Submitting to Important Directories

Yahoo! Directory

Web site submission is $299 for express inclusion to the very important Yahoo! Directory. The fee is not refundable and it occurs every year. Once accepted, Yahoo! will place a link to the site in the directory. An editor will review the site for acceptance. Please make sure you read the guidelines carefully. If the site does not comply it will be rejected and the submission fee is gone. We believe that this is a directory you need to be in to create an effective search engine optimization strategy.

Don't try to save money in the wrong places. Web directories can mean the difference between your rankings and those of your competitors.

Web site submission to Yahoo! and other relevant directories is an essential step in a good search engine optimization strategy.

Try to stay away from directories that look more like link farms. See what their PageRank is and avoid them as your position could be negatively affected if they require a reciprocal link. Keep in mind that sites with a Pagerank of 0 could either be demoted sites or just new and waiting to get a score.

The Open Directory Project (ODP)

DMOZ is a directory manned by volunteer editors who do not get paid for their work. Submission is free and it is extremely important to submit there. The guidelines for posting your site need to be observed. If you submit to the wrong subdirectory or do not follow title and description properly, you web site might sit in the unreviewed queue for months or years. Worst case scenario, it could be deleted. The ODP has a forum where people can ask the editors questions. Until May 21st 2005, submitters were allowed to ask for status. Unfortunately this service has been discontinued. Keep in mind that some of the sub-directories are so overwhelmed with web sites waiting to be reviewed that it could take months to years to get listed. However, if acquired, a link at DMOZ is worth the wait.

Other Directories

There are other directories that at this time are not as important but still carry a weight that could tip the search engine optimization balance in one's favor. Microsoft bCentral is a fast growing directory which is fairly inexpensive to get in and that we particularly like. Business.com, which allows for up to four sub-pages of your web site to be linked to, is another favorite. Joeant, Gympsy and other smaller directories are help provide other relevant links to your web site for a relatively low cost.