List of Directories that people actually use

Can anyone tell me which are the directories that people around the world actually use for searching for the website they need. I am not asking for high PR, not for easy to submit, not for 30 seconds submission. I need those ones that people use.. Any help?

 

Yellowpages
BROWNBOOK
BING

 

It will usually be niche type directories. There are obviously a lot of spammy general type directories that are not doing so well right now.

 

The web directory industry is dying since this:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/matt-cutts-explains-how-google-handles-paid-directories-video/40511/

I'm not a fan of Cutts, however, from Google point of view it's logical what he's saying.

Sadly, yeah, it's true that 99% of the web directories out there are nothing but trash, but there are still a few very good directories that have their own editors. The suggestion fee is not equivalent with "guarantee of acceptance," rather someone's time and effort is paid.

I'd stay away from directories having no editorial discretion at all and it's easy to spot them: just check out a loan category, or a SEO one, and if you see spammy titles, keyword repetition, spam description, usage of words like "leading", "best" etc... you'll know that specific directory is nothing but trash.

However, there are still a few directories that are 100% Google compliant. And when I say Google compliant, I refer mainly to the editorial discretion they apply (there's one thing to have your own editors, to have some strict guidelines, manually add useful resources and another thing to rely only on what the users suggest). I'm most certain NASA or USA.gov won't submit their websites to any web directory.

More about it here:

http://www.jasminedirectory.com/best-web-directories.html

Oh, and "paid web directories" is a misleading term. The suggestion fee is not equivalent with "guarantee of acceptance," rather someone's time and effort is paid (because, you see, to deliver quality, no-one will donate you money to afford a a fast server, editor's time, maintenance fee - you see... not all of us permit themselves the luxury to save the wales...)

On the other hand, the sites like SEJ, MOZ (which promised to make a so called "white list project") never bothered to update their lists because they have no profit. Other lists haven't been updated since 2008. But they still rank and create confusion.

Hope it helps!

 

that's right. If your site is listed in exact match category of a website, no one is going to complain

 

There are many. yelp, yell, dmoz, yellowpages, brownbook, hotfrog