There is plenty of divided opion in regards to web directories and their value in the modern SEO landscape. Once widely regarded as a cheap and effective way of building backlinks, their percieved value has declined in recent times.

Having had plenty of personal experience with web directories over the years, we're more than happy to share our views via this article. While we consider directories a cheap, effective and valuable way of building links and increasing your web prominence, we don't think they are the only answer.

Search engines, even Google, are web directories, they however use advanced software to organize their listings. More common web directories use people to sort their listings in to categories, some are dedicated to one topic alone (vertical directories). There are also vertical search engines but that's another story.

We have run experiments in the past where nothing but on-page SEO and web directories were used for up to 12 months. The results we got were nothing short of surprising. Once we had collected and refined our lists of directories, the results were more impressive, with many of the stats we took from the exercise being very informative.

For example, we had around a 95% success rate with our submissions while many of the directories we're displayed as backlinks in Google's Webmaster Tools. On top of that some of the directories deliver a small but regular flow of traffic while being very prominent sites that advertise in the mainstream media.

One of the less mentioned benefits of web directories is the fact most larger 'general directories' at the very least offer geographical categories. Considering more local link structures are favoured for Google's local results, directories can be a good thing.

Meanwhile, some of those larger directories also have advertising affiliations with the top search engines and are crawled regulary by search engine spiders. Even more noticeable is Google's Web Directory, it's actually the DMOZ Directory (Open Directory Project) with a Google skin on it.

Another small bonus with directories is that some are part of a larger network of directories. This means that some submissions will yield listings and backlinks from multiple directories. Also, some directories alone will give listings in multiple categories either by option or automation delivering more links to your website.

Additionally, some directories allow HTML in your postings or descriptions which allows deep link building. Building more specific links to the inner pages of your site is highly recommended and should be given some focus. With off-page SEO, in general, it is easier to pick up links for your home page. Therefore any opportunity to build deeper links is recommended.

So to summarize our position, we are more than happy to use web directories as a starting point for off-page SEO. Getting a good list with just the best directories around will do, use those and any other form of online marketing you deem suitable for your own website.

Thanks again for stopping by and we hope you enjoyed the read,
G8 Marketing.