Do you submit your blog to a lot of directories?

It used to be a priority for me when I first started websites to have them listed in as many web directories as possible. I even paid a few times to have sites listed in a couple thousand directories. The first thing I noticed was that after a few Google PR updates I was not receiving much of an increase at all. Thousands of backlinks and I would end up with a PR2 after a couple of updates. And out of the thousands of directories it would result in a couple of visitors every few months. So what’s the advantage to submitting to directories?

Brand New Directory

You may want to take a closer look at the directories you are submitting to, submit them manually, and use a couple of factors in making your decision. Is there 300,000 sites listed there warez and other low quality sites? If so, I would skip that one! Is it a brand new directory with no ranking? Skip that one too.

You may want to check in Google and see if the individual pages are being crawled and listed as well. There’s not much of a point submitting to a directory that isn’t going to give you credit for your listing.

Will you receive any traffic at all from the submission? Likely not, which is why I would recommend using specific directories related to your subject matter. For a blog, try seeking out blog directories instead of general web directories.

I would recommend seeking out the higher quality directories and maybe even paying for inclusion or for a featured listing. These directories are much more subjective about their listings and you have a much better chance of benefiting. A featured listing might cost you $10-20 but will actually drive some related traffic to your site. One good featured listing might be better than 100 crap submissions.