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Directories originally became popular back in the days when search engines weren’t nearly as effective at returning relevant results as they are now. With Google, Yahoo, and even MSN improving their algorithms all the time, does it make sense to get listed in a directory any more? Some insist that it does, because those back links can improve your rank in Google. The trick is that you need to be selective.

Start by checking the PR of the directory you’re considering. A directory is a site just like any other, so you want one with a high PR if possible (at least 6). Check the directory’s niche; if it fits well with your site, you might find that a listing in it can be of significant help even if its PR is relatively low. DMOZ and Yahoo’s directory should be at the top of your list; one of our SEO Chat forum members describes them as being worth more than 50 normal directories.

If possible, once you’re accepted you want to make sure that the anchor text for the directory’s link back to your site is relevant. Some directories let you choose the anchor text. Speaking of relevance, you may have heard that the search engines don’t like pages that are just links and descriptions anymore, and prefer links that are embedded in a sentence (as you would see in a blog). Well, if the directory has an appropriate sub-category, search engines will still count a link from it as relevant, and for that purpose it has value. Moreover, directory links are one-way links, and we all know those are good for PR!

You can get traffic from directories as well as improve your rankings in Google. Keep in mind, however, that you should not use directory submission as your only link strategy. For that matter, it’s far from the only strategy for building traffic - and depending on which directories you choose to submit to, it could be expensive. If you want to save yourself some money, do your homework and handle your own directory submission rather than pay someone else to do it; on the other hand, there are still some relatively inexpensive services that will handle this for you.

As with all things SEO-related, it’s important to be patient. DMOZ is known for taking a long time to index a site; other directories often don’t take quite as long. Spend the time working on other SEO strategies in addition to this one. You need to use a combination of approaches for truly effective SEO.

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