To which directory should I submit my site?

There are virtually thousands of directories where you can submit your site. But most of them will send you little or no traffic. You also do not get any PR benefit out of your listing. Should you, then submit your website to any directory you come across? Will submitting your site to all and sundry actually cause more harm than good to your website’s online image?

Before choosing directories to submit your site, decide on your objectives first. Why do you want to submit your site to directories? It may look very obvious but try and list it down. It will give you an insight into what you actually want and what you thought you wanted. Your list may look something like this:

  • I want good quality backlinks to my site
  • I want some traffic from the directories I submit to
  • I want high PR sites linking to me (not same as 1)

Obviously, based on your site and your objectives your list will be different. But the above list will tell you where to submit your site.

For example, point 1 says that I would like to have quality backlinks to my site. How can I get quality links pointing to my site? Only if it is part of text that is unique and relevant to my site’s content. This means I need directories which will accept detailed descriptions of my website or better still write professional reviews of my website.

If you need some traffic from the directory you submit to, you must ensure that the directory design and objective is to send traffic your way. If a link to your site is not accessible in the directory, then you will not get many visitors. Very apparent, you say? True, but how many times have you thought about this before submitting your link? Ensure that you get at least one exclusive page for your listing. This page must not have too many outgoing links other than yours. Otherwise there is less chance that your link will be clicked on. Not having too many outgoing links would mean less number of ads on the page. This is the minimum that a professional directory owner must be willing to do for your site.

You may also prefer to buy ‘Featured’ listings on the directory where by you get more exposure. This would be profitable only on high traffic sites. You do not want to lose money on directories which themselves do not get any traffic.

In order to achieve the third objective, check the PR of directories before submitting your sites. Verify if the page where your listing would appear has useful PR. Most directories have a decent PR on the home page but practically no PR on the listing pages. If your listing is going to appear on a PR0 page, then it is not of much use to you with respect to your objective 3. In such cases you may buy a listing on pages which do have a higher PR. If the directory owner is willing to reduce the price in exchange for a reciprocal link, then you may consider that offer too.

Basically, through this article we are not discouraging you to submit your site to different directories. What we are trying to do is to convince you to take the time to analyze each site before submitting to them. Remember one relevant link could pay you better returns that multiple useless spam links. Your website image and in fact your online identity also depends on the friends you keep (read: the people who link to you).