Directory 101
Once you’ve worked on a clean, and solid web site, one built on standards, it’s time to start marketing your site. One of the best ways to begin a marketing campaign is to get your company listed in as many authoritative directories as possible.
First, lets discuss what directories are and why they are important to your web site’s overall success. Web directories are a collection of web site links categorized by type of site. Some of the most popular web directories includes Yahoo Directories and DMOZ. While this is no where near a comprehensive list of web directories, these are two of the most important web directories to get your site listed in. Now that you have a very basic idea of what a directory is, we’ll walk you through a few questions that will help you understand directories, what they can do for you, and how to get listed in them.
Why is it important to get your site listed in directories?
This is our first question, and obviously the most important. As a business person, your first goal with your web site is to get a quality design, effective for capturing customers. Once your site is polished and ready to go, then your goal is get it noticed. Web directories are great ways to accomplish this. By having a reputable site such as a quality web directory link to your site the value of your site is increased many times. Many search engines use Web Directories as the basis for their overall search results. Google for instance prefers to see that sites in it’s database are linked from DMOZ, and Yahoo uses it’s own Yahoo Directory as preferred sites in it’s search results. The more sites and directories linking to your web site, the higher your value in the world, and the better your site will perform in both direct visitors and visitors that find your site through a search engine.
How do I find directories and what should I be looking for?
The best way to find directories is actually to figure out the type of Directory you are looking for, then search for those in either DMOZ, Google, or Yahoo Directory. What you’re looking for depends on the type of company you run. If you are a local flower shop, you’ll want to see if you can find directories that focus on your specific state, or city. If you are an international firm with 30,000 employees, then you’ll want to focus on more general directories that will represent you across the world.
You can also search web sites like webproworld.com for directory lists, and follow up with those as well.
How do I get listed in the directories?
It’s actually quite simple to get listed in most directories. Once you have your list of sites, visit each one and follow their instructions for getting listed. Most directories will want a few pieces of information and I would recommend having these prepared when you sit down to list our site in the directories you’ve found.
These are the items they are likely to look for:
- Site Title
- Description of Site and Company
- Contact Person
- Contact Email
- Web URL
By preparing these in advance, you can control the quality of these responses and keep the responses uniform as you are submitting to many different directories.
Some directories are free, but realize that many directories now charge for inclusion in their directory. For example DMOZ is free, but takes a while to get listed, while Yahoo Charges but you are listed within 7 days.
What to do next!
Now that you are listed in the directories, your next step is to get linked to from other web sites.
