Business.com is a business directory that costs a couple hundred dollars annually to
list your site. In general, Business.com is a strong link that most businesses should
buy in on. Business.com and some other directories allow you to list multiple links
in your listing.

There are also many industry-specific directories you can find by searching for
terms such as “<my keywords> + add URL,” “<my keywords> + submit,” or
“<my keywords> + directory.” I usually try to find directories that have one-time
submission fees or directories that look as though they are going to be longstanding,
quality directories.
Tips to Pick Directory Categories
Oftentimes a site will fit many different categories. When choosing a category to
submit to in a directory, I look at a few different ideas.
• Is my site likely to be accepted if I submit to this category? I tend to
be more conservative when submitting to a free directory than if I am
submitting to a paid directory.
• Are there reasons that this organization, or other sites outside of this
organization, are going to place extra emphasis on (or otherwise link
into) this category?
• How many links are listed in this category?
• Where does this category fit in the directory structure?
• How related is my site to the sites listed in this category?
Reasons Why I Like Second Tier Directories (Great Value)
Since second tier directories are smaller, your link is usually closer to the root page,
and most pages have fewer outbound links than large directories. If the categories
in a large directory are full of hundreds of sites, or are many levels deep into the
directory structure, you may gain greater link popularity in a smaller directory than
in a larger one.
Keep in mind that the quality of the other sites listed in the directory matters too.
If they list many junk sites, then few quality resources are going to link to their site.
It is probably not a good idea to list your site in hundreds of directories if you have
not built up significant trust. Also remember that some links may count as a
negative, so try to be somewhat conservative with what you consider to be of good
quality if you are hoping to rank well in Google.
Directory Traffic
Directories rarely provide much direct traffic. The bulk of the value of a directory
listing is in how search engines evaluate the links. Occasionally, you will find a
general directory that does provide good traffic—that is the exception more than
the rule.
Niche directories tend to drive decent traffic. Any site that ranks well in related
search results may be a good place to get a link, because ranking for relevant search
queries means they stand a good chance of being a well-trusted link source and
sending you direct visitors.

Reciprocal Link Required
Some directories require reciprocal links to be listed in them. I do not recommend
swapping links with most of these types of directories. Directories are intended to
list sites. Sites are not intended to list directories. If you like something, then feel
free to link to it, if not, then don’t. Some vertical niche directories are of high
enough quality to deserve links, but most are not.
Link popularity is a currency, and if you are lacking money (as I was when I started
on the web), you may need to reciprocate a few links off the start, but if you get
too aggressive with link trades, you will be digging yourself a hole by making your
link profile unnatural, and you can waste many hours of time.
The exceptions to this rule are that I am usually willing to reciprocate links with the
following directories:
• Extremely powerful sites that I do not believe are going to get
penalized. Generally this type of site still should be on the same topic
as your site.
• Directories that are well-focused and are defined as an industry hub in
my topic. The SEO Consultants Directory, for example, would not be
a bad directory for SEO sites to link to.

Directory Warnings

Some sites that pose as directories do not provide static text links and/or their
pages do not get indexed. Many of these databases will never provide any direct
traffic or link popularity. Additionally, many directories require reciprocal linking
and use their sites to promote aggressive high-margin products. If you link into
sites that primarily promote off-topic high-margin items, then you are sharing the
business risk that site owner is taking.
If you choose to spend money on directory submission, you should ensure that the
directory provides direct traffic or link popularity. You can do this by checking to
make sure their directory pages have some PageRank on them and are in Google’s
cache. Search Google for “cache:www.directory.com/page.php,” and check the
links of listed sites. When you scroll over a link in the directory, the status bar at
the bottom should indicate the domain that the link is pointing to and not some
sort of redirect. You also can right click on the link to copy link location and then
paste that to the address bar.
• You can check PageRank by downloading the free Google Toolbar.
• To ensure that a page is not showing phantom PageRank, check that
the page is in Google’s cache. Search Google for
“cache:www.whateversite.com/whateverpage.com.”
• Also make sure that the cache date is within the last month. If a page
has not been cached for many months, then search engines do not
trust that page much.

To check that links are indexed by search engines, scroll over a listing
in the directory. The status bar at the bottom of the browser should
show “www.whateverlisting.com.” A few good directories happen to
show some funky characters for redirects. Yahoo! is the only major
directory I know of that shows funky characters and still provides text
links that search engines index.
Most directories that show some funky tracking characters are not
providing static, spiderable links. If in doubt, ask questions at SEO
forums before spending any money.
• Some redirect links do get indexed, but there is no simple litmus test to
make sure that they do. You can right-click and copy links from within
the directory and do a server header check on them. If they show a
301 redirect, they will probably add to your link popularity. If they
show a 302 redirect, they probably will not add to your link popularity.
If they show a JavaScript redirect, then they do not count. When in
doubt about whether a link counts or not, ask in a couple SEO forums.
• If you use the Safari browser, you can use a tool from Digital Point to
view PageRank.

Crap Directories
Some people buy a directory script, create a ton of categories, and then only add
links if people buy them. The problem with this is that many categories will not
have unique content. Many of these same directories will list any business that
wants to pay for a link.
If there is no unique content, or if the content is all sponsored links, the site does
not add value, and search engines may not want to index it. When looking at a
directory, ask yourself, if you were a search engineer, would you want to count links
from that site? Would you want to allow that site to influence your search
relevancy algorithms?
You can view how many pages Google knows about from a directory by searching
Google for “site:www.directory.com.”
Some directories (such as SevenSeek) do not have many listings as compared to the
number of pages in their site. This will cause some search engines to either avoid
indexing the site or only index a small portion of it. The index saturation of a site
in Google can be found by searching for “site:www.directoryURL.com <signature
text>.”
Signature text for a site is any common text that appears on every page, such as the
copyright. Sites that consist of many pages with the same or similar content may
trip duplicate content filters. If you run a directory make sure you do not let search
engines index the “add URL” pages.

Places to Find Directories

I created the Directory Archives, which should only list directories that parse link
popularity to sites listed in them or directories that look like they might drive traffic
to listed sites. In addition, Search Engine Guide and ISEDB each have a large
directory of directories (though many of the directories listed in those may not
parse link value).
Ensure that the page is in Google’s cache and that the address bar shows the
location of the site the link is going to before paying for placement in any directory.
I also created a Microsoft Excel Directory Checklist sheet so you can track your
submissions to many general directories. Some of them are a bit sketchy, but some
of them are decent, and most of them provide links for free or for a one-time fee.
The directories with a blue background are the ones I believe provide the most
authority in Google or are priced cheaply enough to provide value even if Google
does not count them.

The Value of Directory Listings
The value of a single directory link is usually not very great. Directories add value
after you list in many of them, especially if you are listing in high-quality ones next
to other sites that are in your same vertical.
If you have a keyword-rich domain name, it will help you get descriptive inbound
links from directories. Most sites on the web only have links from a few dozen
sites. By listing your site in a half dozen to a dozen quality directories and also
getting links from other relevant quality sites, you can quickly build up a great
linking campaign at minimal cost.
Known SEO Circles
Most directories are not of amazingly high quality, listing many lousy websites.
Martinibuster, a link building guru, often emphasizes avoiding being heavily located
in known SEO circles.
For example, common SEO strategies for a new site might be to list a site in a
bunch of directories, write a press release or two, trade links with many low-quality

sites, get a few links from signature files from SEO forums, and submit a few
articles to various article banks.
If your link profile matches that of most SEO websites, then it may be harder to
rank than if you can come up with creative ways to get links from places that few
other SEOs are listed.
Large portions of the web are well trusted and virgin territory to most SEOs. If
you can think of creative ways to relate your site to people with great trusted and
rarely abused link equity results will show far quicker than if you follow the same
path taken by many people who are obviously SEOing their sites.