While traditional directories are edited by humans, search engines are
pure computational sites. The billions of pages now held in the search
engine databases render human intervention impractical. From the gathering
of web pages using robots or crawlers to their indexing of that information
and finally the ranking of those pages in the search results, it's all
done by software and computation.
The first two stages (assembling and indexing) are relatively simple,
but the third (ranking) presents a much higher challenge. How would the
search engine determine which of the many millions of pages that contain
a particular word or phrase should be shown first? Get it right and people
will be using it time and again. Get it wrong and you will be dropped
like a hot potato.
The one engine that seemed to consistently get it right was Google. Its
secret was the addition of PageRank -- Google's form of link popularity.
According to Google, a link is considered a vote of confidence from one
page to another. The more links, the more votes. Moreover, votes from
important pages are valued higher than votes from non-important ones.
A higher PageRanked page is one that has a lot of other pages voting for
it; in other words, it is heavily linked to. Link popularity now plays
a significant role in the ranking algorithm of all the major search engines.
The challenge for site owners and webmasters is to increase link popularity,
which in turn increases the likelihood of pages from their sites appearing
high in the search results. One of the best ways to start a link campaign
is to get links from directories. If you put the right amount of effort
(and money) into it, you can see your link popularity increase significantly
in a short space of time. The question is: How to judge the relative merits
of directories? Which ones are worth paying for? What elements do you
need to look for to help you make an educated decision?
Page Visibility
To gain link popularity, the search engine must know that you are listed
in the directory. In other words, the search engine must capture the pages
of the directory and index them. Only then can it add the link from the
directory to your site to your link popularity.
Find out if the directory has good presence in all the search engines.
You will soon discover that some search engines are notoriously difficult
to get indexed by, while others are relatively easy. A good spread of
page visibility among several search engines increases the chances of
your site being picked up and indexed by them too. Thus, not only will
you gain in link popularity, but also your site will be present in their
index!
PageRank and Backward Links
Not all links are created equal -- some are more important than others.
If you have the Google toolbar installed, it will give you a rough estimate
of the page's PageRank (PR) using a scale of 0 to 10. A directory with
a high PR is more important than a directory with a low PR. A directory
with many sites linking to it (backward links) is more important than
a directory with just a few.
The devil, as always, is in the details, so it pays to pay attention
to them. Invariably, the home page of the directory will have the highest
PR, but very few (if any) sites will be listed there. You should try to
examine the PR of the specific category in which your site will be listed
to get an idea of the strength of vote you are likely to receive from
it. For example, although DMOZ has an exceptionally high PR of 9 on its
home page, the deep categories may be just PR 4 or less. There is nothing
wrong with a PR of 4, quite the contrary, but it is not exceptional.
In Return
While some directories provide a totally free, no-strings-attached submission
option, many directories expect or require something in return. In most
cases it's simply money, ranging from a few dollars to several hundred.
Few require an annual subscription to keep your site listed, but most
are satisfied with a one-off payment.
In addition to (or instead of) payment, some directories insist on getting
a link from you before they agree to list your site. Others may require
you to agree to get periodic emails that include promotional material
for various products. Still others suggest that your site will only be
listed if you join them and become an editor. There are many variations,
and some directories offer several options to site owners.
How can you make a good decision when faced with so many options and
considerations? The answer lies in limiting your options and dealing with
just a few directories. First, you must establish your goals for your
link campaign. Is it traffic, link popularity or both? Then compare the
sites that meet your requirements and rank them according to how closely
they match. Finally, add the required payment or any other condition imposed
by each directory to your ranking considerations.
Once you've done all of the above, all that's left for you to do is visit
each of your chosen directories, follow their guidelines and submit your
site!
