Internet Directories & Other Free Marketing Methods

[jstonewell]

Hi!

What are your experiences about internet directories?

Have they been successful in bringing traffic to your site?
Have they affected your Google page rank?

[corte1]

Internet directories are an important part of generating traffic for your website but probably not in the way you might think.

At one time, people used directories as a way of quickly drilling down to interested websites. Nowadays, human edited directories just can't keep up with the automated spiders of the major search engines.

The value of a link from a directory is the inpointing link it provides to your site - not the traffic it provides, which is generally pretty low.

Google and the other major search engines take a look at the number of outside links that point into your site as a way to measure your website "credibility." This is known as Link Popularity.

So yes, it is important to work to get your site listed at various directories. In addition, I also recommend you find themed directories and niche hubs related to the topic of your website. The search engines actually measure the relevance of incoming links and if your links are coming from sites that have no relevance to your website theme, they won't do you any good (and may hurt your rankings.)

[caseyturton]

Hi:

I agree with the previous poster that directories in and of themself won't open floodgates of traffic to your site. However, using the "you never know where your next customer comes from" theory, it's a good move to include your site in directories and forums like this. Make sure you're not enrolling in a "link farm" that could create ranking issue for you. Also, review the directory before registering. Does it fit your business? Any competitors in there? Do they appear prominent in SERPs (search engine results pages)?

I've compiled a big list of directories, which you can download here. It's free:

http://www.digitalbusinesservices.co...irectories.pdf

Enjoy and Good Luck.

[XWS Chris]

These two are pretty much totally right. I'm not sure if I've ever gotten a hit from a directory directly, Xion isn't exactly great for placing on alphabetical listings, but a couple basic laws of internet marketing apply to directories and definitely help. 1) The more links/exposure, the higher chance you have of getting hits 2) search engines love links to your site. As with all things of this nature I only have two things to say it's free and it's easy, so go for it.

Also, thank you Casey for the directories list, gave me a lot of extra directories to submit to.

[viper_one]

Yeah, it is hard enough to get hits from forums, let alone dead directories. I've found that some directories on the topic that I host my blog, have volunteered my link in their site. The results are weak even though the've provided more than rank and serial number reference to my site. But, I have found that sporadic links are worthwile for traffic generation. If you arn't too worried about what Google thinks of them.

[redmascot]

Although directories have lost much of its popularity but still it gives our website more visibility ,as far as traffic is concerned i agree that its contribution would be very small.

[CirtexHosting]

I would like to add in your consideration also article dirrectories and submission to them.
Links from there are really relevant ones + if your article ids good you can hope for the trafic

[Sesimi]

Directories are good places to increase your back links.
Before you start submitting on mass, not all directories are built a like!
First, take a look at directories that serve your industry, plus find one's that serve your local area.
Check if the page your listing will be on has any page rank or if the links are "nofollowed", and can you use custom anchor text?

[ilexx]

Thanks for the list of directories.. I can definitely make use of those.

[StephanieCox]

You never know where your next website vistor will come from, thanks for the list of directories!