The Blog Works

Dig the Web at JoeAnt.com

 

One tool available to increase traffic to your blog, and perhaps add to your Pagerank, is the directory. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of directories available to list your site in. They have different target audiences, different structures, and different schemes for paying for their services.

Here we will check out some of the free directories. Again, they vary in how you can use them. For example, some simply allow you to submit your site for free, with no guarantee as to how long it will take for your site to appear, or even if it will appear. Other require a reciprocal link from your site back to theirs as ‘payment’. Yet other provide both options, with provision of a reciprocal link as a way of speeding up processing of your submission.

Another possibility is the volunteer edited site. These allow you to apply to become a site reviewer, allowing you to submit sites for inclusion and to review other people’s submissions. While involving some work on your part, it gives you a chance to help improve the directory and to get your own sites included.

Some directories are very general in nature, while others focus only on business sites, and yet others are aimed at a narrow niche of websites. There are also directories that accept only submissions from blogs.

While undoubtedly an entry in a good directory will increase the number of visitors to your site, there is some debate about whether it will increase your Google pagerank. The worry is that a directory entry will be considered by Google’s pagerank algorithm as an attempt to artificially inflate the number of inward links to your site. It is difficult to know the truth of such a concern, but I guess that it will depend on the relevance of the directory entry to the content of your site, and on Google’s own estimation of the value of the directory itself, as evidenced by its own pagerank.

This gives a clue about how to select directories to submit your sites to. They will want to have a pagerank as high as possible, and a topic category directly related to the purpose of your site. Getting links from just anywhere for the sake of having links is dangerous. You might be associating your site with other sites on the same directory page that have quite undesirable content.

As regards the directories pagerank, this also includes the ranking of the page your entry will appear on.

Another important consideration is the nature of the link you will receive. First, is it readable by a robot, or is it obscured by a dynamic link from the directory’s database. When you hover your mouse over your entry ideally you would like to see your URL in your browser’s status bar, not some other link or nothing at all. Second, are you able to submit text describing your site, which will appear as part of your entry. This is important in establishing your link as one relevant to your site. If you submit to more than one directory, try not to always use the same description.

Here at The Blog Works we are going to test directories. We will submit our various websites and blogs to numerous directories, keeping a log of if when (and whether) they are accepted, and the changing traffic and pagerank of each site. You will find the result of these experiments here in the Directory Log.

The directories we have submitted to so far are:

Automatic Directories:

• NetInsert.com – Web 2.0 Directory.

Niche Directories – Blogs:

• BlogCatalog – the Blog Directory.
• BlogFlux.com – Blogs Directory.
• BlogTopList.com – Blogs directory.
• EatonWeb.com – EatonWeb Blog Directory.
• GlobeOfBlogs.com – Globe of Blogs Directory.

Niche Directories – Christian:

• AustralianChurches.net – Australian churches directory.
• BaptistTop1000.com – Baptist website directory.
• ChristianDirectory.info – Christian directory.
• ChristianTop1000.com – Christian web directory.
• CrossFactor.com – Christian Directory.
• CrossWalk.com – Christian Directory.

Niche Directories – Radio and Electronics: 

• Ham-Blogs.net - Amateur Radio blogs directory.

Reciprocal Link Directories:

• AListDirectory.com – Website Directory.
• AListSites.com – Website Directory.
• AmericasBest.com – America’s Best | US Open Directory Project.
• DirectoryBin.com – Website Directory.
• DirectoryVault.com – Website Directory.
• InRedLLC.com – Website Directory.
• LinkingTeam.co.uk – Link Exchange Directory.
• LinkNom.com – Website Directory.
• Niche-Listings.com – Human edited SEF niche directory.
• RDirectory.net – Ranking Website Directory.
• SoMuch.com – Internet Directory.
• Talkingcity.org – Megrisoft’s Web Directory and Search Engine.

Tag and Square Directories:

• Tag-Directory.com – A directory of tags and image squares.

Volunteer Edited Directories:

• JoeAnt – Directory and search engine.
• Open Directory Project – “The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.”
• Skaffe.com – Directory and Search – the International Directory.