Submitting your website to the ‘top notch’ directories will definitely boost your SEO efforts and sometimes helps you in getting some strong backlink to your website. However submitting your link to ’spammy’ directories and link firms doesn’t really help you to boost your ranking. In fact it might even give you negative effect in the SERP.

So Let us look at some of the basic selection factors to determine the quality of a web directory:

1. Is the Directory Indexed Properly? - Before you submit your site to a directory, make sure that the directory itself is actually indexed by the Search Engine. Sending your link to a directory which is not indexed in the SE like Google can’t help you with your ranking. If the directory is indexed, check the date and time when it was last cached. Good directories will be crawled and cached more frequently, which gives a better chance for your site to be seen by the spider.

2. Popularity/Ranking of the Directory: PageRank Doesn’t matter always! A directory with PR 5 doesn’t really mean that it’s of any quality. The whole PageRank system has been exploited so much that now it has very little or no value in terms of ranking in the Search Engine. ILQ (Inbound Link Quality) is far more important which can actually help you to identify a ‘quality site’. A highly promoted and established directory can really offer you both traffic and at the same time give you the link juice for your SEO efforts.

3. Unique Category structure: Make sure that the category structure is unique and not copied from any cheap directory script. Also the categories should have a deep drilldown so that information stays well organized and can be easily navigated. Some directories has some content on the category pages, which is a good thing because Search Engine loves content.

4. Link Property: A directory that uses a “rel=nofollow” property or places your link using JavaScript re-directs will not give you any SEO advantage as most of the links won’t be counted as valid by major search players. Quality directories will always offer a direct link back to your site.

5. Custom Design (Optional): Content always plays a very important role, but the way the content is presented also makes a difference. Custom directory design shows directory owners commitment and seriousness for his directory.They are the ones who has put in a lot of effort on their directories, and they are most likely to succeeded in the long run.

6. Links in the Category: Check the quality of the links that are present in your category. If you see a lot of low quality sites in the directory, it is most likely not moderated and maintained properly. Always submit your site on the high quality directories, because they are the only ones to give your site some additional value.

For a complete list of Top Quality Web Directories, Visit SEOCompany’s Web Directory page.

Posted on Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 at 12:10 pm by SEO Company.
Filed under Web Directories.
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