The first paragraph of this article provides a concise summary of its content. Major directories such as Yahoo!, Open Directory Project, About.com, Snap, LookSmart, and Go.com are excellent sources of web traffic. However, getting listed can be challenging and time-consuming. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to effectively submit your website for faster results and increased exposure.
Directories that employ human reviewers are crucial as several major search engines use indexes like the Open Directory Project to supplement their search results. Recent statistics from WebSnapShot.com reveal the percentage of searches performed on each of the top 19 search engines and directories. Yahoo! leads the pack with 25.4%, while Google (Yahoo!'s default engine) is at 5% and rising rapidly.
Interestingly, AOL, AltaVista, NetScape, and Lycos collectively account for 40.5% of total search queries. These four engines, powered by the Open Directory Project, control more traffic than Yahoo! alone.
When you submit your website to a directory such as Yahoo!, Open Directory Project, or Infoseek Channels, your site is queued for review by a site editor. This means a human actually visits your site and determines whether it should be included in their index. Therefore, it's crucial to understand that most techniques used to optimize pages for spider search engines will not work for directories.
Site editors visit your site to verify that the category you selected is appropriate and that the title and description are accurate and relevant to your site's content. Each directory has its own criteria for evaluating sites. Here are a few tips to help you evaluate your website before you submit:
Each directory has its own rules and guidelines for submission. Read the submission instructions carefully to avoid being rejected or banned. Look at your submission from the editor's perspective. Did you choose a category relevant to your site? Is your title and description relevant to your content? Is the form filled out completely?
If there is a comments box on the application, highlight the strengths of your site. Find something unique about your site that will add value to the directory.
Most category search results are displayed in alphabetical order. Therefore, you will get better placement if your company name begins with a letter close to the beginning of the alphabet. Keyword search results are displayed in order of relevance to the keyword. Hence, it's crucial to include your single most important keyword in the title and description.
Most directories will give you an estimate of the time it takes to get listed. If you don't get in by the estimated time, submit again and follow up with an email or a phone call. Express your appreciation for their time and explain why they will benefit by including your site in their index. Inform them that you have submitted a second time and look forward to their response.
All of the above will easily take you hundreds of hours of pure work. Do you want to drive mega traffic to your site by ranking high at all the top 100 major search engines and directories? Do you want to save hundreds of painful hours of pure grinding labor? If you answered yes to the above questions, read on. Here's to your success.
