Free Directories: Are They Really Worth the Time?
Posted by Mike | Filed under Link Building
Free web directories are great sources of FREE inbound links for your website. You may submit to as many directories as you want, as long as your site meets the directories’ requirements. There are many people who just collect a list of these directories and submit their sites to each of them without even thinking if the directories can really help their sites.
As I have said before, not all links will aid in giving you higher search engine rankings but not one link can hurt your site’s standings. So why not just submit to all of the directories? Because there are some directories which are not worth your time. Instead of submitting to them, you could just add content to your site, promote and sell your products or do something more productive.
So how can I determine if a directory is worth submitting to? In this post, I’ll give some characteristics of directories which can really help you attain higher rankings.
Directories which are of high quality and can aid you in acquiring better search engine rankings for your site possess the following:
A good number of indexed pages - Any site which has a good number of indexed pages always has an advantage over other sites which have a lower number of indexed pages. The more indexed pages your site has, the more visible it is to the world.
Also keep in mind that when dealing with directories, you get backlinks from the page of the category that you submitted your site to. So, if the directory has a lot of pages which are listed in the search engines, you have a higher chance of getting backlinks from pages which the search engines are aware of.
Links which do NOT have the “nofollow” attribute - It’s okay if the owners of premium directories which receive high amounts of traffic per day and send you some people would put the “nofollow” attribute on the links, but free directories whose purpose is to give you backlinks and to help your site get indexed should NOT have the “nofollow” attribute on links. Why? Very simple. It’s because the purpose of the directory is defeated once the said attribute is attached to the links. 
SEO-friendly URLs - Directories which have these would help you in getting higher SE rankings. Here’s a question for you so that you can understand this concept better:
If you were to choose, which URL would you like your link to be in?
A. http://www.directory-url.tld/Games/Puzzles/Logic_Puzzles/
B. http://www.directory-url.tld/category.php?id=09
I think ALL of you will choose option A because the URL will definitely give a ‘boost’ to your site’s rankings.
A high chance of staying online for a long period of time - What’s the use of links if they’ll be gone a day after they were added? Of course you have to consider the longevity of the directory. To check this, see if the owner maintains another website. If his other site has a lot of readers, then you can be assured that the directory will be taken care of. If the webmaster doesn’t have another site, check if the listings are of high quality. That way, you can assume that the directory will live long.
Well, that’s all for now! Thanks for reading this and I hope that this article added gave you some additional information. As always, if you have something to add, feel free to leave a comment. 
