And Don’t Forget Best of the Web!

When I posted my directory recommendations before, I left out Best of the Web (based on its price, not its quality). Thanks to Brian Prince for sending me a heads-up on some things that make submitting there a lot more attractive:

I appreciate the suggestion of offering a directory submission option without a recurring fee, which we launched on BOTW in August.  You commented that you felt the price point is a bit high at $99.95 â but please understand that this is the âretailâ or standard price.  We offer a reseller program with recurring commissions of 25%, so anyone who signs up for the reseller plan can immediately get the one-time listing price discounted 25% to $74.95.  In addition, one of the BOTW traditions is to offer substantial monthly promotions (up to 50% off or two for one listings, etc) to all existing customers â so once you are a BOTW client, there are many ways to save on the directory costs of a submission.

Last but not least, I would like to reiterate that Best of the Web has a FREE Non-Commercial submission program (in constrast to most âotherâ directories) for webmasterâs marketing non-profit and non-commercial sites.  We feel that this is a big differentiator between us and other tier-two directories within the industry, and hopefully respected SEO gurus such as yourself also value this community effort.

I think their willingness to review non-profit sites for free is a good quality indicator, since it shows they are making an honest attempt to categorize the world’s Web sites, not just make an easy buck.

Bottom line: consider BotW along with the others.

p.s. Another great thing about Best of the Web is its age — it’s been around forever and Google seems to heavily favor age and trust these days. Speaking of their non-commercial free submission policy, I’m going to go submit my pet project (s) there!

Quality directories allowing keyword titles

Last week I posted on my paid directory recommendations. I chose those directories based on quality. For the sake of completeness, I ‘d like to update that short list with two more directories: MassiveLinks and Tygo.

These two are very helpful in that they allow keyword titles. Is this a questionable practice? You bet. But good anchor text is crucial, and if you’re using white hat link building methods it can be hard to get. Note that neither of the above sell run-of-site links (I had to throw out several candidates that did).

So to review, my entire recommended directory submission list:

• DMOZ
• Yahoo (if I want to spend the money)
• JoeAnt
• GoGuides
• MSN bCentral
• 01 Web Directory
• Site Snoop
• Linkopedia
• Bigall
• MassiveLinks (allows keyword links)
• Tygo (allows keyword links)

And that’s all she wrote. I promise not to post on directories for a while

Update, 1/19/06: I removed Web Beacon from the list as they now appear to be selling run of site links.

Update, 5/10/06: Oops! How did I miss Business.com?

Top TEN Web Directories – For You White Hats

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:

• 01 Web Directory
• Web Beacon
• Site Snoop
• Linkopedia
• Bigall

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.

Stuntdubl on Directories

We (along with everyone else, it seems) have gone back and forth on directories in the past six months: acknowledging that links from many of them are not as useful as they used to be, while proposing that listings in those of higher quality are still a valid, helpful link building method. A few prominent figures have been proclaiming the “death” of all directories, but this is certainly exaggerated (and wrong). Stuntdubl gives a more balanced view in Mr. Ploppyâs Monday Tool List – Volume XXVI – Directory Tools.

I still like many directories. When theyâre not built for the SOLE purpose of manipulating PR, they can be a very good addition to a siteâs backlinks. I donât think the directory model will ever completely die, but it does have itâs flaws. As a final note, donât go over board with getting ALL the directories in one sitting.

There’s a lot more there, go read it.

Top 28 Directories

With all our talk on crappy directories (about 200) and top tier directories (5), it seems we’ve neglected the middle. WeBuildPages is on the ball with their top 28 directories list (thanks to SEO guru Stuntdubl for the heads up).

I probably trust their analysis of quality more than anyone’s… that’s the closest you’ll get to an endorsement