The Importance or Web Directories

I will start this article with a question: What is a web directory?

"A web directory is a directory on the World Wide Web. It specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links. A web directory is not a search engine, and does not display lists of web pages based on keywords, instead it lists web sites by category and subcategory. The categorization is usually based on the whole web site, rather than one page or a set of keywords, and sites are often limited to inclusion in only one or two categories. Web directories often allow site owners to directly submit their site for inclusion, and have editors review submissions for fitness." – This is the web directory definition, as provided by Wikipedia.

As you can probably see in the definition above, a web directory is a collection of links, organized by categories. So far, nothing too difficult. However, what is the utility, or the importance of a web directory to the regular webmaster?

Well, every webmaster knows that incoming links to a specific site is one of the factors by witch Google selects and positions a web site.

How do we detect a “good directory” ?

A directory which can bring you a “clean link” has to have the following characteristics:
1. No reciprocal link. There are many directories out there who require a reciprocal link from your site. The reason for this is obvious: advertising! Don’t submit your web site to these directories, it won’t help you. Google won’t “like” your web site very much because according to Google’s algorithm, a web site is ranked higher if it has more One-Way links.
2. No redirects! Before submitting to a directory, take some time and browse that directory. If you notice a redirect when clicking on a link, move on to the next directory.

A clean backlink to your web site should look like : http://name.extension , where name=your domain name, extension: domain name extension ( com, net,org, etc)

3. Pagerank Transfer!
Google ranks websites based on the their content and incoming links. The ranking is between 0 and 10. A link from a web site with a higher page rank than yours can pass pagerank to your web site. Here comes the problem: some directories transfer PageRank, others use the “no follow” attribute , which won’t pass page rank to your web site. Avoid them, however don’t ignore them because Page Rank doesn’t also influence your site’s SERPs.

4. Registration.

Some directories require registration before you will be able to submit your web site(s). When you are thinking of submitting your web site to many directories, registering on each directory can be a time consuming task. It’s your choice, of course.