Designing a fantastic website is not enough to make your online presence successful; people should actually find you in the crowd of millions of business websites. Directory submission, an important online marketing strategy helps in this regard.

Directory submission is one of the great ways to improve your website’s visibility on the Internet. A web directory is online yellow pages, a collection of links broken down into different categories, under which a user can locate relevant information. You can also define a web directory in this way – a collection of bookmarks made available to the public.  

Difference between search engines and directories

People often tend to confuse between a search engine and a directory. The web directories consist of huge database of websites links organized in various categories by topics. The basic difference between a search engine and a directory is that the search engine use crawlers or robots to collect website content. Web directories, on the other hand are organized mainly by human editors – people submit their sites to the directories, and these are then reviewed by human editors.   

Major web directories

In order to submit your website to major directories, it is essential to know the various web directories that are there on the Internet.

Open Directory dmoz – is the largest and most comprehensive human-edited directory on the web. It is created by volunteer editors, and covers various topics like business, computing, science, sports, and shopping.

LookSmart - is a human-compiled Internet directory that organizes the web content into thousands of categories.

Yahoo - is both a portal and a web directory and provides extensive categories and news, yahoo auctions, classifieds, weather and maps.

Zeal - is another community-driven web directory that provides descriptions and ratings of web sites.

The other major directories include:
About.com
Business.com
Go Guides
Google Directory
JoeAnt.com
ExactSeek

Really Fast, What You Seek, Seoma, Clickey, and Directory World are the other helpful online web directories.

There are certain things that you should keep in mind while submitting your website to the major directories. Make sure that the directory is indexed in the major search engines by going through a quick search in Google, MSN and Yahoo. Do not list your website in a directory that is banned by Google. Check out the page the directory is linking your website to. The directory may have a PR of 7, but the page on which your link appears on might have a PR of 1. Select the older directories first since some search engines like Google values the age of the site.   

Importance of submitting websites to major directories

Submitting your website to major directories increases your link popularity due to one way link from a highly respected resource. This can help the site to have a higher ranking on search engines. Moreover, as you are being listed in the directories that are searched by many people everyday, directory submission increases the targeted traffic to your website.

Giving proper keyword and description is essential while submitting your website to major directories. When a user searches using a search engine, the query must match the words on your page. However, when the users search using major directories their queries should match the words given in the description of your website in the directories.

A good listing in the Internet directories can bring a lot of traffic to your website and increase the link popularity. While submitting your website to major directories, it is important to submit it to the right category by following the directory’s guidelines carefully.  

Here are some of the common directory submission guidelines:

• If you want to submit your site to the Open Directory, do not submit mirror sites.
• Do not submit your site twice and avoid submitting any site with an address that redirects to another address.
• Do not submit sites that are “under construction”, and follow the policy while submitting adult and illegal content.
• The major directories are very specific. If you have a UK-based site, submit it to the desired regional category. If your website is commercial, you must submit to the “Business and Economy” category.
• For Non-English sites, submit it under the world category.

Once you have selected the best category for your site, it is time to give it a proper description. The submission will be reviewed by an ODP editor before approving it.  Once your site is approved, it will gradually be listed on other partner sites like AOL search, Google, Netscape search, Yahoo search and more.

While submitting your site to Yahoo directory, you need to check first if your site is already there in Yahoo. If it is already not there, then select an appropriate category in Yahoo for your site. Once the topic is decided, click on the “Suggest a Site” link for placing your site. However, the final placement of the site will be determined by the directors of Yahoo. You need to fill up the online for by providing your site’s title, URL, and a brief description.

Example:
Suppose you have to submit your site to Yahoo directory. You will have to login with your Yahoo user ID and password. After going through the terms and conditions, you will have to fill up an online form that requires your site title, URL, Geographical location, description and additional information about your site.

The Yahoo editors review and evaluate your site before publishing it. If your site requires a login user name and password you should provide that to Yahoo directory.

 
The last step before submitting your site to Yahoo directory is providing Contact Information. You need to provide the name and email of the contact person, so that no unauthorized person can access and change your listing details.

 

 

Things to check while submitting website to major directories 

While submitting your website to the major directories, the keywords used to describe the site are very important. You do not have to enter the same description that is there in the Meta Description tag. Try to submit the description in 2-3 sentences instead of submitting a list of keywords. If you have to submit both the title and the description, avoid repeating the title in your description. Always write in the third person by avoiding phrases like “we”. Instead, try to write in general about the product or service the site offers.

For submitting your website to the major directories, avoid hype and marketing speech. Instead of the promotional terms, use the functional terms. Avoid using capital letters and exclamation marks in the description and keep it short and precise. Always check the spelling and grammar of the description and avoid giving variable data since it is difficult to change the description once it is accepted by the directory.

Before you submit your website to major directories, research each directory and the categories it includes, for placing your website under the appropriate topic.  Include the main product name in the description. If you are targeting specific audience, mention that as well. Use the paid or premium listing if your budget allows you. After submission, visit the directory and verify your listing. Do not submit a single page. Always submit your domain name.   

Steps to take if directories do not accept your listing 

There are a variety of reasons why Internet directories do not accept your listing. This happens when you don’t submit it to the right category, your website has no real content, and when the website has no professional look. You will have to plan out properly on how to resubmit your website again, once it has been rejected. Go for a professional looking website with quality content that is accessible in all popular browsers. If your website doesn’t get listed with 4 weeks, re-submit it. Keep on repeating this process every 3-4 weeks until your website is accepted or formally rejected.

Time constraint is a big factor that can lead your website being rejected. The editors of the directories receive hundreds of submission each day and naturally have a backlog of sites to look at. Thus, it may delay the listing of your site in the directories. Wait for 4 weeks for your site to get listed, failing which, send a cordial email to the director. Mention your website URL, the category name and the submission date while asking politely the status of your submission. This may help your site get listed much quicker.   

Free submission and paid submission

Listings in online directories are usually not free. There are some directories that allow free submission, but it doesn’t guarantee on how quickly your website will be reviewed for listing. If you want your website to be reviewed quickly within a week, you have to pay a certain amount of service charge annually. This makes your website subject to a yearly review. DMOZ is the most popular free directory. It is the best possible option if you want to go for free submission. However, you need to pay for Yahoo and MSN directory services.

Paying money to get listed in directories may force you to think twice. But it is worth it, since these online directories will pay off for you in a variety of ways. The inclusion of your site in the online directories will gainfully increase the traffic of your site. It increases the number of back links to your site. Submitting to directories is relatively inexpensive when you think of the profit you get out of it. You can submit it to Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/docs/info/include.html) and MSN for less than $350. 

Submitting your site to directories can help you to acquire more links in other directories without you even having control over it. The people who like your site will automatically submit it to other directories that they use. This helps in listing your site in directories that you have never heard before. At the same time, your fans will also be delighted to list your site for you.