There have been many forum and blog discussions about web directories over the years and one of the most common questions appears to be “what makes a good directory” I guess it is easier to discover what makes a bad directory and then sift those out to be left with the good ones but to help you decide what web directories are good and worth submitting your site to here are a few pointers to look out for.

• Has Google awarded the front page and page rank and is this 4 or above?
• How old is the directory? The older the better as it shows that the directory has survived and grown over the years.
• Does the directory look professional?
• Have new listings been added at least on a weekly basis?
• Does the directory have a vast collection of well filled categories?
• Do they ask for link exchanges? Avoid these directories.

It is worth taking a few minutes to look deeper into the directory to find out what type of sites are being listed, many poor uncared for directories simply contain a string of inappropriate sites that appear to be listed in no particular order. You do not want to have your site associated with a directory that has a string of porn, Viagra, sex-related websites. If this is the case, simply back away and look for a more professional, cared for and well structured directory.

There are few hard and fast rules, one thing worth looking for is the rules of the directory, do they let anybody in? Do they stipulate sites that they will not list? In other words is the directory particular about the type of sites that it lists, again; you do not want to have your site associated with bad links and bad neighbourhoods. Not only will you be wasting your money but you may well be harming your own website.

Web directories are still an excellent resource for driving traffic to your website as well as creating back links for SEO purposes and being a valuable tool for your link building strategies. Many people still use directories to find individual resources. I use them on a regular basis because I can visit a specific category that I know will contain relevant sites rather than sift through what is often inappropriate search engine results and end up scratching my head and shouting at my monitor.

It is still recommended to use web directories to promote your site, the only difference now is that you need to be more particular, if you stick with the most high ranking web directories that have a good few years behind them and have a good Google Page Rank and good Alexa ranking you should be good to go.