I have had a lot of questions lately about whether submitting to online directories is still worth the effort to improve your web traffic? The buzz has certainly died down over the past couple of years about the importance of directory listings. However, having a presence in industry related directories is still worth the effort. As a member of my San Diego SEO group stated, the trend has been towards relevance. So gone are the days of submitting to a dozen random directories, instead pick niche dorectories that are relevant to your industry.
The big recognizable directories are still Yahoo Directory and DMOZ. Yahoo Directory still runs at $299/year, which is not an easy cost to swallow for many small businesses I have recommended it to in San Diego. It does however improve the frequency at which your website gets crawled by search engines.
If you have a static website that does not provide relative content on a regular basis, then this may not necessarily help, but then again, you are not likely to improve ranking at all with that strategy.
DMOZ is the open directory that is run by actual people. The problem is that it is very difficult to get in. Why? Many reasons, which are best explained in this article. It is however worth the free effort to try since it does provide legitimacy.
As for other directories, out there, don’t pick the ones that have nothing to do with your industry. There are spammers, sales reps, and bloggers that will convince you into the ‘popular directory of the day’, but the reality is that if it is not relevant that it is not worth it and could even be harmful to your ranking.
