Answer is, some do and some don’t. Why? Traffic wise, not much, most are coming from major search engines. On line presence, yes - building quality links with quality directories eg. article directories, general directories etc, would really boost your web pages in search engines results.
But how to determine which directories will produce quality links to your site. The term SEO friendly directories comes in mind, as it is essential to get the most out of your link building campaign with directory submissions.
Today, there are a few of these directories giving out links but not getting indexed with search engines. So, it will be a waste of time for you submit your website/blog to these directories. There are some with certain “negative” attributes attached. So, to help you in keeping track on your link building campaign with directory submissions, here are some of the basic features you can look at before your do.
It is best you've installed add on browser apps like SEO Site Tool for Chrome, for example, to help you out. Better yet, down below, I’ve listed a few SEO friendly directories with free and paid links submission which I personally have submitted websites/blogs to them. Do browse around.
What Makes A Directory SEO URL Friendly?
META Tags
Meta tags is essential with search engines. The easiest way to find out is through the search engine itself. If you find a free directory, try copy and paste a certain submission on that directory to your favourite search engine. See the results. If none were found, the links is not indexed and possible meta tags were in play.
You can also use the add on browser tool to see what’s inside a certain directory page. Look at the <head> section and see if this tag is around - <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>- Avoid this! It means that web crawlers comes to these pages and ask them to not index the page/s and do not follow the links.
The No-Follow Rule
Most free submission directory has "no-follow" attributes for links in its pages - that's fine. What do you aspect, as the submission is free anyway! But if the links are premium, you should have the "follow" attributes. It’s part of the service. Again, use the browser tool to check on the link's nature.
The good part of no-follow links with directories is the strong connection/links from your title submission in the directory itself to your descriptions. Make full use of it. If robots could not follow the external links, it will be favourable to you when the directory pages itself is fully indexed. You can find out the ideal methods creating unique title and description submission for your website/blog and gain more exposure in search results through directory submissions.
Links Generated By Javascripts
Probably you might also know that Javascripts or Js is not that friendly with web crawlers. So if links were generated with javascripts, just move on. A sample link by Js would be - <a href=”></a>, where you actually can not find your domain/pages url in the link structure itself.
Redirected Links
Not much of a help there either. The submission link to your website does not pass the juice through indexing. A sample link structure would be - <a href=”http://www.thewebdirectory.com/link.php?link_id=53”>Your Domain</a>. As you can see, no links structure again to your url.
Links With Parameters
This is another trick done by directory developers/admin. Again, same concept with redirecting and no-index method, it will only boost the directory exposure and leaving your website links at bay. A sample link from a directory with too many parameters would be - http://www.thewebdirectory.com/link.php?u=23&as=2323434324&as=23423asfsfas &pw=32433.
It has been said that most search engines do not index pages with too many parameters in the url or place less value on links residing on such pages. A simple test, just hover your mouse on a certain link in the directory, right click and copy the url. Try pasting it on your favourite browser. If the results like above, move on!
There are more ways to determine if a directory is friendly and useful for your on line link building campaign. It’s tiring though, but the results sometimes comes in the short run, but mostly it will take effect in the future. So, why not start now, and see what's the result would be.
As I promised before, here are a list of general web directories, with good Page Ranks, which I personal have submitted and approved. I could call it quality directories, as all submissions are up and running sites, human edited with various categories which will suite your site niche. Furthermore, these directories, have a handful of traffic with them and updated regularly too?
You can find out the list of human edited friendly directory for more info. Another way to help kick start and strategize your link building campaign for your business website, personal blog or your web pages.
