Link building strategies: Directories

Posted by Ken McGaffin on 29 May 2011

Online directories offer a source of easy links and remain a good first step for many link building campaigns. Yet, many links from directories offer little value. Ken McGaffin outlines his approach to link building with directories.

The 11 easiest links you'll ever get

Not all links are the same. If you're trying to get links that will boost your search engine rankings, quality counts. A small number of inbound links from relevant, authoritative sites can greatly improve your site's rankings while dozens of links from lower-tier sites can prove next to useless.

The attraction of directories is that it's pretty easy to get lots of links quickly. Yet, Google often doesn't consider directory sites to be authoritative. So, be selective, use your time wisely, and only pursue links from the best.

Directory link building made easy

Using Wordtracker's Link Builder tool you can quickly find the most trusted directories in your industry.

You can search by keyword and within seconds you'll see related directories, with the most trusted at the top.

Here's a search I ran for the keyword wine in the UK. There are some great possibilities that I'll chase up later.

Figure 1: Wordtracker's Link Builder tool automatically finds directories in your industry. You can find the most trusted directories and see whether they already link to you.

It's worth spending a few minutes evaluating the directories at the top of the list. The best directories are edited by humans. The editors will have done lots of work for you. And a link from these high quality sites is likely to be worth pursuing.

Take time to explore each site in depth. Look at as many relevant categories as you can. The best sites will have submission guidelines, and will make an editorial judgment about whether your site is relevant. If getting a link seems too easy, it's probably worthless.

Start with DMOZ

If you're not using Link Builder to find the best directories, start your search with DMOZ, Yahoo and Business.com.

Figure 2: The best human-edited directories like DMOZ (above) remain a good way to find quality sites. So if your website targets teenagers, you might be interested in 485 different sites listed in DMOZ’s Teen Life category (and that is just a sub category of Kids and Teens which lists 46,000 sites).

Apart from using your judgment and checking that a directory discriminates and lists only quality sites, here’s a simple test of its worth. Take a sample of the sites listed and note the text used to link to them (the link text). Search with that link text and see if the sites appear in the top 10 results. If so then the directory might be worth being listed in.

Directories can directly bring traffic and even if the link is nofollow, your site might be found there and then linked to with a follow link. So, it’s worth being listed on the best directories.

Become a directory editor

One great way to build links is to volunteer as an editor. This is a great option. Not only will you get your sites listed for free but also you’ll learn how to write good titles, descriptions and linking text by following editorial guidelines provided by the directories.

Directory descriptions

Before you submit to directories, spend some time thinking about how you’ll describe yourself. You should avoid any marketing hype, use important keywords where you can and pay attention to good grammar. You need to write three things:

• Title – usually the name of your website though some directories will allow you a keyword rich link (which is better).
  
• Description – make sure you include keyword phrases in your description and avoid any marketing hype.
  
• Linking text – for an extra search engine boost, use keywords in the linking text that you use to point to your site.
  

We’ve listed 11 good directories below to get you started ...

Description

Directory (click for submission page)	Cost
DMOZ	AKA the Open Directory Project. Dmoz is the mother of all directories and also populates Google's directory and many more. A listing remains highly desirable.	Free
Business.com	Business.com is the leading business directory serving more than 40 million unique business users and thousands of advertisers each month. It's expensive to be listed but is definitely one of the best directories on the web.	$299/year
Yahoo! Directory	The Yahoo! Directory is not cheap, with $299 the cost of being considered for entry with no guarantee of acceptance. If successful, this is a recurring annual fee.	$299/year
JoeAnt.com	JoeAnt.com is a well-designed directory run by a community of volunteer editors. You can submit websites for a one-off fee of $39.99 or apply to become an editor for free submission.	$39.99 one-off
Skaffe	Skaffe.com provides a multilingual, family-friendly, spam-free directory and search engine. There's a $44.99 one-off fee or again you can apply to be an editor.	$44.99 one-off
GoGuides	Popular directory that's been around since 2001.
BOTW	BOTW or 'Best of the Web' - entry criteria includes "unique content, user-friendly navigation, no broken links or pictures."	$149.95/year
Web-Beacon	Web-Beacon is another well designed directory. $39.99 one-off fee or apply to become an editor and you can submit sites for free.	$39.99 one-ff
Gimpsy	Gimpsy only covers sites that provide an interactive online service. So an information site will not be included but an information site that sells something online will. From $29 you can get more promotion for your listing.	Free
WoW Directory	WoW Directory, founded in 2003, primarily focuses on local and regional submission. Free to submit, but $43 fee for express inclusion.	$19.95/year
Clush	Clush describes itself as 'the search engine that allows you to personalize your search results!' By signing up you can submit five links to the Clush database.	$19.95/year

Vertical directories

These general directories can be a great source of links, but in many cases it's worth looking for directories that are specific to your industry. Links from industry-specific directories are highly likely to be relevant (and therefore, more valuable). Most markets will have high quality directories that are really worthwhile places to get a listing.

SearchEngineGuide publishes details of industry specific directories, as does the Internet Search Engine Database. Or if you like to work more quickly, Wordtracker's Link Builder tool will help you find them.

Try Link Builder free for 7 days

So there really is a tool for link builders that will help you research and find social media prospects, plan your campaigns, and monitor targets.

It’s Wordtracker Link Builder. You can register now for a free 7 day trial