Are Directories Worth It?

I get these automatic announcements listing people needing a writer. Often they want something like twenty-four 500 word articles on various subjects each week in perfect English on a variety of topics for $10 a week, and they want you to know they'll be running it through a plagiarism screen, or a 300 page e-book, with the possibility of earning up to $80 if it sells well! Or maybe they need someone to write fake reviews of products under several different names, or papers with perfect grammar on a variety of academic subjects for sale to students.

But arguably the most depressing ones ask for Top Quality Linkbuilders to get Premium Quality One Way links for their dubious products at one cent per verified link. Frequently these ads specify NO DIRECTORIES.

Now, I don't know what kind of person, let alone what kind of business, can place an ad like this without shame. But they clearly are ignorant when it comes to SEO. Directories are basics of foundational linkbuilding.

For one thing, people use them. Phonebooks are directories. The internet has replaced the phonebook in most households, and folks who are going to their computers to look for something they used to find in the phone book really don't want a nice collection of articles and blog posts mentioning Italian restaurants in their town. They want a list, organized in some useful way. In other words, they want a directory.

Directories have gotten a bad name because there are so many that aren't really directories at all. That page with eye doctors in the UK, Malaysian pet stores, and Russian mail-order brides among the 171 links? Not a directory. That's just a link farm.

How can you tell which directories are worth your time? Here are some questions to ask to determine whether you've chosen a good directory:

• Is it relevant to your business? Teacher Sourcebook is a fantastic choice for my education-related clients, sending plenty of traffic even with free listings. Lists of health sites at schools and libraries were great for an alternative medicine blogger I did a linkbuilding campaign for. Directories of handmade jewelry sites will appeal to people who actually want to buy handmade jewelry. Relevant lists will not only give you more value for search, but they will also send traffic, since those are the directories people turn to most often.


• Are there humans involved? I get a fair amount of traffic from blog directories. Yesterday I submitted my blog to Bloglisting.net. Almost immediately, I had a response asking for a reply to the email. You know I do this a lot for various clients, so I get lots of "click to verify" emails, and I figured this was just one more. I wrote a thank you message, of course -- I always do, just in case a human being sees it -- and right away I got back another email. It suggested that mentioning the URL of my blog would make it easier for the writer to find it. An actual human being! This level of proof is unusual, but watch for "human edited" and other signs that sentient beings are involved in the directory. It makes it far more likely that your listing will be placed where people will find it.


• Is it a respectable site? PageRank is a good indicator at least in some cases, but actually looking at the site is strongly recommended. The student health page at a university website is so much better for your business's reputation than the Saucy Co-eds page at wurldsbestestwebsites! On a less obvious level, an actual local business directory will be more beneficial to you than a fake one -- you can tell the difference by the number of actual local businesses listed. Automatic directory submissions not only won't allow you to judge the quality of the sites you're considering, they also won't get you links at the worthwhile ones.

So put the time into getting your business listed in the right directories. Then watch to see which ones send you traffic, and consider paid listings with them.
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