Starting a blog is easy, but what is not easy is driving traffic to a new website. Before you start pulling out your hair in frustration take some time to learn about the highly effective way of driving traffic to a new website and increasing its domain authority. – Yes, I am talking about Directory Submissions.
It is easy, effective, and helpful when you are just starting your website or your business.
Directory submission will increase traffic to your website and improve the website’s ranking.
According to the report, directory submissions increase Search Engine Ranking by 30+%.
To increase blog traffic you must utilize different SEO techniques that are broadly classified into two categories:
(i) On-Page SEO
(ii) Off-Page SEO
Directory submission falls under the off-page SEO category. This article will cover all the details regarding directory submission.
What is Directory Submission for SEO?
Directory submission in digital marketing is one of the methods by which marketers improve the popularity of their business. It is a great off-page SEO technique that increases quality backlinks to your website.
Directory submission is nothing but submission to a website directory. A web directory is a compilation of high PR sites that are sorted into distinct categories and sub-categories.
The process by which you submit your website and its related items like article, infographics, images, etc is called directory submission.
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Directory submission is one way of getting good backlinks to your website. For this, you have to submit your blog into the web directory in the suitable category. Also, you need to provide some details about your blog and articles.
Getting more backlinks and traffic is a sure-shot way of securing better rankings. Again, better rankings mean more traffic and visibility leading to more website visits.
Different types of Directory Submission in Digital Marketing
There are mainly 3 types of directory submission in Digital Marketing and they are:
1. Featured or Paid Web Listing
In this type of directory submission in Digital Marketing, you need to pay for submitting your website.
The advantage of going for paid web listings is that they provide instant approval or else you may have to wait for 3-6 months. Some websites also offer yearly or life-time package for the same.
Paid backlinks are not a recommended process because this may attract a Google penalty.
2. Regular or Free Web Listing
Here, in this type of directory submission for SEO, the submission of the website to the web directory is free. You just have to give your URL, select the category, and provide other details.
This is a time taking process and you will not get approval right away. Getting traffic and links through this method can take up to 6 months.
3. Reciprocal Web Listing
In this type of directory submission for SEO, you will need to add a link to the directory on your website. Only when the web directory link on your website is activated will the web directory also approve your website.
In this method, the waiting period for the approval will be short.
Why Directory Submission in Digital Marketing is important?
Let’s look at some of the reasons that make directory submission a compulsory process for all new websites.
(i) Directory submission is a must-do step for Search Engine Optimization.
(ii) It helps in getting permanent links to your websites. This is again important for SEO.
(iii) You get quality backlinks that will improve your rankings on SERPs.
(iv) Crawling and indexing of your webpages will be fast in the major search engines.
(v) Another benefit of directory submission is receiving related or contextual links to your website.
(vi) Your domain authority, page authority, and overall rankings will start to improve.
(vii) Directory submissions attract more website traffic.
The Process of Directory Submission for SEO
The process of directory submission is very easy. The first part of the directory submission process is research. Research and find out reputed directory submission sites that are relevant to your niche. Once you have narrowed down the list of high PR directory sites it is time to do the following.
(i) Open the notepad in your computer and write down all the details like website title, URL, description (at least 100 words), email id, website author name, and RSS feed.
(ii) Take out the list of web directories you want to submit and visit them one by one. In most of the directories, the submission process is almost the same. We will guide you with the process by taking usalistingdirectory.com as an example.
(iii) After landing to the directory page first scan through the category list and select your most suitable category. If you do not find the exact match choose the category in which your blog fits the best.
(iv) Select the relevant category and click on the submit link option to submit your website.
(v) After you click on a particular category (we chose ‘blog’ category) another list will open which will contain sub-categories to narrow down your niche. For example in usalistingdirectory.com under the blog category, we received business, education, computer, internet, news, money, and many other sub-categories. In the sub-category, we chose ‘business.’
(vi) The last step is to fill in the details about your blog (in case of blog submission) or articles (in case of article submission). For this, you can copy-paste the details you wrote down on the notepad. After you have entered the details, hit submit. The directory submission is complete.
(vii) Repeat the same process for all the directories you want to submit to. For each submission now you can simply copy-paste the details from notepad to save time from typing again and again.
Do Directory Submissions still work in the present day?
Yes, directory submissions still hold importance in the present day.
However, there is one condition that needs to be fulfilled. You have to do it right and you have to submit the website to a reputed web directory.
Web directories are the Yellow pages of the digital world. It helps with the searches of the internet users. In the present day and age, things have evolved a lot.
Today the search engines are highly sophisticated and internet users are even more sophisticated. Unless you submit your website to a well-known and related web directory there won’t be any visible results. Even worse, you may negatively affect your SEO because of poor backlinks.
Submitting websites to low-quality directories will generate low-quality links and Google doesn’t like that. Panda and Penguin updates will penalize your website in such cases. This is one of the reasons why many people have lost their faith in directory submissions, but they do work when done right.
Directory Submission in Digital Marketing Guidelines
As mentioned before, if you want to go for directory submission for SEO choosing the right directory is vital.
To help you tread cautiously in the web directory jungle, we have come up with a list of points to consider while going for a directory submission.
1. Relevance
You can’t neglect relevance when it comes to directory submission.
You want your website to be found for the relevant search queries. If you own a flower shop you don’t want your website to appear when people search for a pizza shop. Therefore, sticking to your niche directories is essential.
One way in which you can check if the web directory caters to your niche is by searching for your keywords. If the directory responds and comes up with a relevant list of blogs and articles then you can proceed to submit.
Another way to ensure you stick to a relevant web directory is following blogs in your industry and adhering to their suggestions for directory submissions.
2. Directory Quality
All directories do not perform at the same level.
It’s when you choose a good quality directory that you will benefit from the submission. Check that the directories are indexed by Google.
You can choose a popular directory of your niche. If you wish you can opt for paid submissions. This will push the whole process a lot faster. Remember for links, Google says to stress upon quality over quantity.
3. Schedule Submissions
Without submitting all your articles, images, and infographics at once in a directory, go for scheduled submissions over time.
This will give better results. In this way, you can also identify if a directory submission resulted in bad SEO for your website.
Remember this, with the Google algorithm updates, the search engine now stresses more on natural links than bought and unrelated links.
4. Variety
Craft an effective directory strategy for success and this includes submitting in various directories.
Submission in popular directories of different niches can be done by targeting various keywords for your articles.
Make use of both short and long-tail keywords. Use these keywords in your titles and content. Don’t forget to give attractive titles to blog posts to increase click-through rates.
When you submit to various popular directories belonging to a specific niche you are aiming for variety in your link profile. This is a great strategy to improve rankings and in turn, getting more traffic.
Do’s and Don’ts of Directory Submission
There are certain dos and don’ts of directory submission. Follow them to ensure improvement in SEO and avoid hurting the same.
(i) Always submit the website and content to the relevant and reputed online directories.
(ii) Submission of the website and other content must be done under appropriate categories and sub-categories.
(iii) Do not spam a directory.
(iv) Make sure the details like website/article title, URL, description, and other details are correct.
(v) Do not submit in online directories that ask for links from your website or ask to put up their banners. Having numerous banners and directory links on the website may lead to poor SEO scores. Therefore, it is best to avoid submitting to such sites that have these prerequisites.
Top 10 Directory Submission Sites to Submit your Website
Here are some good directory submission sites that are free. These will help you drive huge get traffic to your website.
(i) Travel Tourism directory – traveltourismdirectory.info
Page rank: 6
(ii) All Free Things – allfreethings.com
Page rank: 4
(iii) So Much – somuch.com
Page rank: 6
(iv) Free PR Web Directory – freeprwebdirectory.com
Page rank: 6
(v) Marketing Internet Directory – marketinginternetdirectory.com
Page rank: 6
(vi) Submission Web Directory – submissionwebdirectory.com
Page rank: 6
(vii) Hot vs Not – hotvsnot.com
Page rank: 6
(viii) Britain Business Directory – britainbusinessdirectory.com
Page rank: 6
(ix) Diolead – diolead.com
Page rank: 6
(x) Cylex – cylex-uk.co.uk/
Page rank: 6
Final Thoughts
You need to have a little patience to see the results from your online directory submissions.
The results will only start to show after a couple of months.
Paid directory submissions are another option, but if you submit on enough free directories it will produce the same effect. Enrolling in SEO Course will enable you to learn and master the SEO capabilities of Directory Submissions in Digital Marketing like a pro.
Still have any doubts about the power of Directory Submission for SEO? Feel free to ask us in the comments below.
Thanks for these Valuable information.
I’m glad to be able to read your article, with this I can add my knowledge about link building, thanks for sharing with us. I wait for the next update.
Great Article Sir. So informative that you need not go anywhere searching furthermore. Thank you
Thank you for your wonderful article. I hope i will get more link juice and more rankings from Google.
Hey Garima, Really impressive article I have ever read. Very Informative Post about Guide to Drawing Traffic with Directory Submissions as for new bloggers it’s really difficult to drive traffic on their websites. Thank You so much for sharing it.
Very valuable information.
Good article for beginner to learn directory submission
Thank you for sharing this directory submission website. Love your every blog post.