The Other Search Engines

**dommyb** · 08-21-2004, 02:50 PM

I've noticed from Alexa stats that a lot of "sites linking in" to sites are actually directories, and not sites directly relevant to that site. Do these play a part in how well a site is ranked in Google etc.? And if so, what's the best way to get a site indexed in those many many local directories?

Thanks!!!

Dom

**mxlabs** · 08-21-2004, 06:10 PM

they're 2 types of directories in general: free and paid ones.

to be listed on the free ones all you have to do is find a category your site fits in and submit your site to the directory. some directories demand you to link to their site as well.
a very popular free directory is DMOZ (www.dmoz.org).

well and as for the paid directories... you pay for inclusion

edit: and yea, they do play a part in ranking well in the search engines.

**dommyb** · 08-31-2004, 08:59 PM

Thanks! How do I find other free directories?

Much obliged

Dom

**DevelopedWeb** · 08-31-2004, 10:26 PM

The free ones can be broken down even further, and this is where things get tricky.

There are free, useful link directories, such as DMOZ, which are great to submit your site to. And then, there are link farms, which are just huge directories (and even, sometimes, single pages) of unorganized links that are submitted for the sole purpose of boosting your Google PageRank. Google actually marks these sites negatively, and having a high enough of a percentage of your links coming from link farms can give you a PageRank of zero... which is something that you definitely don't want.

My advice: be wary when submitting to directories that look like an eight-year-old could have made them. Submitting to site-specific directories, however, is always a good move. The more generalized you get from that, the less likely it's going to help. Keep in mind that even some of the "general" directories that link to you may have more specific sections within them that are actually more relevant to your website.

**dommyb** · 09-02-2004, 11:10 PM

That's great advice, thanks. I'll avoid the ones that look suspect!

How do I go about finding these link directories? Google search?

Thanks

Dom