How to Find the Best Quality Directory to Submit your Website

Best Quality Directories:

• They pass PR from their linking pages
  
• They have relevant categories to your keyword focus
  
• They have a maximum of 20 outgoing links per page
  
• The page loads quickly
  
• They can be found in Google via the sites they link to
  

Poor Quality Directories:

• Too many links in images or banners *
  
• They use Javascript to control links *
  
• They put Rel="nofollow" on the outgoing links *
  
• They have Noindex/nofollow on robots meta tag *
  
• They ban search engines from the link pages with robot.txt
  
• They have 100s of outgoing links per page
  
• The page loads too slow for Search Engine bots
  
• The page is drowned in Google AdSense ads above the links
  
• They have spam or hidden text on the page (scraper directories)
  
• They put outgoing links in frames *
  
• They have "More Info" or "Detail" pages with the sites title in their title **.
• They put outgoing links in Images *
  
• They have spam in comment tags and alt tags ***
  
• They insist you place a link to their site on your home page ~
  
• Dynamic URLs with ? or ID or & in the link   %
  
• Too many hyphens in the file name %
  
• Not enough sub categories #
  
• They list gambling and adult sites in their directory #
  
• The links are not Search Engine Friendly 301 or 302 redirects on links
  

Optional Directories:

• Their listing is alphabetical so your link will move from page to page and thus PR may change.

Step by Step instructions to find a Quality Directory

1. Using the Firefox browser (with the Google PageRank tool) find a directory by searching for your major keyword and the word "directory of directories".

2. Look over the list for any directories that seem relevant to your keyword focus and go to the website. Make note of the home page PR (Page Rank)

3. Navigate to a category appropriate to your keyword focus

4. Make note of too many visual negative features on the page

• too much advertising
• too many of their own navigation links
• a lack of or too many submissions on the page
• too many banners, images, animations
• outgoing links are in a frame

3. Check out one of the sites they list in their directory. Run your mouse over the link. If all you see is a short URL to the website then the link is probably clean, however some websites have a URL that contains a bit of code in the URL that looks like this:
link.cfm?page=www.TheWebsiteTheyAreLinkingTo.html
or cgi-bin/dir.pl?u=http://www.TheWebsiteTheyAreLinkingTo.com

If you find any strange code in between their url and the site they are linking to then it is likely a redirect script. In which case copy the code and check it in this tool: Server Header Checker

If this tool indicates it's a 301 or 302 redirect then check it in this tool as some 302s are harmless traffic tracking scripts: Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker

If this tool indicates it's a non-search engine friendly URL then don't submit to this site.

4. If the link looks clean then go back to the linking page. Loof for "more info" or a "details" link connected to the listing. If you find one click on the link. If they Only list the sites title in their title (it shows up in the top of browser window) then avoid this directory as they will be competing for the keywords in your title. If they also list their title or other keywords in the title then it's ok.

5. Go back to the linking page. Copy off the site that is listed and use this command in Google: link:ThatSite'sURL.com. Look for that directory listed as a link to that site. If you don't find one then search several more sites (at least 6). If you don't find any site with a link to that site then it may either be too new or there is a problem with Google indexing their links and you probably shouldn't submit to that site. If you find a site with a link from this directory then it may be a good directory to submit to.

For more information on this topic see:
Submitting to Directories
Directories to Avoid
Directories that Pass PR (Page Rank)
How to find Scraper Directories
Keyword Strategy
Getting good Backlinks