Free Directory Listings

I blogged previously about the importance of inbound links to your site's ranking in search engines. A lot of people starting up get tripped up by this. They can be intimidated by the thought of scouring the web in search of websites that will link to them. I know I was! But the good news is that there is a great place to start: the Web Directories; especially the free ones.

The reason web directories are such great resources for web-based businesses is that by their very nature, they are relevant to your website. Directories are always built on a category/sub-category structure. You can usually find a category where your site belongs and therefore will be in a relevant linking situation. Relevant links are becoming more and more important nowadays.

I've compiled this list of directories where submissions are free of charge. This information should be fairly accurate since I have just gone through it myself within the past 30 days.

Some tips:

1 - Read the submission guidelines for each directory carefully. They're all slightly different. Sometimes they'll have requirements such as "page must be a page rank 3 or higher". If you can't meet the requirement yet, move on to the next and mark it for later.
2 - Have you own links pages ready to be edited and uploaded. A lot of these directories will want a reciprocal link in return for their linking to you.
3 - Have several variations of your Anchor Text prepared. The keywords in your Anchor Text will be important to your search engine rankings - especially Google. And it is widely believed that Google considers the exact same anchor text used over and over again to be link spam. So vary it a bit to avoid being penalized by Google.
4 - Spread your work over several weeks, perhaps longer. Word also has it that Google can penalize for having too many inbound links acquired too fast. How fast is too fast, I have no idea, but spread it out a bit and you should be fine. Some of these take longer than others so the timing of your inbound links will be spread out somewhat anyway.

Here is the list - if anyone has any directories to add, please feel free to post them in the comments.


http://www.01webdirectory.com/

http://www.aesop.com/

http://www.agada.info/web-directory/

http://www.allmerchants.com/

http://www.allwebdirectories.com/

http://www.amray.com

http://www.best-searchengine.com/

http://www.best-websites.net/

http://www.Bocat.com

http://www.business-web-directory.com/

http://www.burf.com/

http://www.CorrectSearch.com/

http://dmoz.org

http://www.directorygold.com/index.shtml

http://directory.r-tt.com/

http://www.elib.org/

http://english.hispanoempresa.com/

http://www.ezilon.com/

http://www.familyfriendlysites.com/

http://www.frequentlyasked.info/

http://www.golber.com

http://www.goongee.com/

http://www.hotvsnot.com/

http://www.iconnic.com/

http://www.indexunlimited.com/

http://www.link-city.com/

http://www.linksmatch.com/

http://www.lookseek.com

http://www.mostpopularsites.net/

http://www.onemission.com

http://www.onseek.com/

http://www.peekaboo.net/

http://www.peakdirectory.com/

http://www.perfext.com/

http://www.phantis.com/

http://www.resourcelinks.net/

http://www.sbdpro.com

http://www.spheri.com/

http://www.search-o-rama.com/

http://www.searchcity.biz/

http://www.SearchDepo.com/

http://www.searchitfast.com/

http://www.searchramp.com

http://www.searchtheweb.com/

http://www.searchwarp.com/

http://www.search.711.net

http://www.seekon.com/

http://www.SeekItOut.com/

http://www.the-search-site.com/

http://www.sightquest.com/

http://www.sitesondisplay.com

http://www.sonicquest.com/

http://www.TSection.com/

http://www.theallineed.com

http://www.towersearch.com/

http://www.townnet.com/

http://www.turnpike.net/directory.html

http://www.webworldindex.com

http://www.wmdirectory.com

http://www.webs-best-directory.com/

http://www.websitelisting.org/

http://www.websquash.com/

http://www.wildyou.net/

http://www.wowdirectory.com/

http://www.unasked.com/

http://www.urgentclick.com

http://www.yeandi.com

http://www.yourdir.com/


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