What Is A Directory In SEO?

Jake Sheridan
Nov 12, 2021

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Getting your site ranked legitimately and as quickly as possible is the goal for most website owners. Online directories for SEO can help this process, boost your Page Rank, and rank you higher in SERPs. Trying to get top rankings in Yahoo, Bing, Google, and other search engines will help your local SEO and other business efforts.

This article looks at what web directories are in terms of SEO, how they can help you, and how to best use them.

What is a Directory in SEO?

A directory for SEO is just like other business directories or business listings, where the directory compiles a list of businesses. A web directory for SEO is a website that journals topics in one or more categories and can also serve as a search engine. Websites like Wikipedia and YouTube are examples of directories. Google’s Adwords system will generate an ad if your keyword appears in the directory, meaning your site will get plenty of traffic, and you’ll find it easy to make money.

They usually focus on the various ways you can improve your site to get visitors, search engines, and social media sites. Many directories have listings for local businesses, services, articles, and more. Often they use paid advertising so you must follow best practices when using these directories.

Source: Templates

Why are Directories Important?

Directories are important when it comes to getting your site ranked because often, when you register for them, you will be given several inbound links, or backlinks, to your website.

As long as you have a high-quality website, your link is usually accepted on the site. Overall, they are a good way of getting traffic to your site, and they come in handy when it comes to search engine optimization.

Use citation lists, such as Google my Business and other good directories to improve web page rankings in SERPs.

Directories FAQ

Are directories bad for SEO?

Directory links are not bad for SEO if you do things right. If you end up posting your link on directories with poor content, then yes. Your rankings will drop, and if it is a link to an affiliate site or similar, you can get in trouble for using paid search engine traffic. However, if you are using them to get inbound links, they are perfectly fine.

Do directories Help SEO?

The advantage of directories is that they are available to everyone and contain useful information for search engines. They can be helpful if you include your site in different topics. For instance, if you are looking for links you can make the search section of your directory more specific, which will help get more traffic.

What are the types of directories?

There are three types of directories. The first are the general directories, which are usually sorted by date, topics, etc. The second are niche directories. They are usually linked to keywords, categories or other websites within their niche. Lastly, you can also get paid placement in paid directories. There are many free ones but they typically do not accept all kinds of sites and tend to be more specific than the general or niche directories.

Is directory submission still effective in 2022?

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with directory submission and many people still use it to get new backlinks. The biggest difference is that as search engines become more advanced and as companies such as Google eliminate directories from the index, there’s less traffic available. If you want some quick links to some specific pages on your website, or if you want to build up your site’s reputation, then directory submission is effective.

Don’t forget: check out the other definitions (over 200) in our growing SEO glossary.

Summary

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of directories in SEO.

It is a very useful element in link building but must be combined with other efforts if you are to get the most out of your SEO.

We at Loganix pride ourselves on our link-building services, so don’t hesitate to contact us with your queries. We can help you rank high, fast.

Hand off the toughest tasks in SEO, PPC, and content without compromising quality

Explore Services

Written by Jake Sheridan on November 12, 2021

Founder of Sheets for Marketers, I nerd out on automating parts of my work using Google Sheets. At Loganix I build products, and content marketing. There’s nothing like a well deserved drink after a busy day spreadsheeting.