Web Site Directories

The Declining Importance of Web Directory Listings

Unlike a few years ago, in today’s world you will visits from directory listings. For example, in the past, a Yahoo listing could mean thousands of visitors directed to your web site. Nowadays, Yahoo primarily uses Google search results so your Yahoo directory listing can get buried. However, visitors that come from the top directories are among the most targeted visitors to your site. My experience has shown that one visitor from a web directory, is worth five visitors from the free form search engines.

Why Bother with Web Directory Listings?

Two big reasons: The increase your web site’s relevance and page popularity.

Since the major directories have human review, the automated search engines give added weight to sites that have listings in the top directories. This is why you need to make sure your site is complete and in top form before submitting to the top directories. Submitting and incomplete or poorly designed site will get your rejected in a hurry.

Also, your listings at the major directories are often on a page with high popularity or PageRank. As discussed earlier, the more links to your site and the higher the Pagerank, the better for your site’s own Pagerank. Added relevance and a Page Popularity boost are two great reasons to get your site in the major directories. Also, you can consider any visits you get from these directory sites as a bonus.

If your business has a strong local focus, finding local directories is a must. (i.e. N. C. Real Estate, Michigan Florists). When people search locally, having a spot in a specialized local directory can give your site great viability.

UPDATE: Over the past year, “link directories” have become big business. Many of these directories used questionable SEO tactics to boost their rankings in Google and then sold links in their directories for $25 to $50. Since many of these directories were essentially link farms Google banned the worst offenders.