How Do Web Directories Work?

A Simple Guide to Directory Submissions

Do local web directories improve local leads and website traffic?

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A Simple Guide to Directory Submissions

In the digital marketing realm, the theme of a website refers to a business or idea it represents online. Making an online portal which is a brand’s official website successful goes beyond fancy Internet graphics and relevant online content.

In the digital marketing world, you, as a business owner, must build an effective company website together with your digital marketing team by including essential elements that make it easy for your target audience to find it. Even this condition may still need more publicity.

Promoting your brand’s official site involves different online and offline activities. This educational online post will explore directory submissions as an example of the latter.

Directory Submissions – an Overview

In the field of search engine optimisation or SEO, directory submission describes the optimisation process of submitting your site URL or webpage address to a web directory. The goal is usually to help generate outsider Internet links for your brand’s official website.

Web directories are in categories based on different themes. Which one you submit your URL to should reflect what your company website represents.

Types of Directory Submissions

There are three main types of directory submissions: free, paid, and reciprocal-regular listing. These kinds have their unique attributes. Therefore, it is significant that you learn about the main differences between these three primary kinds of directory submissions to know which kind suits your company operations best:

Free Listing

This type of directory submission includes submitted URLs or webpage addresses in their directories for free. You should note that it has negligible effects on the relevance of your included website. There is also no guarantee that the site administrator will even include your link due to the volume of directory submissions they consider.

Paid Listing

Paid listing is a kind of directory submission that is also known as featured listing, in which your URL gets approved by a site administrator 24 hours after submission. The effect of such a directory on your brand’s official website ranking is massive. Moreover, a paid listing justifies the competition between URLs to get included.

Reciprocal Regular Listing

These directories keep track of two or more Internet links that point to each other. The websites involved achieve this end through an agreement. You, therefore, submit a reciprocal link when submitting your URL to the directory.

Why Should You Submit Your Brand’s Official Site to a Directory?

Directory submission is a simple online marketing technique with several benefits. Below are some of the reasons why you should include your company’s official website in directories:

Fast Indexing

Indexing is a way to organise websites using titles, keywords, or any content summary element. Web directories create these indexes based on search parameters. Online search engines such as Bing and Google save time using these indexes instead of crawling through every page.

Increased Link Popularity

The number of backlinks to your company’s official website determines its link popularity. Having it in a web directory adds a backlink based on the category and a general one from the listing itself.

Higher Page Rank

Online search engine algorithms use web directory listings in ranking pages. They also include other factors like link popularity in their calculation. Effective directory submission sets your brand’s official website up with all these elements to get it to rank higher on pages.

Increased Traffic

Statistics show that the first five results on a Google search page account for 67.6 per cent of all Internet user clicks related to a search term. Page rank affects the amount of traffic a website gets. Including your URL or webpage address in a web directory will increase your website traffic by increasing your page rank.

Method of Directory Submission

The following steps describe how you can submit your URL to a web directory:

1. Select a collection of popular directory submission sites.
2. Filter the list by identifying those that are relevant to your brand’s official website.
3. Choose the categories that are appropriate for the URL you want to submit.
4. Enter your URL and any additional information, such as title and description. This information can be compulsory or optional based on the directory.
5. Check your details to ensure that everything is all right before you submit.

Note that these measures work well when they are location-specific.

To illustrate, directory submissions in the USA should not use similar listings in other countries.

So, directory submissions in Australia per se will be most effective for directories in that location.

Conclusion

The directory listing’s administrator assesses your directory submission to ensure it meets its criteria. A notification will be sent to you to tell you whether your entry gets approved.

Rejected entries will include reasons why so you can correct them. You can always make another submission.