Web Directories are similar to the yellow pages in your phone book. A Web directory provides pages for many different categories and on those pages they list Web sites that are relevant to that category.

Characteristics of Good Directories

Quality directories have the following characteristics:

a. Free submissions or editors activity adding Web sites

Having free submissions or editors that add up Web sites will increase the quality of the directory. Many times Web sites that are added via paid subscriptions are not the highest quality. Having a free subscription will give you the opportunity to review many more sites and pick the cream of the crop. Likewise when a directory has editors that search for and add up quality sites the directory will be of higher quality.

b. Large Number of Web Sites in each Category

While new Web directories will not have a high Web site to category ratio, established quality directories will. Having categories with one or two Web sites in them is not conducive to attracting searchers. The Web site to category ratio is an important matrix to look at in determining the value of a directory.

c. Large Number of Pages in Google, Yahoo, & MSN

The more quality pages a directory has in the search engine indexes the better the ranking and the more traffic that directory will receive. A directory with no pages in one or more search engines may be under a ban or a penalty. A directory with just a few pages could also mean a penalty or could just be a sign of a new directory.

d. Large Number of Backlinks in Google, Yahoo & MSN

In most cases the more quality inbound links a directory has the more click through traffic it will get. Also more inbound links gives better search engine rankings for the keywords in the anchor texts of the inbound links. A directory with just a few inbound links is either a new directory or one that has not been promoted well.

e. Low Alexa Ranking

The Alexa ranking is calculated by the number of people that visit a Web site with the Alexa toolbar installed and turned on. You can get the Alexa toolbar from www.alexa.com. Alexa's toolbar is not the best indicator of traffic as there are programs that will lower your Alexa ranking. Users going to Web sites that are more technical are more apt to have the Alexa toolbar on than non-technical sites. Therefore those Web sites are more apt to have a lower Aexa ranking even though they have less traffic. Yahoo has an Alexa ranking of 1.

f. Pagerank on Pages

Pagerank is Google's one to ten ranking system for Web pages. A high Pagerank used to be important when Pagerank had high Google search engine ranking weight. That has all changed now and most SEO experts hold that Pagerank doesn't matter for ranking. Pagerank it voted to your site from the inbound links you have. The higher the Pagerank of the inbound links and the greater the number of inbound links the higher the Pagerank your Web pages will get.
Pagerank can be viewed by installing the Google toolbar and turning on the Pagerank feature in the options. You can download the Google toolbar from toolbar.google.com. When Pagerank had high ranking weight some people determined the value of directory submissions by the PR the directory page had that your link was put on. This is no longer the case. While some cry that Pagerank is meaningless it does still serve some purpose. It is an indication of how many inbound links you have and how many inbound links the pages that your inbound links are from have. It also can let you know when a site has a penalty or a ban. If a directory all of a sudden goes from a PR6 to a PR0 on the home page there is a good chance the site is under a ban or penalty. Even if the PR6 home page drops down to lets say a PR3 and the other pages on the directory are a PR5 or PR6 it is an indication that there maybe a penalty in effect. To sum up, Pagerank has little or no ranking weight but it is a indicator of number of backlinks and indicates when a site has a ban or a penalty with Google.

g. In DMOZ and Yahoo Directories

If a directory is in the DMOZ and Yahoo directories this is a good sign. Yahoo cost $299 and both a free Yahoo free inclusion and a DMOZ inclusion are hard to get. Having a directory in both Yahoo and DMOZ directories is an indication of quality.

Just be careful in selecting the right directories as time and money are valuable resources.

We hope that the afore mentioned points will help you in making a wise decision.