Table of Content:
- What is Directory Submission Site?
- Case study using the search engines to find such websites
- Feb.2023 updated list of still available Directory Submission Sites
- Conclusion - recommendation
What is Directory Submission Site?
Directory submission sites are something like yellow pages for websites and are not necessary for local business only. Maybe in the past such websites were catalogues, but today they are the most popular source of easy dofollow links to any emerging website.
Most of the sites offer free and paid links. Most of the sites do not require any user registration. Only ask for name, email and you can add your website URL. Free is free, but if you pay it will be approved faster. To me this makes no sense. Website administrator has to check the site content he is linking to anyway. Although the site content can change from decent to indecent from one day to another at leas initial site check has to be done. This indicates how serious is the site owner with regard to what is he linking to. It can't be money have priority. Also how you will update your entry or remove your link if you want to?!
The most important today is you want to use such site is to link it to your web site. Link it as many time as possible from the best quality sites in order your web site to be able to show on top of the search results and to get a visitors or exposure. Really?
Case study using the search engines to find such websites
Have you ever searched for "directory submission site"? I did it using one of the most popular search engines (SE) and the result was very surprising to me. Why? A lot of people pretending to be Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts are posting articles videos, social network posts about strategies and they get a lot of clicks. But the matter of fact is only the people running the SE know what is behind sorting the search results.
SE strive to deliver the most relevant content to the user. But what is the definition for most relevant? Ranking metrics are implemented from leading companies in this area. I know at least https://moz.com/ and https://ahrefs.com/. The metrics estimating domain strength are called Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR). All they have some way of estimating DA and DR and will give you partial access to part of their online tools for free.
Sure if you want more have to pay. A lot of factors are relevant for high value of the DA and DR, but what is always common is the number of the backlinks to your site. But it is not only the number important. Backlinks are not only My site, but also additional attributes of the HTML code introduced by the SE such as dofoolow, nofollow, UGC e.t.c. SE also claim backlinks must emerge naturally resulting out website unique content with very high quality.
BUT here is the contradiction. Average people having time to share opinion and post in internet social network and forums will 99% of the cases do a copy paste to a side where they are happy or unhappy with something. This is the natural way backlinks to appear as dofollow.
Actually the website administrators are those who append to normall dofollow
Below is the list of permanently increasing ' attributes. What is this, why and who needs it. Average person when driven by the content will simply copy and paste browser URL address like https://www.directorysubmissionsite.com/ and comment on it whether good or bad.
Site administrators are the one adding additional link attributes like below. Users who share their opinion on the web have no clue what is . Readers do not know what anchor text is anchor text'>
| rel=”nofollow” | tells to search engine crawler "do not follow" |
|---|---|
| rel=”sponsored” | tells to search engine crawler "sponsored link" |
| rel=”usg” | tells to search engine crawler "user generated" |
| rel=”ugc” | tells to search engine crawler "content submitted by users" |
https://ahrefs.com claims that they have 216 000 000 (million) Domains and 3.6 Trillion external backlinks in their data base. I do not even know how many zeroes after 36 to put here. SE also claim content quality and content relevance is the most important fur the search results.
Quality content and unique content. However there is one big HOWEVER. I want to see my site on top of the search results and not on top of the DA and DR. And here is the example for searching with one of the most popular search engine for "directory submission site". I will limit my results list analysis to the first 10 results (first page).
Searched in English language and location in Germany. I might even update and extend this if readers consider it interesting. One remark here. There is not a single site with a paid Ad word in the search results. For me it only means no one is really interested to promote directory submission site or yellow pages.
As of 15.Feb.2022 following search results:
| #1 | https://www.movinnza.in/directory-submission-sites DA31 and 6 links |
|---|---|
| #2 | http://www.expert-seo-training-institute.in/blog/directory-submission-sites-list/ DA33 and 390 links |
| #3 | https://theguidex.com/directory-submission-sites/ DA31 and 510 links |
| #4 | https://www.seokhazana.com/high-pr-directory-submission-sites-list/ DA20 and 343 links |
| #5 | https://www.thewebhospitality.com/directory-submission-sites-list/ DA57 and 325 links |
| #6 | https://seolinkworld.com/directory-submission-sites/ DA30 and 47 links |
| #7 | https://seosandwitch.com/directory-submission-sites/ DA38 and 3 links |
| #8 | https://www.sitereq.com/post/top-100-local-free-directory-submission-sites-list-for-seo DA32 and 137 links |
| #9 | https://www.digital-web-services.com/free-directory-submission-sites-list.html DA32 and 178 links |
| #10 | https://www.rgbwebtech.com/seo-checklist/page/directory-submission-website-list DA12 and 94 links |
Strange any funny enough there is NOT a single "directory submission site" on first page between the results. Anyhow on a first glance it is not possible to correlate DA and backlinks amount with the position in the search results. At least Why #1 with DA31 and 6 links and #5 with DA57 and 325 links? Content quality?
I can't and will be very grateful to someone dropping me a mail or a comment below to explain it. Up to page 7 of the search results I only see sites posting an article "Free Directory Submission Sites List" I which have nothing to do with Directory Submission Sites?! It is only about SEO, Digital Web Services, Website Design and Blog. At the end such results are also useful because contain at least the list of what I'm looking for, but I consider this as far away from most relevant search results.
Feb.2023 updated list of still available Directory Submission Sites
Anyway using the lists from the above sites I took my time and check and update the list as well. Because I want to keep the list alive and provide regular updates I have it posted on a separate page.
Please feel free to check it and make your own decision whether or not you want to use it. The list below is not something I exclusivly recommend, but fresh and up to date direction. Still in progress (sorry)
Conclusion - recommendation
Fact is search engines keep introducing new html link attributes. And the reason for this is they are starving to optimize results presented to their readers. This confirms links are stil very very important. If you want to promote your site and be able to show in the search results before page 25 I recommend to go for adding links starting with Directory Submission Sites or links in yellow pages. It will be greate if you leave me comment here with the latest relevant sites.
Thanks for reading this!