Directory submission software
As a directory owner I will take it as read that you accept that submitting to directories is a good idea! Not necessarily to thousands of directories, not necesarily even to lots, and not perhaps to brand-new free directories, but the general principle that submitting to directories is worthwhile.
Many people don’t submit to directories, because they say a link from a free directory carries little weight, and a good link from an authority site on your subject matter is much more valuable. True, no doubt, but also extremely hard to come by. So I aim for a mix of the two.
There are numerous instances of ‘mid-ranking sites’ doing well in the search engines with only directory submissions to support them. There are also page rank benefits, even from smaller, free directories, as long as the directories are themselves indexed in the search engines.
So that brings us to the practical issues. Directory submission can be a long and uninteresting task, especially if you have several sites to submit.
One option is to pay someone to submit your site to directories on your behalf. Prices vary considerably, from about $20 to 200 directories to $200 to 100 directories. Why the big difference? There are a couple of reasons:
1) Different directories will have different category structures. To submit a website carefully to the correct categories takes time. For example, if I have a site about ‘car hire in Luxembourg’, sometimes that will be categorised as ‘Travel’, sometimes as ‘Travel, Europe’, or as ‘Travel, Car rentals’, ‘Travel, car rentals, Europe’ and so on. The cheaper submission service might submit always to ‘Travel’ and rely on the directory owner to reclassify it as necessary - many won’t however, they will simply delete the submission.
2) Directory submissions, as with any links, should use variations of ‘Anchor Text’ and ‘Descriptions’. The more expensive directory submission service should allow you to choose mutiple Anchor Text and descriptions, and rotate between them during the submission process. This increases the chances that the search engines will see the links as valid.
The other option is to do the directory submissions yourself, but to use directory submission software. This automates or semi-automates the process, allowing submissions to be made parhap 5-10 times faster than manual submissions. This makes a very big difference when you are submitting to lots of directories! Note - the process is rarely completely automated because of the need to choose appropriate categories, and to complete an ‘image validation’ code in a lot of directories.
One particularly impressive directory submission software is available that allows you to choose, site by site, which directories you want to submit to (from a list that is frequently updated but currently containing about 1600 free directories). It keeps records of which directories you have submitted to; it allows you to rate the directories (eg give 5/5 to a directory that approves your sites quickly, so you can coose that one first for your next site); it allows several Anchor Text and descriptions to be entered, and rotates randomly between them when you submit your website; fills in all the fields on the directory submission form automatically for you; and is generally easy and fun to use!
Current price of the software is about $70 - a bargain, compared with the time saved or the money spent elsewhere. Take a look at this software!
It comes highly recommended and i am not easily parted from my cash!