Directory Blog - web directories that are worthwhile

What are Web Directories?

2008-10-06T15:29:00.001Z

For many of us trying to remember various web site addresses can be a challenge or maybe you don’t know what web address you are after. It was for this reason that search engines were brought about to make it easier for us to find what we need on the Internet.

Search engines however no longer remain the only way of finding a specific web address. We are seeing an ever growing convenience in the form of web directories. A web directory is a place used to list web site addresses. They specialise in linking to web sites and categorising links. A web directory is not a search engine, it doesn’t display web sites based on a keyword search; a web directory lists sites by category.

An example of a well established web directory is Yahoo! Directory. There are thousands of directories available to you across the Internet. Most of these directories are broad and cover varies subject areas, meaning you can get web site addresses for pretty much any topic that you need them on. There are also smaller directories available across the Internet; these directories are known as niche directories, meaning that they specialise in a specific area of interest such as computer technology. Although these directories are smaller they will provide you with more specialist links that you would probably otherwise not found.

Although the general look of a web directory isn’t of great importance as long as the links are working correctly you can come across some directories that are better established. These are the type of directories that you will probably find most helpful as they will provide you with more information than just a web link. On these you will find a page dedicated to a web link and on this page you will find information about the site as well as screen shots of the web site. This will ultimately prove to be of great help to you when you are looking for a specialist website as it will save you time due to the fact you won’t have to open numerous web pages until you find a site that you want as you will be able to preview the site before hand.

Also if you have an established website and you want to bring in some more traffic you can submit your website to a web directory site in order for it to be placed on the web directory. Your site will then be checked to ensure the content is of valid information and in order for it to be categorised.

Another form of a web directory are article directories. These are sites that are built for the purpose of people submitting their articles to them for free in order to get their work seen by others or as a way of marketing a website for SEO purposes. These article directories contain large amounts of useful content which is free to use by anyone. Many website owners use these articles as a way of increasing the keywords of their websites in SEO terms.

Helen is the web master of Article Alley, specialists in all of your Article Directory needs.

HR Web Directory

2007-02-20T22:25:00.000Z

http://www.hrwebdir.org/dir646.htm an interesting little directory with a scoring system - I posted article alley and we scored 7/10 which I am happy with.

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Link for ever

2007-01-08T10:24:00.000Z

http://www.linkforever.net/Internet/Directories/Article_Directories/
A good directory for a change - really like the look and feel of this one - so posted articlealley and accidentconsult there.

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New directory

2006-07-04T22:35:00.000Z

http://www.freeinclusion.com using the www.directorygeneral.com style script.

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Business Directory

2006-06-04T22:31:00.000Z

http://www.business-directory-uk.co.uk/law.htm could be good for www.goinglegal.com ?

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Duker

2006-06-04T22:00:00.000Z

http://www.dukersearch.com/

Another possible candidate.

A

2006-06-04T08:49:00.000Z

http://www.addurldirectory.com/ - lists sites wanting link exchanges

http://www.greatnexus.com/forums/about2458.html a good post worth looking at more carefully.

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Earthlook

2006-06-04T08:38:00.000Z

http://www.earthlook.com/suggest.php?action=addlink&catid=384 another potential one for the list.

Adrian

r-tt

2006-06-04T08:18:00.000Z

http://directory.r-tt.com/Submit_URL/Reciprocal_Link/

Looks to be worth the recip link

Indexplex DMOZ submission

2006-04-29T11:59:00.001Z

Indexplex was submitted to http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/

Adrian

Indexplex DMOZ submission

2006-04-29T11:59:00.000Z

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/

Business Web Directories

2006-04-02T20:09:00.000Z

Business Web Directories

Author: Adrian Lawrence

Business Web DirectoriesAn important tool in organizing and presenting the plethora of websites available on the internet is the use of Directories – an alternative to Search Engines that links and categorizes sites on the web. The main advantage to Directories as opposed to Search Engines is that directories are edited by humans, whereas search engines simply return automated results based on keywords which may not always be the most effective way to quickly find a website that is apropos to the topic being searched for. Websites are submitted to directories by the webmaster, where they are reviewed by neutral editors, evaluated, sorted into categories, and ranked within category according to relevance. They are then listed in a directory form that is simple to read and navigate for the average browser. For a website to create and maintain high web visibility – and therefore attract a high number of visitors – it is essential to be listed in a number of quality Directories.

The best known directories are Yahoo, Dmoz and Google, but it is worth being aware of the quality of the directory before submitting a site. The average browser will not explore beyond the second or, at most, third page of directory results for their searched for topic, but if the Directory is not of quality some websites listed in those all-important first few pages may not deserve to be there. The usefulness of Directories to return appropriate search results to be valuable to a site is under debate.If links are being sold across the entire site, that may be indication of a lower quality Directory. Google is one of the worst culprits for targeting sites that sell links, and sites that appear to promote the Google page rank of their pages. This may not be indicative of how relevant a site is to the topic searched for – it is all too easy for crafty webmasters to manipulate keyword SEO to gain a higher Google page rank than their site deserves.

This is time-wasting and frustrating for browsers, and may result in them losing patience with the Directory all together. Another common problem with Directories to be avoided is that pages within the site may be linked only internally and not to other, relevant, quality, external pages. Search Engines will not find such pages if they are low on keyword content and they will be skipped over entirely.Dmoz, the Open Directory Project (ODP,) editors are volunteers – they are naturally third-party neutral and will review and consider each submitted website on its own merits. Each editor applicant is screened for any conflict of interest, so any search results returned by Dmoz Directories can generally be trusted. The main downside to submitting a website to Dmoz is that the submission process can be interminable – although ultimately worth it in terms of relevant traffic directed to any website included in their directory.

The Yahoo! Directory rivals Dmoz for size and comprehensiveness, and was in fact Yahoo’s initial reason for existence. It has since evolved away from the fundamental classic human edited format of Directories, by instituting crawler-based listings in 2002, but remains a quality Directory that can be trusted. The Yahoo! Directory is very clearly displayed on its homepage. LookSmart, and Zeal – LookSmart’s non commercial arm – are other famous examples of quality directories.For a website to be listed in a trustworthy Directory such as Dmoz or Yahoo! can be one of the most important quality-assurance seals of approval and can be the essential difference between focused and relevant traffic to the site and random hits by frustrated browsers.

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Adrian Lawrence is the webmaster of Allthebizz a very popular business web directory covering a wide range of topics
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This article is free for republishing

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com

Topic Directory

2006-03-23T10:12:00.000Z

http://www.topicdirectory.com/internet/web_hosting.html

Featured Topic Resource:
This featured resource spot is avalible for Web Hosting relevant sites. Add Url

Topic Directory Definition: Web Hosting
A business providing hardware and services to maintain, store, and present Web sites and provide Internet connection to those sites.

Not sure if this is any good - it was listed for 6 mts but didn't get picked up by Google.

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Nice directory

2006-03-15T16:04:00.000Z

AbiFind is a searchable human-edited general web directory of quality and spam-free web resources organized by region and by subject.

http://www.abifind.com/

Add DD to http://www.abifind.com/cat/Internet/Domain_Names/

See how it goes

A

Web Directories for SEO

2006-02-19T22:11:00.000Z

Web Directories for SEO

Author: Adrian Lawrence

Web Directories for SEOBy Adrian Lawrence If you are looking for ways to promote your website, than web directories should definitely be considered a big part of your promotional plan. Web directories provide web visitors with a one- stop destination on the web to find the information they are looking for.

Further, in using web directories, you can increase the visibility of your website and derive myriad benefits offered by web directories.Let’s take a look at the benefits that webmasters derive from web directories:1. Some webmasters might wonder why they should bother to submit to web directories when 80% of all website traffic comes from search engines. The answer is simple when you consider the following: what about the other 20%? When you are attempting to maximize the traffic that comes to your website, every little bit of promotion helps and web directories can help you gain a big chuck of that 20% of web traffic you have been missing out on.

2. Did you know that a key factor in the ranking algorithm of search engines is link popularity? By using web directories you will be creating more links that point directly to your site and the higher your ranking becomes in various search engines across the Internet. Further, everyone knows that a higher search engine ranking is equivalent to easier accessibility and easier accessibility equals more traffic for your website.3. The first way to increase your link popularity is to include keywords in your hyperlinks. When you submit to web directories, the links you submit should not only lead to your site, but also should possess themed keywords within the links.

The themed keywords will not only make your site easier to find, it will also increase the rating of your links in various search engines—again getting more, free web traffic for you.4. Links that are created within web directories are votes for a site and they use your keywords within your hyperlinks to associate your link with certain key phrases. As such, the keywords you select are extremely important because they determine how often your links will be pulled up whenever a key phrase is associated with your created links.

Therefore, It is a good idea to research the most popular keywords associated with your website theme before submitting your website to various web directories: the most popular keywords can make all of the difference in the world.5. If you are submitting to various web directories, there are a few things that you need to consider. First, for a directory to be valuable, the pages you submit your listings to must, at minimum, be listed in various search engines. For instance, if you submit your links to a web directory that doesn’t appear in any search engines, chances are web visitors will not only have difficulty finding your website, but they will also have extreme difficulty finding the web directory you have listed your site in. In such cases, the listing in the web directory is a fruitless endeavor.

Conversely, if you list your web site in several popular web directories and you utilize keywords in your hyperlink and short website description, you greatly increase the visibility and accessibility of your website.6. The second consideration you must keep in mind when submitting to web directories is that when you are submitting your hyperlinks, you will derive the most benefit from submitting to directory pages that have a comparable theme to your website. For instance, if you have a website that is based on credit cards you will find that you get more web traffic from a web directory page that focuses on credit cards.

Thus, when searching for web directories, look for web directories with topics that parallel the central focus of your website.7. Here’s a quick tip for you that can help you derive the most benefit from listing your hyperlink in web directories: watch out for Google Adwords as these are a good indicator of how Google at least categorizes the page. In other words, if you mirror your hyperlinks and descriptions to appear much like those seen in Google ads, you will more than likely increase your search engine ranking as well as your listing in various web directories.8. In order to be successfully listed in any web directory, you will need to conform to the terms and conditions of the directory. Typically, web directories list a series of specific listing regulations that you must adhere to and it would pay for you to adhere to them. In addition, to improve the chances of your listing being accepted you should try to avoid promotional language and you should choose a category that is as close to your website theme as possible.9.

Webmasters have much to look forward to in terms of web directory posting. In fact, the next generations of web directories are now appearing that allows business card type pages. Not only do webmasters get the opportunity to post a short description of there website, but now they are afforded the opportunity to display their logo and contact information as well. Such offerings prove to be particularly appealing because eye catching logos and easy contact information will make a Webmaster’s website that much more appealing.10. In the end, web directories are a valuable part of your web promotional program and should not be overlooked in terms of their value. Along with the use of search engines, and article databases, a Webmaster will be pleasantly surprised at the free advertising available on the Internet. Finally, the increase in web traffic that webmasters will reap is truly astonishing indeed.
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Adrian Lawrence is the webmaster of Indexplex a leading web directory .Please feel free to republish this article provided this resource box remains together with a working hyperlink.
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Article Directories

2005-12-20T16:30:00.000Z

Article Directories for free Promotion
Author: Adrian Lawrence
Article Directories for free promotionBy Adrian Lawrence If you are looking for a way to promote your website, then article directories could be just what you need. Article directories allow webmasters to post articles and such directories provide myriad benefits to webmasters. Let’s take a look at the various benefits provided by article directories below:

1. Are you looking to promote your web site but you do not have an advertising budget? This is a common problem for webmasters and article directories provide a fast and easy solution. Once your articles have been accepted in an article directory, you will find that other members use your article in various newsletters, forums, ezines and websites and the use of your article will prompt more traffic to your website. Therefore, after submitting several articles to any one of many article directories, you will find that not only do you increase your web traffic, but you will also quickly build a returning web audience.

2. A great way to boost your sites’ popularity is by writing articles and publishing them on article directories. If you are looking to become an expert in your genre, then you can be rest assured that article directories is the fastest route to establish your expertise. After you have written and published several articles in article directories and the articles are reviewed and utilized by other webmasters all over the world, you will come to find that your name will become well known and revered as someone that really knows their business. Thus, you get the benefit of free advertising and the opportunity to build your reputation as an authority within your industry—all for free when using article directories.

3. A single article, once it has been distributed can literally appear on hundreds of websites. The free exposure gained by the utilization of article directories should not be underestimated—just as word of mouth is powerful advertising, so it is with what web visitors read on the Internet. Additionally, if your well-written articles appear repetitively on many websites, web visitors will come to recognize and appreciate your expertise and their recognition of your work will stir their desire to access more of what it is you offer.

4. Using article directories gives webmasters all of the benefits of the old pyramid selling approach without the cost. As webmasters promote your articles, you will find that the promotion continues to grow. For instance, if one webmaster promotes your article and four or five other webmasters see your article and also like it enough to use it on there site, then that one posting can lead to four or five more postings and so on and so forth.

5. So, how does your article promise you website traffic? It is fairly simple; make sure you add a biography and insist on a working hyperlink. By having webmasters add your biography and a working hyperlink along with your article, web visitors can learn a little about you and know exactly where to find more of your work when they are interested. If readers enjoy what they read, a simple click on the agreed hyperlink will instantly lead them to your site and increase your web traffic.

6. Thanks to article directories, webmasters can link up with more popular websites and gain more traffic based on the websites they have become associated with. There are many very popular sites that get literally 100,000's of page views per month. Such views can immediately increase the traffic to your own site and later, create an increase in the direct traffic of your site.

7. Article directories provide easy solutions for webmasters looking for content. Let’s face it; webmasters don’t always feel creative nor do they always have the spare time they need to create web content. Alternatively, webmasters are always looking for content to match their sites theme and your articles can be chosen from article directories to help webmasters fulfill their need.

8. With the article directories, you will immediately improve link popularity, which also boosts the rankings of your site in search engines. Think about it; the more links on the Internet that point to your website, the higher your website ranking is. Therefore, as your articles get posted all over the World Wide Web, not only do you gain popularity in your field, but your search engine rating with parallel your popularity and subsequently increase.

9. Article directories allow you to post articles that are well written and knowledgeable. Further, the more knowledgeable the article comes across, the more interested a reader becomes in your work. Hence, with a stirred interest, web visitors will desire your expertise and will purposely seek out your latest writings.

10. Finally, after you have grabbed the attention of web viewers by using article directories, you will want to do everything you can to maintain their interests. The easiest and most efficient way to keep a viewer’s interest is to continue to write new and refreshing articles on a regular basis and submit them to article directories. This way, you can effectively derive the benefits obtained through the use of article directories on a regular and ongoing basis.

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Adrian Lawrence is an editor of Article Alley a popular free article directory site. Please feel free to republish this article provided this resource box remains together with a working hyperlink.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

looks good

2005-12-07T09:41:00.000Z

http://www.hedir.com/groupthink/about52.html a sort of forum / feed directory of other paid directory sites.

Directory Submissions

2005-12-06T23:49:00.000Z

Paid Directory Submission Checklist

Author: Lakhya Phukan

Every online business needs traffic, which comes with increasedvisibility on the web. One great way to get noticed is to getlisted in the major directories. Links from good directoriesincreases your site's visibility many fold.There are thousands of web directories on the net and selectingthe good ones to submit your site can be a time consuming task.Also there are free directories and paid directories. You need tosubmit to both types of directories.The following checklist is for paid directory submission only.

This checklist will help you choose the best and worthwhile paiddirectories on the net.Submission Check List:1. Check out if the directory is indexed in major search engines.2. Check the robots.txt file. Make sure that search engine botsare allowed to crawl the pages where you intend to put yourlisting. Check the Meta tags to make sure that search enginespiders are not prevented from following links in it. A Meta tagwith noindex/nofollow will not be indexed or spidered and linksin that page are not followed by bots.3. Check if the directory is being maintained regularly. Visitthe directory from time to time to see if errors are gettingcorrected, site information is getting updated and the like. Inshort, look for positive activity on the directory.

4. Check if the listings in category pages match in theme andcontent or not. Directories with tight focus on relevant groupingof web sites are useful for visitors and tend to show upfrequently in SERPs for keyword searches.5. Check out the age of the directory. Do a whois search(http://www.whois.net) to get this information. Many newdirectories vanish after a few months due to lack of maintenanceand promotion. With older directories you can at least be surethat you listing will remain visible for a reasonable period.6. Check if the directory consists of too many empty categories-it is not useful for visitors and also does not send a too goodsignal to the SEs about the directory.

Think twice beforesubmitting to such directories.7. Check if the contact information is available on the site.Proper businesses will provide you with some kind of contactinformation.8. Check the Alexa rank of the directory - it is not accurate,yet you can get an idea of traffic the directory receives.Lookfor directories with decreasing Alexa Rank as it indicates thatthe directory is getting popular.9. Check if the directory provides SE friendly urls. NoJavaScript link or redirection. Also watch out for dynamic urls.Sometimes search engines find it difficult indexing orrecognizing dynamic urls with parameters likehttp://www..com/index.html?cat=1&p=12... An exampleof SE friendly URL is http://www.hedir.com/business.html10. Check whether category pages have too many outgoing links.

Ifyour link is one of 100 links on a page, visitors will find itdifficult to locate your site.Author Bio:Lakhya Phukan is the webmaster of Hedir Web Directory. You can submit your site at hedir.Or search for the syndicated directory list at hedir.

Submission services

2005-12-04T19:40:00.000Z

http://www.directoriezsubmission.com/free-web-directories.htm

http://www.directory-submission.net/

A couple of submission services that seem OK

A

Where to find article sites

2005-12-01T22:34:00.000Z

http://www.beansoftware.com/Article-Sites-Master-List.aspx

Submit Articles - Where to Find Article Sites?

Author: Richard Bean
You probably already know that articles are one of the best ways for your web site promotion. So, you written a few good, interesting and informative articles and now what? Off course, you need to submit your articles to free article directories, web sites which allow free article submission, and your articles will become visible to wide audience. Off course, if you want the best results you need to submit them on many places.

If you find a lot of good article sites, the more constant traffic you will receive. How to find where you can submit your article?There is a several ways:1. You can try with Google, Yahoo or some other search engine. If you type some general search term, like "article", you will get about 847,000,000 results. There is no that much article directories. Most of the search results are completely irrelevant for you.2. You can try with some more specific phrase. Most of article sites has "submit article" link. If you type "submit article" phrase to Google and search, you will get much better results. Now, there are "only" 3,920,000 search results.

There is a problem because some web sites have "Add your article" link instead of "Submit Article" or some different phrase. It is very difficult to guess all that phrases and almost impossible to craw through a millions of Google search results.3. The pretty good way is to follow what successful people do. Browse through www.ezinearticles.com, especially through categories that are interesting for you.

Try to find articles with a lot of views and writers that are submitted a lot of articles. These writers are probably experts with a lot of experience and they know where to submit articles. How you will find out what they already know? Simply, copy caption of some their popular article, and paste it in Google phrase search. Google will return search results with sites that contain this article. :)4. The third way is much better than first two, but it also has a lot of failings. Ideally, you need complete, correct and fresh information without loosing your time.

There is a free article sites master list at http://www.beansoftware.com/Article-Sites-Master-List.aspx . The list is updated daily and contains not just URLs of article sites, but also Google Page Rank (importance of web page, used by Google to calculate a position in search results) and Alexa traffic information (popularity of web site).

Creating a successful directory

2005-11-24T23:49:00.000Z

How to create a successful directory

Author: Brett Hull
I write this article just days before I will launch my directory-hosting-site. The site will make it easier and cheaper for people that wants to make a directory site without any money and and knowledge. It will make life very easy for everyone that wants to create directories and edit them. I will however write about directories in generall not just for the ones that's want to have them on my site.What's a directory?

A directory is a site that includes organized links. It's organized by following: startpage->categories->links. The most known directory is Dmoz.Why do I need a directory? Directories can in many way be a good resource for your website. It makes it interactive. But you can ofcourse have many other reasons to create it.What is your main reason for creating one? Is it to make a valueable resource for a specific group of people, is it because you want to get more visitors or is it simply just because you want to earn some money by putting up ads in it? Whatever your reason are, try to get it all based under this.

In other words, If you run Ferrari site and want to get a valueable resource for your user than try to get a directory with design that fits your target group and add categories after your users main interests. Every serious site and directory have a speciall target group. The succesfullness is more or less how good you are on customizing it after your target. If you want to get more visitors than use reciprocal links.

That will give you a link back on every site that submit in your directory. It will also raise your chance for your site to show up in searches. If you simply want to get money than you need high traffic. A reciprocal linkdirectory combined with relevant ads would do the job. But than again, a valueable resource got a bigger chance to become popular and gain traffic than some spam-attempt.How do I put up relevant ads?

I suggest to try out the google adsense adsystem. It is probably the worlds most used relevant adsystem. Your income on that depends on how much the advertiser is ready to pay you. Link: http://www.google.com/adsense/ Good luck!

Dmoz Clones

2005-11-24T23:47:00.000Z

Why Search Engines Purging ODP Clone Websites

Author: nameeta kashyap
There are lot of websites which are fully or partially clone of ODP (Open Directory Project).These websites or part section of websites, which are using ODP script to reformat the data on there site are useless and they have no original new contents. It is learnt that search engine specially Google is purging or banning such kind of sites. Why search engines are against Dmoz clone sites? Is the data in them not worthwhile or are they been misused by site owner's? We will try to find our reason, but before that let us first understand all about Dmoz Directory
What is Dmoz Directory (ODP)The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory on the web.

It is owned by "Time Warner" and constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors, and is truly unique in many ways. The Open Directory, also known as DMOZ (the domain name of ODP), is a large, categorized directory of websites and pages, which is staffed by volunteers. Every website and page that is added to the directory has to be manually reviewed before it is included. Since its index is manually constructed and edited, categorization and relevancy is superior to any other index of its kind and equally as unique, is the fact that this data is open and free to the public for replication. As of July 2005, ODP had about 4.6 million listings organized into over 580,000 categories derived from the contributions of some 69,000 editors.

How is this free data been used to make Dmoz Clone?There are a lot of ODP scripts to make clone of the ODP. These scripts enables you to add live data of the Open Directory Project at dmoz.org to your own website using a very easy to customize template based system. Users can browse and search categories of websites. These scripts that grabs live contents of the Open Directory dynamically and formats them to make your own version of the Open Directory. These are small scripts have few files to just uploaded on your server and you can get Thousands of Dmoz directory pages on your site in your own templates design. These scripts just get live data from Dmoz.org and it has no original new contents.

Does Dmoz Clone bring traffic?Webmaster do not like Dmoz clone websites as they have not original content rather have duplicate contents and no body will like to link a site or vote a site which has duplicate contents. Most people will not even browse your directory. Most people will just browse 2-10 pages of your directory, they will just leave and never come back.

Why Search Engines are against Dmoz Clone?There are various reasons which are explained as:
There is no Original Content which is required to make a Quality Site.

Duplicate contents as all scripts extract live data from Dmoz and create thousands of similar pages on the web.

The Dmoz directory has more than 580,000 categories If thousands of site will grab the live contents from Dmoz it will results into creation of millions of similar pages which is making web a junkyard of similar pages with nothing new.

The Dmoz clone sites has thousands of pages created on fly with no extra hardwork and lot of spammer are using it for advertising or Google adsense program
The lot of webmaster has just created a section of Dmoz to get inbound links from thousands of pages to increase link popularity and search engine ranking
Text link advertiser also created Dmoz clone to sell links on thousands of pages to increase artificially link popularity of text link ads buyers.

Which kind of Dmoz clone Search Engine's will LikeSearch engines are concerned with presenting quality results to there users If you can modify and enhance the data retrieved from Dmoz and present in unique format it will definitely be preferred by Search Engines, Webmaster and Web Surfers. Google has got its own directory for which it has got data from Dmoz but enhanced by Google technology i.e ranking of sites on each directory page by Page Rank.Using ODP Clone Scripts just to make simple odp clone will get your site banned from search engines due to duplicate contents.

Therefore it is advised not to use this virtually useless script on important sites or sites that rank well on search engines. Lot of ODP Clone Scripts makers sites were banned, because too many websites with duplicate content ( as they all have Dmoz clone) were linked to them. These scripts owner require there site URL to be linked at the footer as "Powered by ..." Which results into link farming or inbound links from similar pages. Therefore if you want your site or directory to be safe and run for longer times then have original and unique contents in it which will not only make it rank but also get good traffic on your site and increase its popularity.About the Author

The Article is written by Nameeta Kashyap Editor of Megri Web Directory and Team leader of Megrisoft____________________________

Copyright information.... This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety, including live links & this copyright statement must be included. Visit http://www.megrisoft.com for free Internet marketing and web development articles, tutorials and tools! Webmaster Articles Index

Web Directories

2005-11-23T22:15:00.000Z

Web Directories

The Value of Web DirectoriesAuthor: S. Housley

Web Directories ExplainedBy S. HousleyWeb directories are an important component to search engine positioning. Directories come in all shapes and sizes, some are generic, while others are highly specialized. Directories, are defined as categorized topics or collections of information organized into a tree like structure where categories are used to define each groups association.Large directories like Yahoo tend to have general themes and may charge for listings. While smaller niche directories like http://www.finance-investing.com offer free listings and profit from advertising revenue or pay per click models like Google AdSense.Being listed in a directory not only brings in targeted traffic, it provides a one-way link from a website with similar content. Directories are generally highly ranked in search engines, and are considered well respected resources, two traits that are desirable in link partners.

While smaller directories that focus on a specific niche might generate less traffic, the quality of the traffic from a niche site is usually highly targeted and will be superior to that generated from general search engines.If you are selling fire alarms, traffic from yahoo will be less qualified than traffic from Alarm Tools, http://www.alarm-tools.net . Most visitors to Alarm Tools will have a genuine interest in alarms and alerting systems.The nature of highly specialized directories result in visitors who have a serious interest in the directories theme, or a at the very least an interest in a theme related to the directory.As a result, web publishers need to make a conscience effort not to ignore the value of directory listings.

Regardless of their size, a related niche directory listing can be extremely valuable.Many directories offer sponsorship opportunities. Vendors can optionally purchase sponsorship to increased their exposure with a bold listing or top category listings.Determining a Directories ValueIt is difficult to assess the value of directory listing, as there is an obvious advantage to a listing of a closely related theme directory that is difficult to measure and quantify. In general, webmasters can use common web guidelines to determine the popularity of a directory and assess the directory link's value.To assess the value of a web directory, consider the PageRank of the webpage where the link placement of your site will occur.

The PageRank is indicative of how important Google may find a specific page. Another reliable third party measuring tool is Alexa. The Alexa ranking provides insight into how popular a website is. In general, a link from a web page containing a PageRank of 5 or higher is considered very good. A link from a site in Alexa's top 100,000 is also generally very desirable.Compare the following two directories' Monitoring Toolshttp://www.monitoring-tools.net and RSS Specificationshttp://www.rss-specifications.com .

Monitoring Tools' main page has a PageRank of 5 but most internal pages that contain links have low page ranks and the overall Alexa ranking of the site is over 650,000. While RSS Specification's claims a main Google PageRank of 6 and subpages all contain a minimum of a 5 for PageRank, the overall site is ranked 32,000.Clearly if you are in the syndication business, RSS Specification's would be a very desirable link partner, while you would have to weigh the cost benefit and position of a link from Monitoring Tools.To determine a sites PageRank without downloading the Google Toolbar, use the following online tool from RustyBrick

http://www.rustybrick.com/pagerank-prediction.php .A website's Alexa ranking can be found by entering the URL into Alexa http://www.alexa.com .It is recommended that PageRank and Alexa ranking be only used as a guide when determining a directories reputation. It is important not to get too caught up in either Google PageRank or Alexa Ranking as webmasters can use "tricks" to artificially inflate their numbers.The bottom line, links from directories that are small but niche, can provide quality web traffic.

About the Author:Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com an RSS component for developers.Permissions:Permissions and notification of use not required. This article is free for republishing

Linketeria

2005-11-23T15:59:00.000Z

http://www.linketeria.com/sites.directory/c22/ This is good as the links show up as back links - it also seems to add links almost instantly.

Adrian

List of directories

2005-11-22T21:00:00.000Z

Jenna Marketing recommends the following list; which are pretty good.

http://dmoz.org
http://www.yahoo.com
http://botw.org
http://sbd.bcentral.com
http://www.joeant.com
http://www.tygo.com
http://www.skaffe.com
http://www.wowdirectory.com
http://www.goguides.org
http://www.01webdirectory.com
http://www.4intrepid.com
http://www.abilogic.com
http://www.allthewebsites.org
http://www.topicalbeach.com
http://www.sitesnoop.com
http://www.web-beacon.com
http://www.yeandi.com
http://www.rlrouse.com
http://www.elib.org
http://www.portalboost.com
http://www.linkopedia.com
http://www.bigall.com
http://www.sporge.com
http://www.infowebworld.com
http://www.uncoverthenet.com
http://www.rubberstamped.org