Top 5 Web Directories in 2014 – 2015

web directoriesWeb directories are Internet websites that specialize in linking to other pages and categorize these links. They allow webmasters to submit their sites for inclusion, with human editors reviewing submissions to meet the quality standards. When a website gets submitted to a web directory, an editor checks the website for different parameters – including website quality, overall design, category, content and more. If the website matches various conditions, it is listed in the directory under the most appropriate category by the editor.

Tip:You can check here the top 5 web directory list for 2016 – 2017

Importance of Submitting Your Website Your Website to Directories in 2014

Ensuring that your website is listed with the best web directories is extremely important, as many people can see these listings. Major search engines are also more likely to locate your website and add it to their listings for free. When a website has been listed in a web directory, it makes it very easy for crawler-based search engines to identify and classify the website based on the keyphrases that have been included in the listing titles. This in turn increases your odds of having your website ranked higher in search engines results pages (SERPs).

Preparing Your Website for Submission

Before you submit your website to any directory, you should prepare it properly. Make sure your website’s description uses 2-3 key phrases that you want to be found for. Consider undertaking keyword research so you can know the best keyword phrases to use for your website. The description of your website should be 25 words or less. When writing the description of your website, you should avoid using marketing or promotional language. This is because editors dislike descriptions that are filled with marketing hype. Submitting your website to the top human-edited web directories can be a very smart strategy for being indexed in the major search engines. In order to have higher rankings within SERPs, your website must havequality content and inbound links from reputable sources.

The best web directories in 2014 and maybe 2015 are:

DMOZ

dmoz

Dmoz, also known as the Open Directory Project, is the World Wide Web’s largest human-edited directory. Having your website listed on Dmoz is an important part of ensuring that your website is ranked well in Google. This is simply because Google uses Dmoz results in its own directory.

Dmoz is maintained by human editors who are mostly unpaid volunteers. Although submission is absolutely free, it can take a long time to have your website reviewed. In fact, there is no guaranteed turnaround time of submission to various categories. You may not get a yes or no answer regarding whether you’ve been accepted — which can be problematic. However, Dmoz has better relevancy compared to non-human edited directories, and being listed at this directory is almost as important as being listed at Google.

Google’s directory is actually taken directly from Dmoz. So, once your website is indexed at Dmoz, it will, most likely, start appearing on all major search engines. Although crawler-based search engines, including Google, add their own to tweaks to Dmoz data, SEO experts agree that being listed in this web directory boosts search engine rankings.

Yahoo Small Business Directory

yahoo-directory

Yahoo small business directory is without a doubt the oldest web directory on the Internet and it can help improve your exposure in Google, Yahoo and Bing’s regular search. It is organized by subject and websites are placed in categories. Yahoo directory team makes sure that it is well organized, thus making it intuitive, easy-to-use and helpful to everyone.

There are two ways to submit your websites for approval: Yahoo Directory Submit and Yahoo Standard Submit. The Yahoo Directory Submit is for commercial websites and is fee-based, while the Yahoo Standard Submit is for non-commercial and personal pages and free of charges.

The fee-based option typically has fast response time, while the free or non-commercial submit choice has no guarantee whether or not your website will be reviewed quickly or at all. If you want to submit via the free, non-commercial option, then you should ensure that your content is not overtly commercial, so it has a higher chance of being accepted.

As for the commercial submission option, Yahoo charges a fee of $299 ($600 for adult content) per year Paying this fee doesn’t guarantee being listed, only that you will receive a yes or no answer regarding whether or not you’ve been accepted within a week or seven business days. Nonetheless, the majority of quality websites are usually accepted.

BOTW

Best of the web directory

Established in 1994, Best Of The Web (BOTW) is one of the oldest and best web directories on the World Wide Web. They are well priced and have good editorial integrity. It is renowned for pioneering the web awards concept (the directory recognizes the best sites by an annual vote).

BOTW is a general web directory, providing internet users with a spam-free categorization of websites. With a team of paid human editors, BOTW offers website listings for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. It categorizes and lists each website that meets their guidelines in its most relevant regional and/or topical category. BOTW charges $299 per year for a permanent, commercial listing.

Jasmine Directory

jasmine directory

Jasmine is another human-edited web directory that is renowned for applying a high editorial discretion. With charges of as low as $39 for a lifetime listing, Jasmine offers a cheap but effective way of promoting your website. Their editors thoroughly analyze each individual link, ensuring it adheres to its strict guidelines. It’s not surprising that all links on Jasmine Directory are 100% SEO friendly as well as CSS, HTML and W3 compliant. By having your website listed on Jasmine Directory, you can enhance your business and get qualified traffic.

Ezilon.com

ezilon

Founded in 2002, Ezilon comprises of regional directories that include North America, Europe, Central America, South America, Middle East, Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, each of which represents a general directory of websites applicable for the corresponding region. Submitting your website to Ezilon allows you to reach a highly targeted audience with the spending potential, user demographics and interests that you’re looking for in order to boost your advertising campaign.

The directory charges a fee of $69 per year or a one-time lifetime fee of $199 for commercial websites. Free, non-commercial submission option is also available for charities, educational institutions, non-profits and associations as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations.

TIP: For a more comprehensive list, you may want to check this list at LeraBlog.

7 Comments

  1. I wonder for a smaller niche site that isn’t going to be getting too many searches is it worth paying the fees for these directories? is the backlink really that powerful? Especially with all the changes going on with SEO.

  2. awesome directories site list thank you for good effort.

  3. Google Directory no longer exists, right ? And Google says “use search, not directory”, so I’m thinking the Dmoz gets less relevant…

  4. is the directories good practice to pagerank ?

  5. Can you anyone tell me if yahoo Dir is still among the top ones?

    I am having ambiguity whether I should use or not .

    Thank you

  6. Dont submit in Ezilon.com directory they are fraud. I paid for 2 websites and there is no way you can discontinue with them, their is no way to contact them, their contact us form is working but you will never get any reply, their facebook page was lastly uploaded since 2013, their tool free number is scrap just answering machine.

    Dont use ezilon. I have to change my credit card number to discontinue with them.

  7. Anonymous User says:

    Your list could contain many more links. But those are one of the most popular website/directories.
    Nice article.

Leave a Reply