This is the first time we created a directory using the phplinkdirectory script and I must say that I was pretty impressed with the way the script functions, pretty straight forward and easy to use. If you know how to read code then changing things around is not that hard. It was a little tricky getting the script to match the layout of our site but as you can see things have worked out just fine. If you are using IE then you may notice a little difference in the way things are displayed, but those differences are pretty minor from what I can tell.

Unlike some of the other business directories this directory is 100%  search engine friendly so you can submit your site  without having to worry about whether or not if you going to get a direct link to your site, this applies to both featured and regular listings. So if you have a business with a website in or around the Seattle area then go ahead and submit it to our directory for free but please read the guidelines before you submit. As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave any feedback regarding our Seattle Business Directory.

Visit our Seattle Business Directory today and get your business listed for free.

I guess we can say that this good news, after all, some web directories just happened to get caught in the cross fire, alot of directories were penalized just for being a wed directory and clearly did not deserve to be treated the way that google has been treating web directories lately. In either case it does show that google is willing to forgive your internet sins, but they sure do punish for a long time.

Anyway, this is just another quick update about the directory market, if you want to read more about what’s been going on and which sites have bounced back you might want to take a look at this thread. As always, thanks for reading and may the serps be with you.

Is it the directory markets fault that they did as instructed? Google demands relevant links in order to keep their search results clean, yet at the same time they are quick to punish your site for this as well.  It appears that if you own a web directory and have a bunch of links from other web directories then Google see’s this as some form of spamming, or that you are just buying up a bunch of links to point to your website. Google clearly has no respect for some of the older directories unless they are part of some huge company. As it stands now the only way to stay under the radar is to create a new directory that google knows nothing about. I say this because I have been seeing alot of this lately, seems like Google has no problem granted a nice page rank to new directories. Maybe it is because those sites are not receiving to much attention, or maybe Google is just testing them to see what they will do. In either case, I guess the best way to go about it now is to create a web directory with some funny domain name and then buy a bunch of high pr links to point at the site, seems alot harder for google to detect you this way.

I just wish they would stop playing this little silly game they have been playing with directories. Clearly the directory market is not going anywhere, more and more directories are still popping up every day, mostly from dropped domains which already have page rank, but most of us know those when we see them. Do they really think that directory owners are just going throw everything they have been working on in the trash? Some owners have thousands of dollars invested into their directories so you can bet that these guys are not going to just roll over and die.

Moreover, webmasters will never stop using them as a way to build links, and google will never stop crawling them. So again, everything that google is trying to do to kill the market is really just a waste of time. If they think that by dropping the page rank of well established directories is going to kill the market then they thought wrong. After all, most webmasters have stopped looking at the page rank of directories and now seem to focus more on the age and reputation of the site. This actually works in favor of those who have been around for awhile. But hey, no matter what we say google will be google and that is failing to understand that this market will never die. I could go forever about this but I’ll stop here. As always, thanks for reading and may the serps be with you.

Page Rank
One thing I have noticed about the Yahoo Directory is that if you can get your site listed within the first 10 pages of your chosen category then their is a pretty good chance that you will get some page rank juice, all other pages after that seem to drop to pr0, this isn’t true for all of the categories but most of the ones I have looked at tend to follow this format. So the trick here is to try and get listed in a category that does not have alot of listings, but this easier said then done, mainly because your site must be relevant to the category that you want to get listed under. The other thing is that there is no guarantee that your site will be approved for that category, the person doing the review might think that your site is better off in a different location. You can request for your site to be moved to a different category but this most likely will not happen, Yahoo is very picky about which sites are placed where, but if you really feel that it should be listed in a different category then go for it. So when it comes to getting some page rank juice from Yahoo it is pretty much a hit or miss but it is possible.

Traffic
Now when it comes to getting traffic from the Yahoo Directory I really have not seen any benefit from it, the only way that your site is going to get good traffic is if your listed in a category that does not have alot of other sites listed. Your best shot at getting traffic from this directory is to get listed in the sponsored results which appear at the top of the category, but doing this is going to cost you more money so you will have to decide if this is something you want to put in the budget. Some claim that they get tons of traffic from the Yahoo Directory without being listed in the sponsored results, this might be true for them but it does not mean that your site will get the same results. So the bottom line is that there is some traffic benefit but again this is pretty much a hit or miss, but it is possible.

Yahoo Rankings
Without question if you have a listing in the Yahoo Directory then you are going to rank better in the search engines, mainly in Yahoo and maybe even Bing since the two companies have a business relationship. You might get a boost in Google as well. The down side to this is that although you will most likely get a boost in the Yahoo search results that boost will only be based on the anchor text you have chosen for your listing. If the anchor is not relevant to the search query then you can expect your site to be listed some where in the back. The problem here is that you really have no control of the anchor text that Yahoo is going to display, this is also reviewed when you submit your site and there is no guarantee that Yahoo will approve the anchor that you want. For example, if you use “Web Directory” as your anchor then there is a pretty good chance that this is going to be rejected. However, if you use something like “Romow Web Directory” then this going to be alot harder to reject since it is the name of the website and is a 100% relevant to the category. So there is some ranking benefit from having a listing but like every thing else there are certain factors that have to come into play in order for your site to rank well.

Link Juice
The biggest advantage to having a listing in the Yahoo Directory is the amount of links you get from being listed. Most do not realize that Yahoo gives you more than just one link when you are approved. Yahoo has a dozen different directories and your site will likely get listed in every single one of them if your lucky. I can’t remember all of them off the top of my head but as it stands right now I have at least 5 links pointing to our directory from other sub directories of Yahoo including uk.dir.yahoo.com and au.dir.yahoo.com. These links are of course placed in their relevant categories and even though the sub directories have alot more links on the page it is still a good link and some of these even have a little page rank on them so to me this is worth the $300 yearly price tag.

Conclusion
After looking at all of the factors above I would say that a listing in the Yahoo Directory is worth the cost, every site has it’s pro and cons and there is not much that can be done about that, but if you want to add a little more authority juice to your site then I think you should invest the few dollars required to get listed. Now here is one more tip that some may not know about, if you have been listed in the directory for over a year and have a pretty good site there is a chance that you may not have to keep paying the yearly fee, Yahoo is known for letting some sites stay listed even though they have not paid the bill, so keep that in mind as well.  You can submit your site to the Yahoo Directory here:  Yahoo! Directory Submit. As always, thanks for reading.

Another factor you will want to consider is the type of directory you want to create. Do you just want to create a general directory that will be open to all websites? What about one that targets a specific niche or product? The possibilities are endless and there is still room for more. With some careful planing and a descent budget there is no reason why you directory can not be successful. I’m not saying that it will be easy, it takes time but it can work if done correctly. So keep those things in mind before you move forward.

With that said, I liked to point you to an article which will guide you in the right direction if you chose to start your own web directory. “How to Start Your Own Web Directory” from Hubpages. As always, thanks for reading.

Is the directory 100% seo friendly.
Alot of directories claim to be seo friendly just because they have direct links pointing to the sites listed in them, or because they optimized the homepage. However, imo this does not make a directory 100% seo friendly. There are other factors to consider when saying a directory is seo friendly.

For example:
Are all category pages optimized for the title tag.
Are all category pages optimized for the description tag.
Are all category pages optimized for the keywords tag.

These are the 3 most important, there are other factors to consider as well, such as page names, h1 tags, alt tags etc. The directories that have their sites set up in this fashion will provide the most benift to the sites listed in them. Sure it is nice if the pr is good on all pages, but pr is not the main factor when it comes to serps. I believe that directories that have their pages fully optimized are alot more valuable then directories that just have a high pr. The reason I say this is because if I have a site related to say gift baskets but I am listed on a page that only says gifts, then sure my link is somewhat relevent and could provide good serps, but being listed on a page that has gift baskets in the meta title, description, keywords and h1 and may be a little content, is going to be alot more powerful because the page that I am listed on is 100% relevant to what my site offers. Google can not over look links like this, they want links from relevant sites or pages.

Remember if you want to rank on the search engines you need relevant links, and directories can provide relevant links but only if the owner takes the time to make sure that the categories are relevant to the site listed in them. I have put together a list on index-it.net of my top 10 100% seo friendly directories which you can view here seo friendly directories.