Internet Marketing Guide: Online Directories

Aside from submitting your sites to the major search engines (and if you have the time to spare, minor search engines), you should also submit your site to the online directories.

Directories, of course, are not as popular as search engines, but they do have its share of users. Most directory submissions are free so the only investment you need is time.

Here are some of the major directories that you can submit too.

Yahoo! Directory

Yahoo! is the most visited directory in the world, Yahoo!, reaching over 330 million unique users each month on a local and global level.

Unfortunately, it is not free.

To get listed, visit http://dir.yahoo .com and click on Suggest a Site.

For $299 ($600 for adult sites), your request to be listed in the Directory will be reviewed and the Yahoo! editorial team will respond to you within 7 business days ($600 for adult sites). If your listing is accepted into the Directory, there will be a $299 recurring annual fee in subsequent years ($600 for adult sites) to maintain the listing.

Note that your submission does not automatically ensure that your site will be accepted for inclusion. The Final judgment on the suitability, placement, and description of all sites submitted to Yahoo! rests on the Yahoo! directory team.

Because it is not free, you do not find so many sites in this directory. As a result, you will find more established companies with higher quality websites. From a user point of view, this is a good place to search as you do find good content.

The Open Directory Project

The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. The good news is submission is 100% Free.

Here is the dmoz's pledge:

The Open Directory was founded in the spirit of the Open Source movement, and is the only major directory that is 100% free. There is not, nor will there ever be, a cost to submit a site to the directory, and/or to use the directory's data. The Open Directory data is made available for free to anyone who agrees to comply with our free use license.

To submit to the Open Directory, click here. In this page, you will find the submission guidelines.

As with the Yahoo! Directo inclusion, not all sites are guaranteed to be listed. In fact, it is known in Internet Marketing circles that it is not easy to be included in the DMOZ list. As per their website, your site can be reviewed within a few weeks to months.

Submit only once and in only 1 category. If you repeatedly submit your site, it can be regarded as spam and faces the risk of being banned.

Once your site has been accepted into the Open Directory, it may take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months for your site to be listed on partner sites which use the Open Directory data, such as AOL Search, Google, Netscape Search, and Yahoo Search. Aside from these major engines, dmoz.org has hundreds of partner sites.

Other directories

You may also submit your site to the these free directories. Most offer upgrades (paid) for priority or featured listing:

http://www.addyoursitefreesubmit.com

http://www.domaining.in

http://www.justanotherlink.com/d/

http://www.internet-directory-web.com

http://www.like5.com

http://www.linklair.com

http://directory.proud-collector.com/

http://www.wwws.org/

http://www.worldsiteindex.com/

http://www.jobahut.com/