Paid Directory Submissions
There are thousands of Web page directories on the internet. A link directory is a large website with links broken down by specific categories. Most of these directories provide you a link to include your website in the category of your choice for FREE or for a paid placement. Obviously, the FREE sounds better, but sometimes a paid listing can add much more value to your rankings. Here are a list of my 10 favorite (important) Paid directories that you should have your website listed on:
- http://dir.yahoo.com
- http://botw.org
- http://www.business.com
- http://www.joeant.com
- http://www.wowdirectory.com
- http://www.gimpsy.com
- http://www.site-sift.com
- http://uncover.com
- http://sbd.bcentral.com
- http://www.skaffe.com
The reason I listed Yahoo first is because it is by far the largest and most visited directory on the web. Yahoo offers free submissions for noncommercial categories and an annual subscription of $299 for all other categories. Although inclusion is not always guaranteed even if you pay, most of the time everyday sites are approved with-in 7 days. In order to stay listed, you must continue to pay $299 per year.
The Best of the Web directory was listed second, because it has been around 1994, and was one of the first directories on the Web. They offer free category sponsorship for 60 days and then provide you options to get listed in their directory for a fee. To get your website reviewed and listed on BOTW, you have the choice of paying a onetime fee of $239.95 or a annual rate of $79.95.
The Monster of all Directories is “The Open Directory Project”, also known as DMOZ. Located at www.dmoz.org, DMOZ is one of the most respected directories on the Web. You can submit your site for FREE into any of their categories, however the human editors are extremely selective in who they accept. They look at things like domain age, links, content, theme, keywords, and so many other variables. There have even been rumors that the editors receive hundreds of dollars in bribes daily, just to get a website into their directory. That is how important the DMOZ directory is.
So to summarize, focus on the directories that have been around for at least 5 years, possess a large number of backlinks, and have a high Google PageRank.