What is SEO?

A key part of many webmasters link-building strategy is directory submission. Some site owners submit to every directory possible, some only to directories with high pagerank, but nonetheless it remains a key tool in the ‘link development’ arsenal.

This blog is part of the bigtangle site and directory, and I also frequently submit sites to other directories, so I can see the reality of directory ownership and submission from both sides of the fence, as it were. Which brings us to the topic in hand - automated directory submission.

I have written before of the possible advantages of directory submission software and how it can dramatically increase the speed at which you can submit a site to directories. I use it myself in certain situations. But there is a problem with directory submission software that has started to trouble me.

First let’s recall that owners of free directories still hope to make money from their work. In part by selling featured links, but also in part by having advertising on their websites.

This will typically take the form of adsense ads, or banner adverts for webmaster related products - cheap hosting, directory submission. The principle being that it is usually other webmasters who visit a directory, and might be attracted by the adverts.

But the reaon webmasters are browsing a directory is often because they are searching for the most suitable category to submit a website to. Which brings us back to directory submission software. This software will take the webmaster straight to the ’submit’ form of the directory, automatically fill in most of the details, and leave the submitter to choose the category from the drop-down box and hit ’submit’. Then ‘next’ to be taken to the next pre-filled submission page.

It saves the submitter hours of ‘cut and paste’ or inputting work, and some of the software can even choose random ‘Titles’ and ‘descriptions’, to avoid the same text being used every time. Hence for the submitter, used with caution, it can be a good thing and save hours of work.

But now, the submitter is no longer seeing the pages of the directory, or the adverts that they feature. The directory owners income will fall, and the incentive to keep a free directory, or start a new one, is much less. Of course the situation is different for paid directories, where the main source of income is in link selling.

It will be a sad irony if the growth of free directories, and the rush to submit to as many as possible, and hence the introduction of directory submission software, leads ultimately to the decline and death of free directories.