subject: The Advantages You Can Get From Using Web Directory Submissions [print this page] What is a Web Directory and what is all the fuss about submissions?
A web directory, which is also sometimes called link directory, is a website on the World Wide Web that specializes in linking different sites, which are sorted according to various categories and subcategories to get the most out of its usage.
It is not at all like a search engine that displays lists on a per page basis with a given set of keywords. Instead, a directory lists website categories and subcategories based on the whole website and sites are often limited to inclusion in only a few categories. Website owners are allowed to directly submit their site for inclusion. Before it is placed under a particular category, submissions are manually checked and subjected to the editors review for relevance and appropriateness.
These submission bears a lot of resemblance to reciprocal link building in that both methods have the same goal of increasing your web traffic. However, these submissions are a lot simpler than the reciprocal link building method.
Free Web Directory vs. Paid
Paid directories are as the name implies, charges a certain fee for the website to be added to its list. As soon as payment is made, listings will instantaneously be added to their database, and likewise posted immediately on the specific website under the specified category.
Free directories, on the other hand, basically goes through the same process. If you get down to it and check the service out, you will find out that it works out just fine. It may, however, take some time before your submission gets posted on their site, only because these sites receive thousands of submissions daily and it is no mean task to review and check each one out in just one day.
What Do You Get When You Make Submissions to a Web Directory?
As has been reiterated, the major benefit that you can get from web directory submission is the boost to site traffic, which might not be quite instant but the results will become prevalent in due course. A gradual but transparent swell in your site's popularity will manifest as more people gain access to your link on a wide range of web directories all over the Internet.
The great thing about it is most major search engines use web directory listings that are edited by humans/real people, in their criteria for page ranking; this virtually gives you the edge in search engine outcomes. Another grand advantage is the fact that web directories are also manually listed by human editors and data encoders that in that level alone, your site will have already gained recognition among prominent individuals across the Internet and becomes exposed to numerous web crawlers.
A number of specific software are obtainable to check the progress of the rise in your site traffic after you have submitted your link to web directories. This software allows you to view and monitor your page rank, Goggle rank, or Alexa rank, which should give you a fairly good idea on how your site fares in the popularity hierarchy.
Do not ever forget that web directory submission is just one of the methods of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that you can apply for the benefit of your website traffic. Think of how many times over you can multiply your target popularity; you can really raise your expectations to the max, if you simultaneously combine it with other methods.