Hardest part of directory submission

Directory submission secure some permanent links. But I found the process is very time-consuming. Based on your experience, which part or everything is harder.

 

The sheer bloody boredom of submitting to directories does my head in.

 

I think you worded that one just right.

 

find a list of good directories
http://info.vilesilencer.com/main.php?rock=seo-friendly.php or http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/free-web-directories.html

find the right category
Do a search for related sites in the directory.

find the location of the link for submission
Look for add, or submit website

repeatedly type title, url, description, keywords and emails
Use for instance roboform or make a txt file with your title and description.

track status
Use the exel sheet from vilesilencer and make comments after each submission or status check.

the whole process is time-consuming
If you don't want links than don't submit to the directories.

 

finding the right catagory is sometimes pretty frustrating.

 

a lot of the time i have to submit to a much more general cat than I want just cause the directory doesnt really have any place for my site.

 

Originaly posted by WhatiFind

Excellent resource - thank you

 

Here are some tips when submitting to a directory to ensure that your time is well spent. They are basic, but you would be surprised how many people (including DP readers) don't check their submission properly before they submit their site!

* Don't use fancy ASCII characters in your title or description.

* Use proper sentence structure, and correct capitalisation and spelling. (A directory is rarely going to accept your submission when it is entirely in capitals!). Don't keyword stuff - editors hate this.

* Carefully write a good quality Title, Description and Keyword set before you start posting. Simply cut and paste this into each form.

* Try to write a fair, unbiased description that accurately describes your website.

* Check your submission to ensure that characters have not been cut off the end because of size restrictions.

* Only use the correct name of your website as the title on your listing.

* If possible, give a backlink. This is the best way to get included quickly - as most webmasters would hate to reject a website that backlinks, no matter how bad it may be -- and yes, people who run directories do notice, and care about, backlinks.

*Submit to the correct category!! If you are a sole website developer, submitting to the general "Computers & Internet" category is not going to do you any favours when there is a "Computers & Internet > Internet > Web Designer" category. Don't just hope they won't notice... they will!

 

Nice post Tsection.

I think the hardest part for me are the late nights when you're trying to add more than you should at one time. I think your brain stops wanting to cut & paste anymore URLs. It would be easier if I just focused on adding 2-4 directories every day instead of trying to cramp 30-50 in on one or two nights.

 

I think we all agree on what the worst bit about directory submissions is. I think there are plenty of free resources out there with directories (free or conditional) that you can submit to.

Just wondering if there is any toolbar with an "Autofill" function similar to the Google Toolbar BUT one that fills in URL, email address, keywords, title and description. That would make life so much easier. It would be even more cool to have a toolbar that gave you the option of setting up multiple sites.

So, all you need to do is go to the submission page on a directory, click on "Autofill" and then select the website you want to submit from a list.

Until then, here's my non-technical suggestion as this is what I do at the moment. I have a text file that has the title, description, url, email and keywords for both my websites so that I can just copy/paste these when submitting to directories. It's not magic, but it's definitely better than re-typing everything again and again. Plus, it avoids any typos in your submission as well.

Oh, and whatever you do: Do not use the paid submission sites. They suck big time. I used one for one of my work sites (months ago). It promised a few thousand submissions (15,000 I think) but only sent us an email summary containing 30 odd sites (including failed submissions). The site is still showing only 150 links in Alltheweb. So, stay away from them!

 

Exactly. I have seen some offering even hundreds of thousands of submissions. Even if they are offering only a few thousand, checking their own backlinks first will reveal the truth.