Scores of web masters do not recognize the importance of directories; some even inquire whether directories are successful and complement in their overall marketing venture for their website. Loads of online businesses can boost the web traffic, prospects and rankings on major search engines by just presenting website links to popular directories like “Big Web Links”. But the subject to be questioned is what makes such internet links so popular and what is so significant about them?

All that is already present out there is pretty overwhelming in itself and it bores to learn about anything else after our contemporary lifestyles. As a result of this article directories can prove to be a wealth of knowledge and you can find whatever you want fairly quickly and effortlessly and may head you in realizing your research goals within no time. Article directories are exploding up almost everywhere. Trying hitting up on any search engine in your research and you will be presented with a plethora of different information contained article directories. You will notice that almost all article directories will be subject sensitive and prearranged according to the subject material to make it even more user friendly. Therefore article directory is the most efficient way to trace information in short span of time.

There is something for everyone in article directories. From people trying to just get an insight on any particular topic to those masses doing some more in depth research into any topic can benefit from such article directories. It becomes really cumbersome to get into each and every web page on the search engine and flip through thousands of pages to get the required information. And the best part is you not only get the desired information on article directories but you can also look at the websites related to the subject. And the links are not only restricted to the websites but also offer links to pertaining blogs, forums and other information rich resources.

All things are not created equal. This goes for everything from what you had for lunch today to internet directories. Some directories are good for a few links and a bit of occasional traffic, but others are a relative powerhouse. The best directories on the internet can lend a powerful punch to a website, especially in light of search engine optimization and generated traffic.

Directories of Directories
In fact, in recent years directories have become so popular and useful that they are now being organized into their own directories and lists. A directory of directories lists everything from the heavyweights to the up and coming. All directories have merit if used the right way, but many internet professionals see a greater value in the big names - and with good reason.

Search engines recognize directory listings as slightly less valuable as direct links back imbedded through keyword in website content. But, not all directory links are weighted the same. Some directories, such as DMOZ.com have additional value than directories that are not recognized industry wide. In short, DMOZ is better. The same can be said for many others.

Get Listed!
To become listed in the best directories, there is often a price to pay. Sometimes there is a literal dollar figure attached to a listing, and other times there are long waits and many approval processes. These directories have a great reputation for a reason. To allow unscreened and unverified websites through would be severely detrimental to the overall credentials of the site, thus the care.

However, jumping through a few proverbial hoops and shelling out a few extra dollars is well worth it to many webmasters. Listing a website through one of two of the top directories is worth more in SEO value than being listed in twenty small directories. (Although the small directories never hurt.)

The Best Directories
At the moment, the top directories for submissions include the following:

• www.dmoz.org
• dir.yahoo.com
• www.lii.org
• www.stpt.com/directory/
• www.business.com
• www.alivedirectory.com
• www.avivadirectory.com
• www.elegantdirectory.com

and more.

You would do exceedingly well to submit your website to one or all of these as budget and resources allow. An added bonus of submitting to such well-known directories is that by meeting the criteria for these directories, your website will be fine-tuned to meet almost any standards. Designing for the top results often yields just that – top results.

Throwing a few links on a website can technically be called a directory, but it’s not going to get big results. Certain things are crucial to a quality directory, and nobody will respond positively to a poor quality web directory. Why would they when there are so many better ones out there?

Design

The most basic concept in a good directory is starting with a high quality design. The design should scream competent professional, and all elements of the website should echo the same sentiment. Paid directories especially should make a potential patron feel comfortable and confident about doing business and paying you some of their hard-earned money.

To this end, consider the color scheme, layout, and content of a website. Directories should have adequate descriptions and all content including instructions, frequently asked questions and more should be completely free of errors and be consistent with other directories of the same quality standards.

Categories

Categories are what make a directory more than a list. By categorizing links to other sites or directories, you are making order from what could be chaos. Most individuals looking to list with directories want to feel important. If there are already fifty or sixty links in a category, they won’t feel very special in that niche. It is perhaps better to have too many categories than too few.

When your directory’s top categories begin to fill up, subdivide links into smaller categories within each parent. This not only makes your directory larger and more impressive, it also simplifies navigation and helps with niche marketing tremendously. After all, there are tons of niches within each niche on the internet. Why shouldn’t they be reflected in your directory as well?

Human-Edited

The final, and to some, most important aspect of building a better directory is to screen websites. If you place criteria on submitting a website to your directory, but fail to follow through on those criteria, what is the point of having them? Dead links, redirects, and inappropriate content will try to sneak into the site, and it is your responsibility to keep it all away to protect the integrity of your directory and maintain the quality that others have paid you to have.

Most paying customers won’t be happy if they had to follow guidelines to become listed only to suddenly find themselves in competition with websites that should not have slipped through. Try not to become blinded by potential income or set low standards so that categories fill. There is no point in filling your wallet or categories with junk; it will just hurt you in the long run.

Most webmasters know submitting a website to the proper directories can be a huge asset to optimizing and developing a website. If you are one of the few who didn’t know, you certainly do know now. Many webmasters are busy developing websites and working hard on other aspects of search engine optimization. They simply don’t have the time or energy it takes to properly submit a website to the relevant directories, and even if they did have a bit of time and inclination, they can never hit as many directories as a professional. There are just too many out there.

Directory Submission Services

Many individuals and companies offer submission services to directories. They take your URL and description and manually submit it to countless directories and search engines. Many of these same companies and individuals offer reciprocal link finding services and other helpful SEO practices. The trick is finding the right company for your needs.

Anyone can claim to offer directory submission services, but many are amateurs and less professional than existing companies with years of experience. An individual who has worked at submissions for years has established relationships and tricks of the trade to make sure his or her service is well worth the price.

Sure, you can pay someone a few bucks to list your website a few places, but for high quality service, you may want to consider paying a little bit more. Individuals who specialize in directory submissions aren’t willing to share their knowledge and specialty with just anyone for some spare change. These individuals have usually been in business for a long while and know the ropes.

First Step in SEO

Submissions are often the first step in search engine optimization once a website is complete. Of course a webmaster has already worked in highly relevant keywords and content, but when it’s time to get the ball rolling on gaining PR and traffic, directory submissions are often the very first step.

As it is an area that requires some time, research and knowledge, many webmasters feel more comfortable asking a service to handle this aspect while they focus on other aspects of link building and page rank. Webmasters are busy, and they need all the professional help they can afford to make a website profitable and highly developed. Directory submission services are one of the easiest ways to do exactly that.

Internet has invaded into many households thereby reducing world to a global village. Now you can explore the world, gain knowledge, get updated about events and even shop, right from your computer with click of a mouse.

Webmasters have realized the potential of internet in bringing them business and traffic. Significance of Web Directories in presenting visitors with vast resource of diversified sites remains undisputed. Serving organized lists of various web sites, web directories are seen as a mini search portal where you can find more than one site from different webmasters though dwelling upon similar core concept or theme. Advent of page ranking concept resulted in many webmasters submitting their sites in the web directories. Adding web site links in Web Directories is now seen as a vital search engine optimization strategy. Web Directories also serve as a resource for visitors presenting them with different site links for the theme they search.

Webmasters are also coming up with web sites that offer a broad array of resources and services, such as forums, chat boards, e-mails, search engines, shopping carts and much more. Such web sites with broader array of services are referred to, as Web Portals. The first Web portals were online services, such as AOL, providing access to the Web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to secure their user database and survive in the competitive market. Web Portals in mid-1990s used to be starting point of Web browsers and thus gained a lot of attention, with most of them starting as web directory or search engines. Even though many old players lost during dot-com bubble burst in 2000-2001, few like yahoo remain popular till date. Web Portals work as single resource site to use multitude of services or features, thereby saving visitor’s time and efforts. Web Portals have diversified into Government portals, entertainment portals, environmental portals, business portals, corporate portals, investment portal and lots more, with each portal catering to needs of its user/visitor base. Business portals are designed to be able to work on multiple platforms and share collaboration in workplaces. With ability to provide many resources under one roof, Web Portals are again catching up to achieve their pre-bubble burst glory.

A web directory or an internet directory is like a powerhouse packed with sites that are organised according to user-specific needs that save time, energy and cost. They are an immensely useful tool for webmasters who are looking for a way to promote their sites, increase inbound traffic with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and gain a higher Page Rank on Google. If you are a webmaster imagine having to surf and go through innumerable link exchanges and instead just adding your link to a popular web directory and getting more traffic on your site by targeting people looking for a specific service.

Though not all directories are significant, the most popular directories include The Open Directory Project (ODP or DMOZ), Yahoo, Zeal and Buzzle. Google, along with many other popular search engines tend to generate their search results by dipping into these directories for reference. If you were to run a Google search, you’d notice the number of results that directly use the ODP links and categories. A plus point is that the information stored in ODP is literally borrowed by thousands of other websites and search engines so that just sets up a chain reaction for obtaining more free links! The same goes for the Yahoo directory.

Directories fall into two main categories, namely: general and niche. A general web directory is a directory that contains a listing of many sites of different categories and then sub-categories. A niche directory would be a directory that aims towards a specific grouping like a shopping directory is a directory for all listings for Primitive Arts and Crafts, Consumer Products. This helps in searching harder-to-find content that generally doesn’t show in a prominent position on a major search engine. Then there are free directories that do not charge any fees for inclusion, paid directories that charge a fee for site submission and reciprocal link directories that have a link back to the directory as a prerequisite. Sometimes free directories may offer a prominent link or a higher listing for a nominal fee. The ODP is an example of a human-edited directory which is created and maintained by human editors who are volunteers and may have excellent command over a certain subject. Human edited web directories are known for more relevant links as they are edited and maintained manually and the sites scanned and approved for content.

There are also directories like Yahoo that archive lists of certain sites they choose as a “cool site”. This cool site directory could be in the form of an archived list, a random site generator that generates a site-per-click irrespective of category or the current cool pick. Some of these sites maintain an archive of their older cool picks for visitors to browse through the formerly chosen sites, others have themed sections and still others could probably generate a list of the Top Ten cool sites classifying them on good site principles. The knowledgeable networking system and general-to-sub hierarchy also cross-references links across categories with similar content to make searching with generic keywords more efficient.

Directories are an easy way to find something for everyone. As a surfer with a specific necessity or a webmaster wanting to promote their site, a directory could serve as a handy contrivance to obtain optimum results.