11
Oct 05

Top TEN Web Directories – For You White Hats

by Andy Hagans Directories with 24 Comments

We’ve posted on this many, many times, but I’d like to revisit the issue yet again. Which directories are worth getting listed in?

A few months ago I pointed everyone to We Build Pages’ list of 28 decent web directories. I’m doing a bit of link building for a new site this week, and asked myself, do I really want to follow this list? The answer was no… so here’s what I did:

DMOZ, Yahoo (if I want to spend the money), JoeAnt, GoGuides, MSN bCentral, those are the gimmes. (I would say Best of the Web, but c’mon guys, get rid of the recurring fees!)

I then went through the rest, and am doing paid submissions with those that do not sell run-of-site links. To me, it’s a telling quality indicator, and speaks to the owners’ goals (are they in this for long term quality, or short term revenue maximization?) I also think directories with run-of-site paid links run a higher risk of the Google hand job. So I only added five more to my shortlist above:

10 general Web directories total… that’s all I’m willing to vouch for. But as of today, I do think they still offer great link building value.

24 comments - add your's now

Bob Gladstein (10/11/05 at 7:56 pm)

That’s pretty close to my list. I’ll have to take a closer look at some of them, but I’d add a few paid directories you left out: Skaffe, Wow and (if the site would fit in) Gimpsy.

I don’t know if any of them pass PR, but that’s not my concern. I see traffic coming from them, so I submit to them.

graywolf (10/12/05 at 2:24 am)

BOTW has a $99 life time fee ($149 for adult material). If you subscribe to the email list they send you discounts, I think it was $75 thru Sept 30th.

Todd (10/12/05 at 9:57 am)

Definitely lots of directories that could be debatable. Even what I used to list as a gimmie (Goguides) now has ROS gambling links! eek!

I think directories overall provide a decent base of links from unique domains/ip ranges but you really can’t expect to get much out of the rankings from them alone anymore. I wouldn’t write ‘em off just yet, but there not the great solution they used to be for sure.

Todd (10/12/05 at 9:58 am)

ROS payday loan links too…ugh..c’mon guys, you have categories for those.

Andy Hagans (10/12/05 at 12:52 pm)

Nice tidbit on BOTW lifetime, still, 99 bucks is pretty steep!

I purposefully left out Gimpsy, they’re always rejecting my stuff because it’s not “active” enough (yah, RIGHT, like the other sites in there are any different )… and of course they charge me either way.

Skaffe used to be on my list, but RoS is killing me!

Todd: agreed they’re not a ranking solution — but I think they augment other methods well.

aaron wall (10/12/05 at 11:21 pm)

I love that you got sitesnoop on your list…they have a small small small & flat directory and you actually have to physically mail them your submission & payment.

Justilien (10/13/05 at 9:49 am)

I have to agree about Sitesnoop.com. They have been on my main list for over a year. I think sometimes people forget that sometimes simple can be best.

I have no idea why some of these directories are playing with ROS to gambling and such. If I owned a major directory I would be too paranoid.

Personally I prefer niche directories and city directories. They are more focused, put you in the right neighborhoods and traffic!

Andy Hagans (10/13/05 at 11:36 am)

Justilien,

Agreed that local and niche directories rock. The only trouble being they often only provide redirect links!

scott (05/13/06 at 1:35 pm)

While most of the directories entirely depenendent of PageRank (PR), i found this directory “human ranked directory” pretty interesting. If well developed i think they could be the future DMOZ.

#10

dansegel (05/27/06 at 7:41 pm)

I dont like spending money for inclusion into directories. I would say it would be always fair if directories are kept available for free than just making money. My personal favourites for free inclusions are …

http://www.socengine.com
http://www.hrwebdir.org

#11

fabien (06/16/06 at 6:20 pm)

Basically i would go for as many free submissions as possible. the biggest problem with paid directories are some of them charge yearly recurrning fee, which i hate. i mostly would refer to http://www.paiddirectories.info for submitting to lowcost cheap paid directories under $10

#12

Roderick Coleman (06/25/06 at 12:10 pm)

Excellentguide.com has a great website also. They give you about 10 links for your website for under 15 dollars.

#13

Speed Yeoh (09/09/06 at 2:44 am)

I have sourcing all the specific sites that willing to accept reciprocal link with you.

#14

Mobile Phone shop (09/28/06 at 4:02 am)

thnx for list

#15

Mobile Phone shop (09/28/06 at 4:02 am)

thnx for list

#16

David Bain (10/08/06 at 6:34 pm)

I found a great list of 364 free directories for you to submit your website to here: http://www.submithelper.com/User/User_Directory.aspx

#17

ujval shah (11/22/06 at 10:58 am)

Try this you may find something interesting.thank you for the list..

1)http://www.build-reciprocal-links.com/Google_Search_With_Pagerank_and_Alexa.html

2)http://www.realaffiliatesecrets.com/directory.php

3)http://linkexchanged.us/resources1.php

#18

graeme (12/21/06 at 10:03 am)

Thanks for this thread on directories. In Australia it’s hard to find a good Australian directory so I made one for Aussies sites. I personally believe that if you get up the top of the category in your area you should get some benefit… but I could be wrong…since
I’m usually the last person to find out anything.

#19

LiYang (04/21/07 at 1:28 am)

We only talk about the tourism around Yunnan,and we provide professional tour service for Kunming,Dali,Lijian,Zhongdian,Tibet,Xishuanbannan,ect..http://www.yunnangood.com

#20