Web Directories And Their Rise And Fall

By Author: Maria Tillinghous
Total Articles: 33
Comment this article

SEO firms know the advantages that registering clients in major directories can bring. Link building via directory submission has been one of the mainstays of the Search Engine Optimization business for years, but today there is increased doubt over the future of this once highly useful form of optimization. First, a brief history of web time-
From the dawn of time (the early 90's in web terms), listing in directories was a great way to get visitors to your site. Directories like Yahoo prospered and could charge large fees for firms to list with them. The web grew, directories grew, websites grew and everything was perfect. Then everything changed - The search engine was born!
Search engines took over the web, and SEO was born. It may interest you to know that the first recorded mention of the term SEO was in a message posted on Usnet on July 26th 1997. It is highly ironic that whilst the search engine was destroying the directory, the SEO community would breathe new life into the concept. The missing part of the puzzle was Google.
Google hit the web in 1998 and introduced the concept of Page Rank. Most people ...
... think that Page Rank refers to the rank of a page, which is an understandable misconception. According to Google it is actually named after one of its founders - Larry Page. The concept of Page Rank (where a site improves its position in Google by getting links from other sites) soon became very popular. Many other engines incorporated the concept into their algorithms.
SEOs had previously concentrated on usage of ‘on page' keyword optimization techniques. They needed to adapt quickly to the new Page Rank concept and get inbound links for their clients. There were lots of methods for getting inbound links, from link-exchanges, to blogging, to link buying. One of the simplest and fastest ways was to list their clients in directories. SEOs and directories walked hand in hand into a glowing future.
It's a bit manipulative isn't it? The web should be natural said Google. These SEO firms are listing clients in directories for the wrong reasons. Some of these directories have barely any human visitors but have huge amounts of firms listed. Even worse, people are paying to get listed in these directories. It's not natural usage. We are being manipulated said Google, and we must stop it! So this is what they did.
September 1st 2005 Google Guy Matt Cutts stated in his blog Google does consider buying text links for Page Rank purposes to be outside our quality guidelines and Google has a variety of algorithmic methods of detecting such links.
Nothing appeared to happen for a while, but then some of the directories that offered to sell links started having no visible Page Rank on their internal pages. This was even true of directories that had free links, but on the same page had paid featured listings. Bad news for those people who followed Google's webmaster guidelines and got free links, worse for those who paid for them and ended up with nothing!
As well as punishing paid links, search engines have also enhanced their detection of sites that link to what are considered bad neighborhoods (low quality spam filled sites). Many of the directories that are not properly edited end up with low quality listings and as a result search engines discriminate against them.
Since the creation of search engines the fortunes of SEO firms and directories have been solidly, inextricably linked, but if Google doesn't like directories anymore, these back-links won't be any good. It's all not true. Google loves directories. In Google's webmaster guidelines it says - when your site is ready:
Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.
Google still likes directories it just doesn't like those that are poor quality listings and those that sell links. After all how can Google discriminate against directories when it has one on its site (Google Directory).
How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Directory. The important thing with directory submissions is to maximize your efforts by listing your clients in the right directories. You need to list your clients websites in directories that are free of charge and decent quality (human edited).
A good place to begin with directory submission is the Open Directory Project. This is the biggest directory to submit your clients' websites to. This is not a quick strategy. Each section is human edited by volunteers and acceptance times vary. It has been know for sites in smaller categories to wait for a year or more to be accepted! Another large directory is Yahoo.com which will cost you $299 to list in. If you operate in markets outside the USA you can often get listed for free. Yahoo.co.uk is now free for UK firms in most categories. Again there can be a long wait before submissions are put live.
Don't ignore the advantages of local directories. Listing in directories for your state or country can provide very positive benefits, both in terms of SEO and finding local customers such as the Canadian Regional Directory. Also consider regional niche directories that not only find local customers but also customers in particular fields.
There are a couple of great websites for finding appropriate directories such as Top Directories and Vilesilencer. The Top Directories site provides a lot of useful information on web directories including their Page Rank and the movement of page rank at the previous update. There are also details on submission times, gathered from user feedback. Vilesilencer provides huge lists of categorized web directories including a useful download of directories in Excel spreadsheet format.
Maximizing your effort by selecting the best directories should ensure that the time spent writing directory submissions adds the maximum benefit to your business. This is true not only in terms of human visits, but also with regard to SEO.