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I've been looking around for some web directories to list my company in that would 1) Feed more traffic to my website and 2) Increase my search rankings due to being a quality referral to my own website.

There are many sites out there offering these services for all types of companies, but are there any which you would definitely use without worrying about wasting your cash?

Thanks in advance.

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4 Answers 4

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I would suggest:

Beyond those three, I would not be willing to pay as it could not help you at all. Google tends to give very low PR for incoming links from sites known to be paid directory sites.

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In addition to those above, some second tier directories to consider:

They don't deliver as much traffic as the ones mentioned above, but they do deliver traffic and cost a lot less so the value of your investment is probably the same.

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  • It's been a while since anyone I know has submitted a site to them so I am assuming they still perform well for the cost. If anyone knows differently I'd be interested in know about it.
    – John Conde ♦
    Commented Oct 15, 2010 at 16:27
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Before you spend too much on investing in a web directory listing with hopes of getting traffic, I think it's important to ask yourself when the last time you went to a web directory to find a site. The last time I did was sometime in the late 1990's. Since then, I've used a search engine. I suspect most other people have a similar story. Any expectations of getting traffic from a directory listing should be tempered.

As far as any SEO benefit, it's just a link. Any importance assigned to directory listings is either very diluted due to the complexity of modern search engine algorithms or non-existent. There are easier and cheaper ways of getting a high quality link than paying $299 annually (like Yahoo's directory).

In short, unless it's free, I wouldn't bother. Even if it is free, I think the only directory I'd bother with is DMOZ.

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  • I still remember your suggestion on not wasting time in inserting links and I still agree with the smart point you made. But in order to have a webiste being a bit indexed (expecially when is a new webiste) I think is worth the effort to insert the link to the webiste into some few directories (maybe just 3/4 directories). (obviously free ones). DMOZ is really hard to get into, someone can not wait for his website to be listed there forever. In the meantime being indexed in some less important directories might be worth the effort.
    – Marco Demaio
    Commented Oct 18, 2010 at 20:34
  • 3 or 4 directories isn't a huge deal when it comes to time-cost, I'm just cautioning about over-doing it. Directories especially are becoming more outdated. If I were to link build, I'd want to target places that will get me both a good link and a lot of traffic and if I had to choose between the two, I'd choose traffic over the quality of the link.
    – Virtuosi Media
    Commented Oct 18, 2010 at 20:56
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My take: I would say it really depends on the services/products/etc you provide. For example, if you provided services to a limited geographic area, I'd focus on locality based directories. If you're selling software online, then I'd focus on directories that rate/list software.

Simply put, identify directories that relate to the industry or market you're in -- since those will give you the best run for your time and money.

(The above was based on doing directory listings for 1000+ small businesses.)

PS: FYI, http://dir.google.com is NOT the same data as http://dmoz.org, based on my understanding. Plus, Google's directory has more link, and... guessing Google treats links from it's own directory just a little better SEO wise... :-)

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  • When you click on submit a site at the bottom of dir.google.com it takes you to dmoz.org.
    – Ben Hoffman
    Commented Oct 15, 2010 at 17:54
  • RandomBen: Yes, this is true, Google sources webpage submissions to be included in future versions of Google's directory to ODP, but Google's directory is not the same as ODP's directory.
    – blunders
    Commented Oct 15, 2010 at 20:20
  • Google's directory is populated by the DMOZ data dumps they periodically make available. Basically, Google's directory is just an outdated version of the DMOZ directory. Also, Google doesn't play favorites or issue arbitrary bonuses. Even for their own properties. They don't treat any site or page better then they treat anyone else (except spammers who are of course waterboarded).
    – John Conde ♦
    Commented Oct 15, 2010 at 20:32
  • John Conde: Statement from Google on the sorting of it's directory: "Unlike other directories that can only list web pages alphabetically regardless of how good they are, the web pages in the Google directory are ordered according to Google's view of their importance." -- SOURCE: google.com/dirhelp.html
    – blunders
    Commented Oct 15, 2010 at 20:37
  • @John Conde: RE: "They don't treat any site or page better then they treat anyone else" sure they do, best example would be Google's news portal, which when compared to other news portal, Google gets, way, way more homepage coverage than it would elsewhere.
    – blunders
    Commented Oct 15, 2010 at 20:40

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