Traffic, Traffic, Traffic! That’s what all websites and webmaster want to generate more and more revenue online – whether from online sales or Ad Sense or by selling advertisement. Without traffic, no income is possible online.

Of late I can see a lot of debates on webmasters forums and blogs in regard to relevancy, usefulness and effectiveness of web directories in search engine optimization. Many people dismiss web directories as being mere link-farms! They argue that – web directories do not send much traffic to sites listed in them. The also accuse directories of selling page rank, of listing low quality – spammy sites if they pay the review fee. Very serious allegations indeed!

So, is it true that web directories lost their significance in SEO world after the emergence of viral marketing, press release campaigns, e-mail marketing etc. as major SEO techniques that bring huge traffic?

My answer is a BIG NO. Web directories are still the most reliable, trustable and efficient sources of optimizing a new site. They are still the most helpful resources to a new site for quick indexing and durable search engine ranking.

I this competitive world, it is next to impossible to get links from sites that deal in the same niche as most site owners fear that if they help another site, it might outrank them and hence causing a decrease in business volume. On the other-hand, web directories are sites that can list any website on categories arranged by subjects and therefore, websites, whatever their niche may be, get a relevant link that is so much scarce. And most of those links are permanent.

Now, the question is – if directories are so good – why are many webmasters and SEO professionals raising questions against them?

Well, being involved in the industry for sometime now, I have done an in-depth analysis of the situation and came up with some disturbing facts. I have found that all the allegations mentioned above are true!

As in every sphere of our life, there are lots of vultures, money sharks on the web too. Their main motive is to grab a few dollars by hook or by crook.

So who are they?

They are the members of Quick Buck Crew – a term used to refer those who are destroying the name of the web directory industry by their malicious manipulation of the good vibes of web directories which was earned by the hard work of quality web directories like BOTW, Alive, Aviva and many other high quality directories.

Their Modus-Operandi is very simple. They buy expired or unused domains with high PR and then install directory scripts on them. Then they advertise that their web directory has so and so page rank –and it is very cheap to list.

Whatever people say on the face, it is a truth that- most webmasters and SEO professionals look for high PR directories to list sites, And due to these circumstances, the whole industry is facing a crisis.

What baffles me is the fact that even experienced webmasters and hard core SEO professionals fail to differentiate between a quality high PR web directory and a duplicate web directory that is up there to con those self proclaimed experts!

It is a very basic job to differentiate between an established website (of late those conmen have been installing blogs and other sites on those condemned domains) and a duplicate one. Just go to Iwebtool or Linkvendor and use the Visual PR tool. If the sub-pages, categories of the said site has any sort of PR in inner-categories, pages (it does not matter what PR inner-pages have) – then VOILA! It’s a genuine website running for sometime. If it has only home page PR and no PR on inner-pages –the –BEWARE – you are dealing with a CONMAN –duplicate site.

Regarding allegations of web directories not sending traffic – I would like to ask those who say such things – WHAT IS THE PRIMARY ROLE OF A WEB DIRECTORY? DO YOU CONSIDER IT TO BE A LOCAL TELEPHONE INDEX OR YELLOW PAGES?

The answer is clearly A BIG NO. A web directory is neither a telephone directory now a yellow pages index. Its primary role is to help a site get indexed with search engines and help you rank high in them. Its secondary role is to provide selective catalog of quality websites listed by categories and subjects. So if some one thinks that a web directory would provide all the best web resources on the net, then Google will be out of market!!! as nobody would search Google if they find all their resources on a web directory.

Still –there are some directories that send exceptional traffic to listed sites. I recently checked the most popular sites one of the best directories online – Alive Directory — and the figure is astonishing -

Please check yourself. -

http://www.alivedirectory.com/index.php?list=top

How many visitors have those sites received and for how much? How much does it cost for to get visitor using Ad Wrods? How much SEO professional charges for marketing campaigns? Think carefully an calculate the benefits!

Now think !!- if you list in 50 quality web directories and take into account the direct traffic accumulated from them in an year –and the cost — you get your answer. Those traffic are flowing slowly but on a constant basis — all the year through. And they would keep flowing months after months –year after years.

Are we forgetting something here?

YES OFCOURSE.

We are forgetting the most important thing to list in web directories –the SERPs benefit you get. If you optimize with those 50 top quality directories -you are sure to rank on top for many keywords related to your site. And how much traffic you get from search engines?? Do you count that??

And while Adwords, viral marketing and other means of traffic generation need constant work, one has to just list once with a directory and pay a nominal review fee. If the site is of quality, then it has every chance that it gets listed on the said directory and keeps getting traffic years after years –albeit slow.

On the other hand – true quality directories could boost a site’s search engine ranking beyond imaginations. Please remember, no single directory can do it alone – not even DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, Business.com or even Google Directory. It more like “Little drops of water makes an Ocean together”: D

So web directories still ROCK – they are highly useful, effective and relevant –

Forget nay Sayers – get your strategy right, make a budget and try out my list of Authority Web Directories. The list is a personal one made on through research on all of them.

And please don’t forget my own Best Internet Resource - . Although it is still not in the top league – I can assure you that – it will join them in the near future.

PS: Just wanted to share my own technique of how I judge a quality web directory.

1. First thing I do is check the home-page PR. I like directories PR4+
2. Second thing (most important) – I check the Visual PR of the said directory. It does not matter what PR the pages have, if they have some sort of PR, then it is an established directory.
3. I then check its backlinks –and see what sites are linking to it. I use Linkvendor tool to do it.
4. I then check the listed sites in the directory. I look for the quality of the previously listed sites. If the directory has low quality sites listed – I avoid them.
5. Another very important thing to judge about a web directory is – how often the site is being indexed and if the page/category you are looking for is indexed. I believe that- a high quality site gets indexed more frequently than a low quality site.

Please also see what Matt Cuts has to say about quality web directories.

Sorry for such a long post – but being a career academician – I don’t know how to shorten my posts. I promise you – I’ll try my best to shorten my future posts.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 12:51 pm and is filed under SEO Articles, Web Directory Resources, Basic SEO Tips, Admin Note. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.