What are directory submission sites?
Directory submission is an off-page SEO strategy of submitting your website URL on the web in a directory under a particular category. You write an articulate description of your site while submitting your specific URL to the web directories.
If you remember, in the old days when technology was not so adopted, we all used telephone directories to search individuals’ phone numbers along with addresses. Directory submission is also based on the same concept. Now we can find any information and other details of any listed business by searching on these Directory Submission sites.
- What are directory submission sites?
- Why are Directory Submission Sites Important in SEO?
- Types of Directory Submission Sites
- Top 5 things to consider while doing directory submission
- Do’s and Don’ts of Directory Submission Sites
- How to do Directory Submission for SEO?
- High DA Dofollow Directory Submission Sites List 2023
- How to find Niche Directory on Google?
- Conclusion on Web Directory Submission Sites
- FAQs About Web Directory Submission Sites for SEO
Why are Directory Submission Sites Important in SEO?
For the last many years, directory submission is a popular SEO marketing strategy. Bloggers and website owners widely use directory submission sites to build links and increase brand visibility. For the last seven years, directory submission sites are heavily spammed by marketers and have exploited these sites only for the sake of link building.
Now, with thousands of Google algorithm updates, not all the directory submission sites are useful.
Other Benefits of directory submission sites are;
- Directory submission sites help your site in acquiring quality and relevant backlinks.
- Directory submission sites improve domain authority and your business’s online brand visibility.
- With an increase in DA and do-follow backlinks, directory submission sites improve the keywords ranking and webpage traffic.
- Directory submission sites help your blog posts and URLs faster indexing on search engines like Google.
Note: It is better to check the web directory domain authority & spam score before submitting your site to any directory submission sites. You can check this using the Moz bar chrome extension.
Directory Submission Sites Types
There are eight essential types of directory submission sites through which you can get quality do-follow links.
Free Directory Submission
I believe that if anything is free, it can not bring more value. The same goes with these free directory submission sites. They are very easily accessible, but there is no guarantee of quality results. Before 2016, it is widely a spammy link-building technique, but now it is massive worthless. Also, there is a high probability that the administrator of these free web directory submission sites will not give the nod to your link submission. Hence you need to be very selective while performing link building on these free directory submission sites.
Paid Directory Submission
Here in paid directory submission sites, you pay some amount to the administrator to submit your business profile. The prices of these paid directory submission sites can be annual or lifetime. It is the quickest and hustles free way to acquire high-quality backlinks for your site.
Reciprocal Directory Submission
In Reciprocal directory submission, you need to add a link on your site & after that, your links will be approved by the directory’s administrator. But I suggest not to even try reciprocal directory submission.
Automatic Directory Submission
Automatic directory submission allows you to enter your business profile in bulk. With the help of software and tools, you can use them to submit these directories. But you should avoid doing it in bulk. Google bots may consider it spam.
Manual Directory Submission
Here is manual directory submission; you perform all the tasks on your own. It can be any directory submission sites such as niche directory submission, no-follow, or do-follow directory submission sites.
Nofollow Directory Submission
Year by year, no-follow links are becoming irrelevant, as they failed to get the expected results. Google and other search engines do not consider no-follow links as a ranking factor. No-follow links have significantly less impact on improving keywords ranking and the site’s domain authority.
Until you find a very quality website, you should ignore creating no-follow links.
Dofollow Directory Submission
Every website owner wants a do-follow link, mostly when he/she spends resources, time, and money. And it’s noticeable that Google and other search engines do not consider no-follow, UGC links, or sponsored links as a ranking factor.
Dofollow directory submission sites help your sites to improve keyword ranking and traffic on the web. The more you acquire do-follow links from these do-follow directory submission sites, the more domain authority you get.
Niche Directory Submission
Niche directory submission is one of the most crucial directory submissions in RSS feeds, script and software, blogs, web hosting companies, Web designers, SEO companies, and other online businesses in its functional domain.
As the name suggests, niche directory submission deals in particular niches. That makes it more relevant and way better than other general directory submission sites.
Niche directory submission boosts keyword ranking and traffic on SERPs.
Top 5 things to consider while doing directory submission
Here are some tips and recommendations that you should consider while doing directory submission. Directory submissions are fruitful only if done in the right way, so always read these guidelines before you start directory submissions until these are not fixed in the brain.
- Make sure the web directory that you about to list your site to, itself is indexed and cached by major search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, etc. As it is worthless listing your site to the directory that itself is not indexed.
- Never use automated submission tools to submit your website to directories. It will not only be just a waste of money but also, will take away the SEO value of your site. Therefore, manually submit your site to each directory or you can also use the services of a manual directory submission service provider.
- Create keyword-friendly title and descriptions (but don’t overdo it). Target terms like your brand name, main keyword, exact match domain name, related keywords, synonyms of main keywords, long-tail keywords, etc.
- Directory submission is important but not enough. So, use other link building techniques as well like infographic submission, social bookmarking, article submission, guest blogging, etc.
- Choose an appropriate category and submit your site to various types of directories like general, niche, regional, country-specific, industry-specific, premium directories, etc.
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Do’s and Don’ts of Directory Submission Sites
While using Directory Submission Sites for your website submission, make sure you follow the below-mentioned do’s and don’ts.
Do’s of Directory Submission Sites
Here are a few do’s of free directory submission sites. So make sure to follow them while submitting your site or blog to these directory submission sites.
- As mentioned in the above section, be sure whether the leading search engine index and cache the directory or not.
- 1. Create a list in Excel file with directories having high Domain Authority (DA) as the quality is better than quantity. Therefore, submit your site to directories with high DA only as quality directories can push up your site to higher search engines.
- 2. Submit the site/blog to popular directories as it brings traffic and the kind of backlinks that will enhance your site’s optimization process.
- 3. Have a look at a site that offers analytical questions and a unique category structure before listing, which helps create info when you submit your site into categories. This will help you in locating relevant information in a quick time.
- 4. Check the outbound links on the category link pages. This will get you the real picture and insights on how effective this site would be for your submission.
- 5. Every directory almost has different rules and regulations, so read and follow each Directory Submission site’s guidelines.
- 6. Every Directory Submission site offers a wide array of categories from which you should pick a relevant one for listing your website. If you submit to inappropriate or unrelated categories, your site can be rejected or removed.
- 7. Always use an appropriate and relevant title and description. The title must have the main targeted keyword in the anchor text. Write a description with the focal keywords of that page. But don’t overstuff your keywords in the description.
- 8. Include the keywords you are trying to target in your anchor text, but don’t make them spammy. Don’t be repetitive with the anchor text and description against every link. Target different keywords and change the description slightly in every link.
- 9. Always prefer manual submission and avoid using automated tools and software. Always prefer manual submission. If you submit websites to directories daily, you can use Roboform for autofill password protection with an end-to-end encryption feature.
- 10. Check your approval status and keep track of your submissions regularly. Many free directory submission sites don’t approve instantly. Also, some sites charge to submit your sites.
PRO TIP: Maintain a proper document (Excel file) for your future references. Documentation will guide you on whether your SEO efforts are going in the right direction or not. Also, it makes it easy and quick to submit individual web pages on the same directories as you already have updated DA, guidelines, and behavior of the site.
Don’ts of Directory Submission Sites
Here are a few don’ts of free directory submission sites. So make sure to strictly follow the below-mentioned protocols while using Directory Submission sites.
- 1. A directory that uses the ‘rel=no follow’ attribute for your link won’t return any significant help for campaign optimization. Search engines will unable to follow your website link. Even redirects will fail to deliver backlinks for the site as well.
- 2. Avoid link farms, dangerous neighborhoods, and Free-For-All (FFA) links as they can harm your site.
- 3. If the directory approves a site without reviewing it manually, then I would suggest not to submit the site to those directories. Because such sites may use some automated scripts to do the same.
- 4. Never submit similar URLs or URLs with similar content as there could be other sites in the directory using the same URLs.
- 5. Refrain from submitting your sites to mirror sites as they contain similar URLs and contents.
- 6. Some directories don’t accept sites you submitted once in the same month. Few sites may accept this but most of the directories display an error message, “Domain already exists in the directory”. If you are not listed, rethink your submission, drill down to a deeper, more relevant category and resubmit.
- 7. If the sites have overlapping or repetitive content, then they are not helpful to users of the directory. Multiple submissions of the related sites may result in the exclusion or deletion of that site and other affiliated sites.
- 8. Never hide your submission or in case if you have submitted your URL more than once then sending https://www.domain.org and https://www.domain.org/index.html is considered malpractice.
- 9. If the site contains incomplete, under construction notice or broken graphics/links then don’t submit such sites to a directory. Wait until the site is fully live and ready-to-use.
- 10. If the site with an address redirects to another address, then don’t submit that site to a directory.
How to do Directory Submission for SEO?
Now the question is how do I submit a website to a directory? You can follow these simple steps to submit a site to the web directories.
Before you make your submission to any Directory Submission site, you need to perform some simple pre-submission tasks which would make your submission rather effortless. Use a notepad to save the following file types-
- Your website URL
- Address, Email, and contact information
- Title of your site
- A brief description of your site
- A brief description of your webpage
- Keywords
Once you are ready with these, find the best-performing directory sites available on the web (Choose the directory site from the sheet mentioned below- it is updated for 2023). Remember, your choice of Directory site must have a high DA.
For your ease, prepare an excel file with directory site name/URL, DA, Status, Guidelines. So that while you are submitting to the directory you are updated with the sites for your future reference as well.
Now, the groundwork has been completed.
Let’s follow the step-by-step guide on how to submit website to directories.
Step 1: Open the directory site and find the options like Submit/ Submit website/ Add website etc.
Step 2: Most of the Directory Submission sites offer a free and paid version of the submission, so choose as per your preference. Avoid reciprocal directory submission. If you are looking for free submissions and select a free option. Now, choose a relevant category for your submission. If possible try to pick extremely relevant categories by selecting a preferable sub-category that’s relevant to the industry you are in.
Step 3: Once you found the appropriate category/sub-category on the submission site, fill in your details like URL, Title, Description, Keywords, and if provided other contact details.
Step 4: Submit your website by clicking on the buttons like “submit blog”, “click on submit your site” etc.
Step 5: Now, You will receive a confirmation mail after your submission is made. So, go to your email mentioned in the details and verify the confirmation to complete the directory submission process.
Note1
Some of the directory sites just ask for email and the URL for submission, so other details are not required.
Note2
Most of the directory submission sites pop up for manual approval, links in the queue, pending status, approved, etc. So, make sure to update the status in your excel file to keep a check on the submission status.
Example of Directory Site: somuch.com (I am giving you a demo on how to submit a site here):
Check Directory Site is indexed or not (as mentioned in the “Top 5 things to consider while doing directory submission” section above)
Open a site: https://somuch.com/submit-links/, read & agree to guidelines and tips and click continue.
Enter all the details to submit your site/web-page to the directory submission site and click submit
Now, confirm your email id from your email box and update the status if it’s approved or will get a manual review.
High DA Dofollow Directory Submission Sites List 2023
How to find Niche Directory on Google?
You should be very careful while picking the web directories for listing your site. Selecting a writing web directory submission can hurt your site’s ranking and traffic.
Here is the best way to find the web directory submission sites list from Google for your niche/industry;
- “Keyword” intitle:directory inurl:php (for instant submission directories)
- “Keyword” inurl: “directory.”
- “Keyword” in title: “directory” “submit.”
- “Keyword” in URL: “directory” “submit.”
- “Keyword” in the title: “submit URL.”
- “Keyword” in the title: “submit *review.”
- “Keyword” in the title: “Submit a site.”
Wrong Ways of Performing Web Directory Submissions- You Must Avoid while Performing Directory Submission Sites Listing
- Submit your site or page URL on banned web directory submission sites.
- Do not submit your website to the wrong category just for gainful listings.
- Remember, never make submissions on web directories in bulk. Not to spam a directory.
- Make sure the website information and physical address you provide are correct.
- Many directory submission sites will ask you to exchange the links. They will ask to link back or banners on your site. Having badges and sitewide linkbacks to the directories can harm your site’s SEO score.
So always stay safe. Again, Prevention is always better than cure!!!
Conclusion on Web Directory Submission Sites
I hope you find this article helpful. All these directory site lists are well researched and updated in January 2023 after Google’s core web vital updates in December 2020.
Blog directories are one of the most popular off-page SEO techniques to get backlinks and traffic.
If submissions are made correctly, web directories or blog directories sites to boost your site’s domain authority, online presence, ranking, and traffic.
You should also take care of another side of web directory submissions in excitement. If you do it in bulk without caring about your niche or industry, then your site’s SEO score and ranking will get hurt. If you do any spammy or wrong off-page SEO practice, you may even lose your site’s existing ranking and traffic.
Now, it’s your turn to share your suggestions. Let me know if I missed out on any critical web directory submission sites.
If you have any queries or need any help, leave your thoughts in the comment box. I try to reply to almost every comment.
FAQs About Web Directory Submission Sites for SEO
Does directory submission still work?
Yes! The directory submission sites still work for website owners. It helps them in getting backlinks, ranking, and traffic. But, it happens when you properly make directory submission. Otherwise, it is massive worthless.
What is the directory on the website?
A web directory or link directory is an online list or catalog of websites. It is a directory on the World Wide Web. Besides a link, each entry may include the website’s title and a description of its contents. In most web directories, the entries are about whole websites rather than individual pages within them (called “deep links).
How do I create backlinks from directory submission?
By following above mentioned simple steps of submitting a website to a directory, you can create high-quality backlinks from directory submission.
What makes the right directory?
Suppose any directory submission site has high domain authority. In that case, a massive audience base and a lot of activities are going on there, then it is considered as a useful directory submission site. Moreover, you should always look for a web directory submission site related to your niche and give you do-follow links.
How do I create an online directory?
Choose the type of directory you want to launch. Then you can hire a technology partner such as a website developer who can build your directory script.
Now, you can define your top Level and sub-level categories. Based on your business model, you can create your pricing plans and membership levels. Now, you can either make or import your first listings.
All done!
Here you are all set to create, optimize, and market your content and start.
Are directories good for SEO?
Yes! If the online web directory sites have high authority, are relevant to your industry, and provide you do-follow links, then, off-course, your site’s DA, traffic, keyword, and page ranking will improve.
Thank you so much for sharing an amazing Directory submissions sites.
Thanks for sharing directory submission sites, in your blog.
Thank you for sharing an amazing Directory submissions sites.I really appreciated you for sharing us a good opportunity to rank site quickly. once again thanks.
Yours Welcome, Abdul. Enjoy the learning and keep growing.
This is super helpful. Thank you!
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