So you have yourself a website, and you now need to market the site, right? I mean, just because you built it does not mean anyone will know it is there. One basic method to get started is to get your website listed with the different website directories out there because basically you want to leave some bread crumbs for the spiders to follow into your website. To accomplish this you don’t have to use directories, you can also get well known websites to link to you, but for some this is hard to make happen – so instead use the directories.
Directories are used by the search engines as starting points to begin indexing. And by indexing, I mean when the search engine spiders crawl the web following links and categorizing them – so they begin in these directories as they are natural starting points. But there are literally thousands of directories out there to choose from – which ones should you use? Basically you want to list in what I’ll call an “authoratative” directory – one that the search engines respect. There are tons of directories out there trying to make a buck, but most of these have been seriously downgraded by Google, and frankly are not worth the effort.
And so, here is a list of directories I recommend. They start with the big four, and are followed with a few other important niche ones.
- Wikipedia - this is maybe the most important place you can have your website listed, although you may very well not be able to. Google places a very high value on getting listed here and if you can lie, cheat, or steal your way into it, do so.
- DMOZ - this is the grand-daddy directory that Google uses as its base directory. It is free, but may I speak frankly? It is a pain in the butt to work with. You can easily request your website be listed in DMOZ, and maybe it gets entered within a year. And God forbid it gets placed in the wrong category – they don’t care and will not fix it for you. You maybe can tell I have had some poor experiences dealing with them – but even so I highly recommend it.
- Yahoo Directory - this is the base directory for Yahoo. It costs some cash to get listed ($299) but if you have a marketing budget I also recommend you make the investment. While Yahoo is not as big as Google, it is still worthwhile to list with them.
- Business.com - this is what I think is the premier business directory on the web. It also costs some cash ($299) but I think it shows the search engines you are serious and to be reckoned with.
- BOTW, Directory Journal, GoGuides, JoeAnt, and lots of others too. What I do is create a spreadsheet and I list them as I find them, then I sort them by Google Page Rank – then starting at the top of the list I add my site(s) as my budget allows. I think my spreadsheet has like 1,700 directories in it now (and I ignore most of them). If there are any niche directories that apply to my website, I place a priority on getting listed with them.