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Directoires are no longer as important as they once were. Before Search Engines, directories were the very best way to promote your new website. Whilst they certainly still have value and it is worth putting a strategey in place to add your sites.
Submitting your new site to web directories is one of the Easiest off page optimizations available. There are literally hundreds of web directories that accept submissions for no cost. Simply select the most appropriate category for your site and follow their instructions.
A lot of people place a lot of importance on having a site in the DMOZ Directory but it can be very difficult to get a site listed! The reason that a lot of importance is placed on this directory is because it is very well known and very large.
Some directories such as Yahoo charge a yearly fee to include your listing. While such a listing may be worthwhile depending on your site, you need to carefully think about spending a large amount of money to get a single listing.
When submitting your site to directories there are also a lot of things to consider. Always look at other listings with in the directory and see how they have been written. Always take advantage of using a suitable Keyword in the Anchor Text of your listing. Directories allow you to describe your website - so, don't waste the opportunity and write something that is meaningful about your site.
Each directory will have their own rules for inclusion. If you follow their submission rules then you are likely to get a listing.
All Directories are not created equal and you need to understand what they offer. Some directories have literally hundreds of links per page and your link could be lost in the list.
Some Directories require a reciprical link in order to accept your listing. A reciprical link is simply that they will include your site in their directory if you provide a link back to them. It is always worthwhile when creating your website to consider the need for a links page - which you could add the reciprical links to. The link that you provide to the directory for inclusion has a positive benefit - Improving the popularity of the directory will probably improve the amount of traffic you get from the directory.
A directory may also provide a link back to your site with no requirement on you to provide a reciprical link. I would strongly suggest that you read the fine print when you see such offers! A lot of sites, when they allow listings like this add a special attribute to the link you submit. They quite often add the rel="nofollow" attribute to your link. This attribute is specifically recognised by Google and tells the GoogleBot to NOT FOLLOW the link! So, whenever you see the rel="nofollow" attribute you should consider that your link will only be followed by most other SE Spiders.
Probably the main thing to consider with adding your site to directories is to not do it all at once. If you add your site to every directory you can find on a single day, it looks very unnatural to some SE's. an un-natural amount of new links pointing to a new site could trigger alerts with the SE's and you may be penalized! What we recommend, is to simply add your site to 5 or 10 directories a week. Listing your site with Directoris should therefore be considered to be a medium term task and plan on an hour a week for 3 or 4 months.