Web Directories - General Introduction
Having a web directory is becoming increasingly popular these
days. It can bring many benefits such as delivering an increased
amount of new visitors and providing a steady income. Google,
Yahoo and MSN contribute heavily to its algorithm. Many
webmasters are attracted by the fact that they can get traffic
from such directories and would pay a small fee or put a
reciprocal link to get their website listed in these
directories. These benefits will ultimately improve the
promotion of the website.
Webmasters are also very interested with inbound links for
improving their PR (Page Rank) with Google. A good PR gives
better position in Google's search engine results. In theory the
more quality inbound links you get, the higher your PR will go.
Directories give a good solution for all webmasters. They also
prove to be a good addition to existing web sites.
We can differentiate 3 types of directories: free,
reciprocal-link and Pay for Inclusion directories:
1) Free directories are by far the most interesting for
webmasters as they can give a high PR without having to spend a
penny. However you'll have to spend some time submitting your
website to all of these. They don't usually give you much
traffic either as there is an over abundance of them on the
internet.
2) Reciprocal-Link directories require placing a small link into
the webmaster's website. This can be dangerous if the directory
has been black listed by Google.
3) Finally, Paid For Inclusion directories can deliver very good
results as they usually give better PR and have more traffic
than free directories.
However, not all directories will give you good results. Many
use a redirect function for linking to your website. Your
website won't benefit from such links. You'll need a static
outgoing link from directories to gain weight with search
engines. Many of the directories do offer you deep-linking
options which mean that they will allow you to submit more than
one URL from your domain in order to get your internal pages
more traffic and ranking.
So keep in mind that directories are wholly beneficial for your
websites as long as you take the time to carefully plan the
submission beforehand by checking if they are not using tricks
(redirects, reciprocal). Also, don't forget to submit your
website to the most relevant category on the directory and to
read its description!