All Entries in the "Directories" Category
Directory Submissions – Should I Even Bother?
There was a time when submitting to directories such as GoGuides, JoeAnt, Skaffe, even Yahoo Directory provided value to webmasters who were either looking to get new sites indexed or increase their site’s link popularity or both. However, I am seeing a trend where these and other directories are not as helpful in these two areas as they once were. Add to that the rising costs of submission fees and it is easy to see why the webmaster should approach directory submissions very carefully.
Uncover The Net No Longer Useful For Directory Submissions
We are taking Uncover the Net off of our list of directories that we will recommend for clients and anyone else to submit their sites to. Why? They are now adding the nofollow attribute to listings. That means no link love, no help getting a new site indexed, bottom line – no trust. I have not seen this practice in place with them in recent history. They most likely have fallen under the spell of Google’s FUD campaign against those selling paid links.
A Deeper Look Into the Workings of Business.com
Jeff Behrendt of Aviva Directory has put together an interview with Jessica Bowman, Director of Search Engine Optimization at Business.com. She is their in-house SEO and also frequently writes for Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Journal. The interview sheds some light on her duties managing SEO for such a large site as well as a look into how the directory itself is run.
Does Google Frown On Links From Paid Directories?
Owning a few directories myself, this is a question that is of interest to me, especially after Matt Cutts recently stirred up some controversy when he invited people everywhere to report paid links as spam. With our directories, some listings are editorial while others are paid. In the beginning, every site added was editorial simply to populate the directory. Today we require payment for every submission simply to compensate for the time that is taken to review, edit and include the listing. Therefore the submitter is not necessarily paying for a link but rather paying for the editor’s time to consider the submission for inclusion.
Best of the Web’s Greg Hartnett Talks About The Directory’s Success
Jeff Behrendt of Aviva Directory has conducted an in-depth interview with Greg Hartnett, president of best of the Web, one of the oldest and most trusted directories on the Internet. In the interview, Greg talks about Best of the Web’s past, present and future.
DMOZ Accepting Submissions Once Again
After speculation as to the future of DMOZ (Open Directory Project), it seems that they are accepting submissions once again. However will we see any change in the degree of difficulty many have experienced over the last few years of actually getting a site listed? Its quite possible, at least for the time being. Search Engine Journal reports that old submissions in the queue were lost during the recent crash in October. That means there are no longer thousands of old submissions sitting in a queue waiting to be reviewed. Therefore if you have been trying to get a site listed with no success, now may be the ideal time to re-submit not only because your prior submission is gone, but to also get in before DMOZ gets backlogged once again.
The Unsure Future of DMOZ (Open Directory Project)
It has been widely speculated as of late that the future of DMOZ, also known as The Open Directory or ODP for short, is unsure. Not only has it become increasingly impossible to get a web site listed in DMOZ, the submission form has been broken since October. The reason behind this is that the machine holding DMOZ in AOL ops crashed and they have yet to fix it. Rich Skrenta, DMOZ-founder, gives us some insight into what is going on.
Microsoft’s bCentral Directory No More?
It appears that Microsoft’s Small Business Directory, otherwise known as Microsoft bCentral, has closed. The directory is still online but they are no longer accepting any new submissions. When you actually click on the link to add your site to the directory, you are greeted with the following message…
Skaffe.com Introduces New Directory For Non-Profits
Skaffe, one of the oldest human edited directories has launched a new directory called TeamSkaffe Directory for non-profit and non commercial web sites. TeamSkaffe realizes that some of the best and most comprehensive information on the Internet can be found on non-commercial sites, and that users can benefit from the quality information these sites provide. With that in mind, Team Skaffe has set up the TeamSkaffe Directory, which allows free submissions for non-commercial websites.
Business.com Makes Things Right
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Business.com’s practice of using “nofollow” attributes on editorial listings within their directory but did not use them on the paid listings, a backwards procedure for what the attribute was originally intended for. Today they have decided to stop using the attribute altogether.
Opt Out of DMOZ Descriptions at Google
Are you tired of seeing your Open Directory descriptions show up in the Google SERPs? Well now you have a choice. Google has finally added support for the NOODP tag. MSN was the first to recognize this tag as I wrote about in May. Now Google follows suit.
Business.com Bass Ackwards Use of “nofollow” Attribute
Via Threadwatch, it appears that Business.com has attached the rel=”nofollow” attribute to its editorial listings. At the same time, paid listings (the ones that have four additional links underneath them) do not have the rel=”nofollow” attribute. A bit of a controversial move on Business.com’s part seeing that this attribute was originally intended for paid links and not editorial type of links.
