If you consider yourself an SEO expert, then you may be asking whether it’s really necessary to continue submitting your site to the search engine directories.  Back in the early days of search engine optimization, this practice was widely used as a source of referring search engine traffic, and considered a critical element of any SEO campaign. But that was before Google claimed the lion’s share of searches.

Are directories still an important part of site optimization?  Do SEO firms still recommend directory submission as one of their link building tools?  Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

Believe it or not, Netscape’s Open Directory Project, also known as DMOZ, is a still syndicated across hundreds of web domains, and they are still a necessary part of your SEO strategy.  While not as important as they once were, referrals from directories that live on algorithmic search engines are considered a great source of relevant links.  Rarely a significant source of traffic to a site, just having a link within a relevant category on these directories can boost the link popularity of a site.

How important is link popularity for SEO rankings?

To varying degrees, Google, MSN and Yahoo still look at the quality and relevancy of the sites that link to your site in determining its popularity and ranking in SERPs.  For example, if several leading industry sites have outbound links to your site, it tells the search engines that your site is an authoritative resource for people who search in that category.

As a full-service SEO company, Yoobly places a high priority on link popularity and will continue to do so as long as it is one of the many algorithms measured by major search engines.  As a result, we have made it a practice to submit our clients web sites to directories.  However, like everything else we do, Yoobly’s SEO team takes a strategic approach to directory submission.  Our focus is on quality, not quantity.  Despite the growing number of search engine directories available, we stick with those that offer specific categorization and a crawlable URL.  We also try to diversify by submitting your site to general directories as well as those that are specific to your industry.

Why is it important to have a directory submission and placement strategy?

A lot of people believe there is some secret formula behind directory submission, but that’s not the case.  The actual submission of your web site to these directories is quite simple, but it’s important to recognize that each directory has its own set of guidelines.  As your SEO advisors, Yoobly uses the most relevant keywords and site titles to match the editorial guidelines for each directory.

The number of directories available for submission will depend greatly on the number of industries you serve and how directory-oriented they are.  In some cases, it makes sense to submit your site to several paid directories if that’s where your competitors are, but there are also some free directories that we recommend to everyone.

Directories put your site in the right context

A good strategy for directory placements will be one that targets the general directories that have categories that match your industry, as well as the more specific industry-related directories. Some will register your site within a few days and keep your listing up for six months or longer, but it is important to register your site correctly.  We try to avoid listing your site in directories that require a link exchange, and prefer to pay a one-time listing fee for high quality links.

Make directory submission part of your strategy

As your SEO partners, Yoobly will develop a solid strategy for the submission and placement of your site in the most relevant online directories.  Instead of randomly posting your site information to as many directories as we can find, Yoobly keeps track of each submission on a spreadsheet.  This way, we’ll know whether a submission was accepted, when it expires, and which keywords and titles were used.

Directory submission is not an especially difficult task, but like many other aspects of SEO it can be very time-consuming.  Not every business has the resources to handle directory registration and submission on an ongoing basis and make sure it ties into the company’s overall SEO strategy.   When you work with the interactive marketing experts at Yoobly, you can rest assured that we will handle all aspects of your site’s directory submissions and provide you with the related analytics to support each recommendation.