How Web Directories Help Your SEO Ranking

One of the many factors that the major search engines use to determine where to rank, or position, your site in the search results for specific searches, is your Page Rank (or simply PR) which is a number from 0 – 10. Your PR value is an indication of the popularity of your website based on the number, relevance and importance of other sites which are linking to you.

One important way to develop good quality incoming links is through submitting your site to respected web directories which Google considers to have importance and value, as measured by their own PR rating.

Web directories are like the Yellow Pages in the off-line world, and organize websites under relevant category topics. If you had a website that sells Real Estate, you would have your website listed in a category like “Business -> Real-Estate -> Agents & Agencies”. One of the most well known directories is the Open Directory Project (or DMOZ)

Do People Use Web Directories Anymore?

Honestly, no. Very few people use web directories these days; however they are still used by some people. More importantly, getting your site listed in a web directory serves a more valuable purpose than just directing the odd visitor to your site. Getting links to your web site from reputable web directories can help improve your PR or Popularity Rating, which in turn directly impacts where your site appears for particular search terms in Google, Yahoo and Bing.

How does submitting to Web Directories help my Page Rank?

How Google Page Rank Works. Get it?

When another website links to your site, the search engines like Google & Bing consider that link as a favourable ‘vote’ for your site. They take into consideration the PR Value of the site linking to you (AKA their Authority), and also how the site is linking to yours. If that site links to you with words like ‘click here’, it wouldn’t be considered as important as if the linking words are ‘Vancouver Real Estate’ or whatever the appropriate keyword phrase is for your site.

This is where getting links from web directories help. Firstly, every link from a reputable directory is counted by the search engines when deciding your site’s ranking. Secondly, in most cases, you get to choose the title or linking text the directory uses to link to you. So, in effect, you not only get a link but a link containing your targeted keyword terms.

Can’t I just do directory submissions myself?

The key to successful link-building is to only submit to relevant, or general purpose directories which have a positive PR Value themselves, or are not just “link farms”, or other types of sites the search engines frown upon. There is no sense submitting to directories that the major search engines pay little or no attention to, or give no value to. The most important directories are DMOZ.org (PR9) and Ask.com (PR8), but there are thousands of others which provide either free or paid listings – or both options.

The challenge is the time involved in researching which directories are worth submitting to, then manually submitting your site to each one, and then following-up to ensure the submissions have been received! This can all take as much as 15-20 minutes/submission, which adds-up quickly! My Directory Submission Service makes this a quick and painless task, and your site can be submitted to up to 1800 directories* in as little as 2-3 weeks. A detailed report of where the site has been submitted to is provided.

Additionally, for local companies and clients, I have a hand-selected list of 20+ Vancouver and Canadian directories, as well as several other high PR value directories and search portals which have proven important for my existing clients.

Submission to General Directories starts at $199 (300 Directories* with a PR Value of PR2 and Higher)

Submission to all available (1800+) Directories* is $899  (Special: $599)

Contact Me Today for a Website Evaluation, or to Request Directory Submissions

Link-Building and Submission services are discounted when included as part of a larger SEO or Online Marketing Service package.

* New directories are always being added. An exact total number of submissions will be provided, but the number shown on this page is a minimum that your site will be submitted to.