Are you looking for free directories to submit to? There are literally thousands of web directories available today. Almost every day a new web directory is being created and it is difficult to judge the quality and relevance of these websites. But you never know which website will be ranked high by the search engines when the next round of indexing happens.

Today the site may be free and ranked low but next week the same site may be ranked high in the search engines with high page rank and become a paid service! So, how to judge free directories to submit to?

Here are some factors to help you judge the free web directories

1. Are the directories search engine friendly?
2. Do the web directories provide static text links to the website? Many directories use javascripts, which are not search engine friendly. So you won't get any SEO benefit. But if it a high traffic web directory then you can still consider placing your link on the web directory to get targeted traffic.
3. Has the directory been around for a long time? Search engines value older directories more than newbie sites.
4. Quality of the web directory.
5. Quality of sites linking to the directory.
6. Human edited directory, response time to questions.
7. Are the directories listed in the top search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN?

A Few Top Directories That Are Search Engine Friendly


http://dmoz.org - The Open Directory Project
http://www.yahoo.com - Yahoo Directory
http://botw.org - Best of The Web Directory
http://sbd.bcentral.com - MSN Small Business Directory
http://www.joeant.com - Joe Ant
http://www.tygo.com - Ty Go.com
http://www.skaffe.com
http://www.wowdirectory.com
http://www.goguides.org
http://www.01webdirectory.com
http://www.abilogic.com
http://www.allthewebsites.org
http://www.topicalbeach.com
http://www.sitesnoop.com
http://www.web-beacon.com
http://www.yeandi.com
http://www.rlrouse.com
http://www.elib.org
http://www.portalboost.com
http://www.linkopedia.com


Some are free directories to submit to and others accept only paid listings. Some like DMOZ are difficult to get into but once your site is listed you can expect a big boost in your rankings and traffic.

Many of the directories on the list are highly regarded by the search engines and getting listed on them gives your site more credibility, visibility and a better chance to get higher ranks in the search engines.

These directories are crawled frequently so your sites will be indexed lot quicker. These one-way links are much better than reciprocal links in terms of seo value and your site is sure to rank better in the search engines. With thousands of free directories to submit to you can get tons of one-way links pointing your way some of them from top-quality web directories. With so many links search engines have to take note and your rankings will dramatically improve.

By including attention grabbing titles and key word descriptions your website might even get some amount of traffic. Most important if the human editors do not modify your descriptions you can a lot of links for the desired keywords and phrases, which gives you an added boost in the search engines.

Do not neglect the newer web directories especially niche directories even if they do not have page rank or search engine rankings. Niche directories that cater to your particular area of interest will tend to attract people who are looking for what you are offering. So it is a better match and you can expect highly targeted traffic to your website. So, when you are looking for free directories to submit to do not neglect the niche directories.