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Article on Website Submission To Directories:
How to Submit Your Site to Directories
By Kalena Jordan
Unlike submitting to search engines, submitting your site to
directories and niche portals usually involves a lot more than
simply typing in your URL. You often have to start by
researching the various topic categories to find the most
appropriate area to submit to. Then you generally have to
provide some detailed information about your site, its'
content, your company and your contact details.
When selecting the most appropriate Directory category to submit
your website site to, conduct a search for your main keyword phrase
and view the various related categories. Study the sites listed
within these categories and choose the category that is the
most relevant to or closely related to your site content. Some
directories like ODP (DMOZ) have specific Category Descriptions you
should read before submitting, to ensure you have chosen the
most relevant topic for your site.
Another way to choose your category is to search for sites
belonging to your direct competitors. It is likely that the
category they are listed in will be the most relevant to your
site.
If your site targets or discusses a specific regional market,
you will need to submit to a regional category. For example, if
my site was about rental cars for hire in Sydney, Australia, I
would need to submit it to the regional Yahoo category:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Australia/States_and_Territories
/New_South_Wales/Cities_and_Regions/Sydney/Business_and_Shopping/
Shopping_and_Services/Automotive/Rentals/ and not
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Shopping_and_Services/
Automotive/Rentals/ the general Yahoo rental car category:
I find it useful to submit a slightly different description of
my client's web sites for each directory submission. That way, I
can gauge which descriptions are more effective in terms of
encouraging people to click and also which directories are
providing my clients with the most traffic. Many directories
feed their database results to other engines and directories,
so if I have a description unique to each directory and I see
that description pop up on other search sites, I know it is the
result of that original directory submission and immediately
recognize the value of that original submission.
Remember that directory editors don't care about your site's
ranking in their search results. If they are reviewing a website
submission that contains an obviously keyword stuffed title and
description, they are unlikely to find it appealing or
beneficial for inclusion in their database! Always make sure
your submission details are relevant, interesting and accurate.
Try to highlight your site's benefits for the visitor and
unique content that makes it stand out from others in the same
category. If your site sounds just like a cookie-cutter version
of others of the same topic, there is no incentive for the
editor to include it.
Submitting to the Yahoo! Directory
There are a couple of sites where you want to take extreme care
and do advance research when submitting your site. One of
these is the Yahoo! Directory. The way you submit your site to
Yahoo! can make or break your site's ultimate ranking in the
Directory and if you're not careful, could also cost you
$299 USD for nothing.
With Yahoo!'s huge market share and popularity worldwide, I
believe it's vital that your site is listed in Yahoo!'s
Directory. The best way to get listed quickly is by paying the
fee for Express Submission. Yahoo! Express is an expedited
fee-based site suggestion service for web sites submitted to
the Yahoo! directory. A member of Yahoo!'s editorial staff will
look at your site, consider your suggestion and respond to you
within 7 business days.
Important: Payment does not guarantee inclusion in the
directory, site placement, or site commentary. It only
guarantees that Yahoo! will respond to your suggestion within
seven business days, by either adding or denying the site.
The secret to obtaining excellent results via your Yahoo!
submission is to choose the most appropriate category and
include a carefully-crafted description that contains your
main keyword phrase/s without being too verbose. For those of
you offering a Yahoo! submission service to clients, be sure
to charge a generous admin fee for your expertise in
researching the category and writing the description for your
client – a successful Yahoo submission can pay dividends for
your client for years.
Example of a successful site description for Yahoo!:
ABC VIP Adventures - offers tailored adventure travel and
vacation packages to New Zealand including day tours, exotic
corporate trips, luxury travel packages, kite surfing, and
extreme sports.
Example of an unsuccessful site description for Yahoo!:
ABC Travel – we are the best! We are the only company to contact
for your vacation. Call now!
The latter does not use the actual company name, plus it
contains lots of hype but no keywords and few clues as to what
the site is about. In this case, the Yahoo! editor would have
to visit the site submitted and come up with their own
description and it's doubtful the edited description will be
something the submitter would be happy with.
Submitting to the Open Directory
Another Directory where submission is critical is the Open
Directory. DMOZ is run entirely by volunteers and your site
submission must be hand-reviewed by one of these volunteers
before it can be considered for inclusion. DMOZ is extremely
under-staffed (I know this because I'm a DMOZ editor!) and it
can take 6 or more months before your submission is reviewed –
you must be patient. When submitting to DMOZ, make sure you
follow the directory submission guidelines above and prepare to
wait, wait and wait some more.
Correct Procedure to follow for a successful DMOZ Submission:
1) Submit site
2) wait for 3 months
3) follow up email to category editor
4) wait for 3 months
5) escalation email to category editor above your category
6) wait for 3 months
7) ask for assistance in the Open Directory Public Forum
(http://resource-zone.com/)
8) wait for 1 month
9) escalation email to DMOZ senior staff & post to various
forums seeking help
The Rules of Submission
1) Do it once: Despite the hype, there is NEVER a need to
resubmit to a search engine or directory unless your site is
dropped entirely (which is a very rare occurrence).
2) Do it properly: Be very thorough when submitting, especially
to directories. Take the time to research and locate the most
appropriate category for your site.
3) Be brief: Don't waffle on about your site in the description
field. Get to the point and describe your site in a short
sentence or two.
4) Be accurate: Don't try to trick potential visitors by using
vague or misleading descriptions about your products or
services.
5) Be relevant: There is a fine line to tread between relevance
and keyword optimization when creating your site descriptions
for submissions. Try not to cross it by using descriptions
over-stuffed with keywords.
6) Be humble: "Best Web Site in the World!!!" is not going to
convince anyone and may earn you the wrath of search engine
editors.
7) Be patient: Search engines and directories can take up to 6
months to index and list your site. Re-submitting won't help
things and could result in your site being shoved to the bottom
of the review pile.
So that wraps up the directory submission process. It can be
time consuming, but taking a little bit of time and care with
your submissions can pay dividends for your site for many years to
come.
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Article written by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine
optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and
respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as
running her own SEO business Web Rank (www.webrank.biz),
Kalena
manages Search Engine College (www.searchenginecollege.com),
an online training institution offering instructor-led short
courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine
Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.
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