The top 5 online business directories are:
- Yahoo
- DMOZ – (Open Directory Project (ODP))
- BOTW – (Best of The Web)
- Business.com
- Librarians’ Internet Index – Extremely difficult to get in, but, packs a wallop if you can get in
according to Greg Hartnett, President of Best of The Web (BOTW) who spoke during the Real World Low-Risk High-Reward Link Building session at the PubCon conference I recently attended. He acknowledged that Google frowns upon paid links, but, makes exceptions for reputable directories that have history and perform some type of editorial service (i.e. rejects some websites). He referred us to the Matt Cutts’ videos on the Google Webmaster Channel at YouTube for more information about Google’s take on paid links.
Additional notes from Mr. Hartnett’s presentation:
- Directory listings will never bring you the traffic that social networking websites will. The traffic from social neworking websites will be highly targeted and therefore, you’ll have a better conversion rate.
- When adding to directories – use deep links – don’t just link to your Home Page
- Is Yahoo directory worth it? = YES, Yahoo is the primary Hub of Internet mapping
- Is ODP (DMOZ) corrupt? = NO; individual editors are (bribes)
- Make the editor’s job as easy as possible (DMOZ) – Research and double check that you are submitting to the most accurate directory level.
- Blogs
- Yahoo and DMOZ have separate categories for blogs
- BOTW has a blog directory
- See Search Engine Journal’s “20 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To“
