Five General Web Directories Worth Getting Listed In

Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on October 8, 2009

Five General Web Directories Worth Getting Listed In If you haven’t heard, there is a lot of concern on the Internet today regarding paid links. And that’s a whole other blog post altogether. In the meantime, Aaron Wall does a great job explaining the good, the bad, & the ugly.

Just be sure to use common sense when submitting your website to directories; not all directories seem to be on Google’s “naughty” list. In fact, there are a few directories which appear to be well respected by Google – at least for the moment anyway.

Here are five general web directories to consider for link-building:

DMOZ

The Open Directory Project, or ODP, is one of Internet’s largest, free, human-edited web directories. It can take days to several weeks to be listed here, and don’t count on your website getting listed. Each category has it’s own volunteer editor; some editors do a good job, while others don’t seem to follow the guidelines very ethically. I’ve seen great websites get ignored, while some of the worst websites get listed in just a few days. Regardless, if you can score a listing here it will likely help your website’s search rankings.

Best of the Web Directory

The Best of the Web Directory, or BOTW, is one of the Internet’s oldest web directories. They offer a $299 lifetime listing or a $99/yr (nonrefundable) listing. If you sign up for a reseller account you can get 25% off your own listings as well as a 25% recurring commission for the life of any listings purchased through your affiliate links.

JoeAnt

This is a good place to get a reasonably priced permanent listing which Google seems to “approve” of. Don’t count on getting good anchor text though. Just like DMOZ, these editors are volunteers, so editors put whatever makes the most sense to them, even if it isn’t complete or right. Because of that, their fee makes some sense here.

Business.com

This business directory is also $299/yr. They also offer decent PPC and banner advertising.

Yahoo! Directory

For most website the standard Yahoo! Directory Submit service costs $299 (nonrefundable) for each listing submitted. They will approve or deny you website within 7 business days. The $299 fee is recurring for each subsequent year. However I have seen many listings stay in the directory long after they were canceled.

I know, If you add up these numbers you can quickly pay over a thousand bucks. I’m not necessarily suggesting you submit to all of these directories. What I am saying is they are worth considering for any link-building campaign. Whether you submit to one or all five of them should depend on your budget, your industry, and how well your link-building is going overall. I recommend using them in this order:

1)DMOZ – Because it’s free of course!
2)BOTW – Either $99/yr, or $299 lifetime
3)JoeAnt – $39 lifetime
4)Business.com – $299/yr
5)Yahoo! Directory – $299/yr

Don’t expect to receive much direct traffic from these or any other directories for that matter. However, these particular ones appear to be on Google’s “approved” list, and Google follows their links aggressively. That alone makes makes them worth considering when doing your search marketing.

DISCLAIMER

There is always risk when buying links, so be sure you understand Google’s guidelines regarding paid links.

While Google certainly frowns upon paid links, for larger companies you can bet 99% of your top competitors are in at least one if not several of the above directories.

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Gil Pauley said,

Wesley,

I really enjoy your write-ups. However, I personally don’t think that any of the “paid” directories are worth the price. I realize you have qualified how one should purchase any or all of these and I agree with those qualificatios. With that said, “In my online youth, I did purchase a listing in JoeAnt” and two other inexpensive directories. I thought Yahoo, BOTW, and Business were a waste of money then and still do.

Our site is proof that you can exist and rank high in Google without them. We are number 1 in both the organic search and the local search for our two main Key Word combinations. Our rank in Yahoo is more variable, but still OK. Link building is just a very long term and ongoing task.
Wesley LeFebvre said,

Hi Gil,
Absolutely you can rank well without them! However with all else being equal – a company listed in these directories will surely rank better than the company that is not. That alone suggests there is some benefit to being listed in them.

The purpose of this post was to suggest a few low-risk directories people could use to increase their rankings.

I have seen a handful of websites jump in rankings after getting listed in just a a few of them.
Andrew said,

I think this is good advice (these 5 directories). Google uses them as filters. Remember you don’t pay for the link, you pay for the review. A lot of dodgy sites won’t risk losing $299 (which they would likely do if there’s anything untoward about their website).

As we know Google is 100% automated, so using human-edited directories as a filter is one signal for Google to say “this site ought to be OK”. NOT being listed here means you have to work that much harder with other links.

I’ve seen this with hard data by the way, with the sites I’ve been running. I invest money into my most valuable sites, and I know my clients who’re listed in Yahoo! or business.com get very good traffic.

It’s ridiculous we have to pay so much, but that’s also part of the process – why would you risk so much money if there’s even a small chance you won’t get listed?
Wesley LeFebvre said,

That makes good sense Andrew. Thanks for sharing.