How to Submit Your Website to Web Directories

Increase Your Chances of Acceptance

There are no guarantees of your website being listed in web directories either free or paid. Read this article to increase your chances of getting listed specially for free listing.

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Submitting websites to Web directories takes a lot of effort, time and money (for paid listing). But if you will consider the benefits you might get, primarily in improving your websites' ranking with Search Engines, it is definitely worth it. Web Directories do not accept all websites submitted to them for inclusion and this is true whether the Web directory of your choice is a free, paid, general or niche directory. There are no guarantees that a website might be included and listed even if it is a paid submission, but by following the simple steps outlined bellow, you can increase your chances of acceptance.

Read Submission Guidelines

Reading the submission guidelines of a Web directory must be adhered strictly before you start filling up those submission forms. A reputable human edited Web directory must have a submission guideline, it is the minimum criteria or requirements that a Web directory requires and must be abides or strictly followed by the submitter. The guidelines might also detail all instructions and procedures in choosing your listing type, filling up your title, URL, category, description and other things you need to know. So it is very imperative to read the submission guidelines before doing anything else, you might surprised but not all Web directories have the same submission guidelines.

But what if there are no submission guidelines? Well, use your judgment if the quality of the directory is worth submitting your website. So after reading their submission guidelines or if there aren't any and yet you are still interested in submitting your website, read the following tips bellow before filling up their submission form.

Choose Your Type of Listing

Well this is the most easiest thing to do, you either choose free or paid listing. Others have additional choices like deep links, featured or reciprocal, but bottom line is you have to choose the right type of listing according to your needs or budget. Although this is the most basic part, most webmasters or even the SEO professionals seem to forget choosing the correct listing. If you make a mistake at the very first part in the submission form of Web directories, I'm sorry to tell you but your submission will have a poor chance of acceptance. So please take a moment to check the listing type, some directories by default, have the paid listing highlighted and if you opted to choose the free listing but forgot to change the default listing, chances are your submission will be rejected.

Writing Your Title

Do not write your title all caps, write your title as you would when you write a title of a post or article. Write your title describing briefly the nature and what is your website all about. For free listing, use your website title or your business name as much as possible to increase your chances of acceptance. There are many uses of using relevant keywords for your title but if you opt for free listing it is recommended that you use your title of business name, otherwise your submission might be deleted.

For SEO purposes, it is recommended that you choose relevant keywords as your title briefly describing what your website is all about different for each Web directory you submit. This in turn will help you rank for the keywords that you used. This comes the benefit of choosing a paid listing over a free listing type. Most Web directories I have encountered will not consider you to use other relevant keywords as your title other than the title or company name of your website if you choose free submission. They will only consider this or will allow you to use keywords relevant to your website if you chose a paid listing.

Choosing the Correct Category

Take the time to find the most appropriate category relevant to your site specially if you are submitting to a general Web directory. If you site is general in nature (like home repairs) it can be applicable to be submitted to several categories. Most directories seldom mention about how many categories you can submit your website, so if you are unsure or if it's not mentioned in the submission guidelines, just submit your website to the most relevant category you can find. If you really need to submit your website to another category but you are unsure, contact the owner or editor of the directory.

Writing Your URL

http://www.yoursite.com
http://yoursite.com

The URLs listed above are different in appearance from one another despite they will take you to the same website. Although all of them are correct for unity purposes some Web directories require you to write a uniform type of URL from one of the above. It is important that you follow this specially if you are choosing a free directory in order to increase your chances. You might ask how would you know the needed requirement, again you can find it in their submission guidelines. So it is very important that you read the submission guidelines of Web directories. If there are no specific instructions in writing your URL, you may choose any of the given example listed above.

Writing Your Description

Your description will be the new content of a Web directory when SEs indexed new pages. It's like a new post or article in a blog or website, so knowing this, you have to write your description very carefully to present what is your website all about. Don't keep on copy pasting your description to all directories your are submitting or they will be looked upon at by SEs as duplicate content. I know it's difficult and time consuming to write different versions of description about your website but trust me it is worth it.

Check and double check your grammar, don't write description just for the sake of submitting a website. Directories are judged by the websites they list and how good their description is written for use of internet users. If the descriptions written are just stuffed with keywords and are grammatically wrong, what do you think directory users would say?! And what do you think directory editors would do?! If it's a free listing, most probably it's going to be deleted (although there are free directories who will rewrite it), but if it's paid listing well, editors will rewrite your description before listing it if your website passes their criteria and guidelines.

This is another advantage of choosing a paid listing from a free listing is that editors will take the time to rewrite your description if they find it necessary. Although there are free Web directories that will slap a good description about your website if they see that the quality of your website is worth listing it in their directory.

The Quality of Your Website

Now comes the review part, editors will visit your site. Aside from the minimum criteria mentioned in their submission guidelines, Web directory editors will follow other guidelines that may not be mentioned in their submission guidelines. Editors protect the integrity of their website and in doing so, other criteria will be followed when reviewing your site. So to increase your chances of getting your website listed, make sure all your links are working, the quality of your content is acceptable, the type of website you have confirms with the directory, or in short, your whole website is in conformity with the guidelines issued by the directory. Some directories need an "about me page," some require physical address to be present, so make sure all these are followed.