NOT a Guru!
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
To increase traffic and search engine relevance, it is important to get plenty of unique links pointing to our web sites. One popular strategy in getting these backlinks is to list a site with as many web directories as possible.
Approval of your submission to a free web directory can take a long time. Sometimes it will take days, but as is often the case, it may take months. That’s because the higher the directory rank is, the more submissions there are for the directory administrator to review.
I should know.
Before selling it, I owned a directory that had a Google Page Rank of 4. I was receiving at a minimum 100 link submissions a day. If I missed a couple of days due to other work projects, the amount of links to review was absolutely overwhelming and I’d have to hire people to review links. Given the fact that I was not charging for my services, this quickly turned into a financial drain, not to mention a drain on my time. Sometimes I would turn the submission feature off in order to catch up. You wouldn’t believe all the whiny emails from people wanting it turned back on. I truly admire those directory administrators out there who have maintained their directories for years. I know it takes a lot of work and dedication to keep a web directory alive, with good Alexa rankings and/or Google Page Rank.
The Reverse Solution
In a way, I felt bad about bowing out of my directory because of the link service to the overall web community. Having ways to help others online is a worthy cause in my mind. Given the huge amount of traffic that I’ve seen in operating one of my own web directories, I decided to see what would happen using a “reverse solution.” Links are automatically approved by the new directory script. I can review and delete the bad submissions at my leisure without having to turn off the directory to responsible link submitters. This is a win-win for everyone concerned: Site submitters don’t have to be penalized by waiting around forever for link approval while I get rid of the bad sites.
Help me figure out if this is an effective solution by submitting as many sites as you want to the new LinkCruncher.com Directory. Free and reciprocal links should be automatically approved.
Other Free Directories Offering Fast Link Approval
I have been submitting the LinkCruncher to various web directories and have, so far, come up with the following list of free web directories that have a super fast turn around time:
- 000 Directory – Page Rank 2, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 71,416
- 24 Directory - Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 123,217
- A1 Web Dir – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 398,515
- Arcade Rocks – Page Rank 2, Alexa Traffic Rating: 178,166
- Add New Link Directory – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 102,528
- Add Your Website Directory – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 107,809
- Alive Dir - Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 433,917
- Alive Web Links – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 367,805
- All Directory – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 138,748
- Amazing-Directory – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 402,564
- Amazing Dir – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 361,917
- Amazing Web Links - Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 350,894
- Back Link Power - Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 131,605
- Bibold Directory – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 476,868
- Blow My URL – Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 552,093
- BLP Directory - Page Rank 0, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 74,748
- Your Link Here Directory – Page Rank 2, Alexa Traffic Ranking: 87,407
I have not checked the IPs on the above directories to see if they are diverse; however, I did notice a lot of spider activity in the control panel of the Link Cruncher after submitting to these sites.
The Value of Link Directories?
There’s a part of me that is not sure that link directories offer a lot of value in terms of site promotion, but I do think they offer some value. Article marketing and contextual links in blogs or other web sites seems to be more powerful. Nonetheless, it’s important to get as many links as possible, so it’s worth the time to submit to directories, especially if you have directory submitter software that can cut down on the time and effort. My favorite is Link Directory Submitter because it:
- Allows you to enter a variety of titles, anchor text and descriptions which are mixed into an autofill process, which gives you diverse descriptions in your submissions;
- Allows you to save unlimited profiles — meaning unlimited websites;
- Shows what directories were submitted to, per website profile;
- Allows you to quickly report broken links (directories are constantly updated in the software); and
- Has a super fast and easy reciprocal link script with an autofill process.
Conclusion
Many directories come and go. This is probably because of the sheer effort it takes to maintain them, with little financial return. I think the majority of the ones that last will be the ones that will have paid listings and/or automatic free listings. There will be exceptions, but when it comes down to it, unless a directory is delivering a financial return to the owner, it seems unlikely that it will be around for years to come.
I’ll report more of the super-fast listing services as I discover them. If you know of any, please include them in the comments section below.
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Hey just submitted to your directory! Only 6 pages in your whole site are indexed by Google. Isn't this problematic if I want to get credit for my link?
Hi Jeff, Thanks for the submission. The directory is very new, but pages are being indexed almost daily. You'll get credit for your link.