Imagine if you only needed to submit your site once to get thousands of inbound links to it. It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? This is the basic premise involved in submitting your website link to a directory submission website. These websites will list your link on their entire network of directories, sometimes for free, or for a fee.

The Value of Directory Submissions

Usually when something sounds too good to be true, it is. Directory submissions to low quality web directories are a pitfall in SEO. They are not favored by search engines or SEO practitioners who know what they’re doing. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t submit your URL to the RIGHT directories, it just means MASS directories should be regarded with caution, suspicion, and doubt.

Here’s Why

• Mass directories are built exclusively for search engines. This is not a good thing, as they will never be seen by search engines as valuable.
• You need to submit to specific directories, not general ones. The more general a directory is the less value it will have for your SEO campaign.
• Any directory that links to low quality, spam riddled sites will be flagged by Google. As a result, the link value and metrics of that site will plummet. Even though your link is on there, it’s not going to do much for your SEO.

So, you need to be careful which directories you target. Submit your link manually, one by one, to the directories that have a good reputation on the Internet. You can benefit from these backlinks, but they can be tough to get. To get you started, here is a short list of directories that carry weight with the search engines.

• DMOZ
• Yahoo!
• Refdesk.com
• Starting Point
• Business.com
• Best of the Web

Submit your site to these directories to gain that all-important link juice that you need. Avoid sites that contain mass spam and are difficult to use by real people. It’s fairly easy to distinguish between good and bad directories. Always avoid the ones that promise mass submissions or that mimic larger directories like DMOZ.

There are many copy-cat “link farms” that will take your money and deliver virtually no value in their services. Worst of all, these services may actually damage your SEO campaign or see your website fall in the search rankings. If you suspect the directory is one of these sites, avoid it like the plague.

Choose only the best directories and submit to each of them manually!