Are web directories still an effective way to promote a website?

DMOZ, the Open Directory Project

March 2017 marked the closing of DMOZ, the open Directory Project. DMOZ was set up with the aim of human editors to organise and reference all websites on the World Wide Web. It was set up in 1998, the same year as Google, as direct competition to Yahoo Directory, which was seen as becoming too dominate. Before we had search engines there was no way to search for websites, people had to simply remember the names of them, which as the number of websites increased became increasingly difficult. Web directories were set up as a way to list these websites so that people could browse through categories to find a specific website that they required. However, as the number of websites dramatically increased and with the move to machine generated results over human searches web directories started to take more of a back seat and DMOZ decided to close after 19 years of existence.

Can web directories help promote your website?

With search engines now using machine generated results rather than human searches can web directories help promote your website? The simple answer is yes, if used correctly. As an example, Google’s algorithms use links as a way to rank websites, however not all links are ranked equally and web directory links are one of the lower ranked. However, if you switch your view of seeing web directories as sources of links and instead look at them as a way to increase credibility and trust, they can become beneficial in promoting a website. When looking at adding your website to a directory make sure that you assess the directory in terms of whether it is a credible site and whether your ICA would visit such a directory. Listing your business on these websites will automatically cause some of the positive attributes associated with the directory to your website and business. Use blog directories to list your blog pages If you regularly submit blogs to your website, then you really should use blog directories to list your blog pages. Listing your blogs allows the organic visibility of the page to increase in search engines and as a result influence the amount of traffic going to your website. There are loads of blog directories out there so finding the ones that are most relevant to your business is crucial, as using the wrong directory is likely to be a waste of time if your ideal customers don’t frequent it. The best blog directories are normally those that are human edited which means an actual person reviews your submission and decides the best category to place it in. Bloggeries is one of the oldest blog directories around and is one of the most respected so this should be your first choice to look at.

Carrying out a simple search in Google will provide you with a huge list of blog directories and from there you can narrow down the best to use for your blog and business.

Best web directories to list your website

Listing your website on web directories seem to work best for small, local businesses and there are several around that can help promote your website. Some of the best web directories to list your website on include Google My Business, Bing Places, Yelp, Foursquare and Yellow Pages. Google My Business is recognised by most SEO professionals as a basic requirement of online marketing. It allows you to submit your business and website details and it then shows your listing above any relevant search results. Google My Business is increasingly becoming more relevant in terms of ranking with local searches. Bing Places is the Bing search engine equivalent to Google My Business.

Although it is not a popular a search engine as Google it is still the default search engine for Internet Explorer and Edge so it is definitely worth submitting a listing. Yelp is a great tool to help people find your business and it combines the use of reviews. Being on there, as well as having lots of positive reviews, will help boost your business’ visibility to the 35 million monthly users. Similar to Yelp, is Foursquare. It’s not as popular as Yelp but it is very useful for listing and finding local businesses. If you remember the Yellow Pages book from years ago appearing on your doorstep, you will be familiar with the premise of the Yellow Pages website. It has moved on from being a hardcopy and is now making its presence known online. 60 million people visit the Yellow Pages website every month with the sole purpose of finding contact details and getting in touch with a company. It’s free to claim your business on Yellow Pages and the website works hard to drive traffic to itself and its directory listings. There are lots of web directories around that you can decide to include your details on. The important factor is making sure they are relevant to your business and that, in return, they will increase traffic to your website and promote your business in the way you require.

With all that being said, our free web directory will allow your submit your listing fast and approval is even faster.