listings which include reviews. This is also a welcome alternative for businesses who want to have successful Pay Per Click campaigns. More on PPC will be discussed in the next chapter.

Links-directory.co.uk – This is a UK based directory wherein submissions are also human edited. The sites that are listed on this directory are all based in the same country.

DotUKDirectory – This is also another regional directory that caters to sites from the UK. There are hundreds of categories to choose from, as well as website promotion options.

Canadian-web-directory.com – This human edited directory serves the Canadian region. There are also additional services here for web advertisers and for SEO.

Webdirectory.net.au – This Australian web directory is also maintained by human editors, and submissions are on a paid basis, while free listings can remain within the directory for a maximum of six months.

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