Submitting to Directories - Free Submissions
Google Penalty for Paid Links:
In fall of 2007 Google penalized directories charging a fee for submission which were promoting PR (page rank) in exchange for a paid link. Most of these directories were networks interlinking each other for the purpose of increasing their own PR. Google dropped their domains out of sight and removed their PR from their home page until they changed their methods.
Google has since requested that directory owners put rel="nofollow" on all links which tells the search engine to not follow the links. Very few directories do this however because nobody wants to submit to a directory if search engines won't record the link. However, those that don't put nofollow on their links will usually loose the PR on their link pages. So you can imagine the problem directory owners are faced with now when trying to get anyone to submit to their directories.
Currently there are no
Directories with PR on their link pages (unless they have placed nofollow on all outgoing links, so looking for a directory with PR is a useless pursuit. Google has been dropping PR on sites across the board with almost every update anyway because it's rumored it's trying to eliminate the value of PR, probably because it was a bad idea to start with when it is so easily manipulated.
One Way Links:
Google also devalued exchanging links with other sites and penalized triangular linking. If you can't buy links, and trading links doesn't bring as much benefit as it used to, this leaves one way links as the only acceptable method of gaining backlinks (in Google's eyes).
The problem with getting free one-way links is that directory owners want to get paid for their work. They often charge a fee for sponsored or featured links and also offer free links (so Google can't tell the difference between the two listings) but then they often don't accept free links. The only way to figure out which directories are truly accepting free links is to test them.
Testing a Directory:
You can't always tell if a directory is accepting submissions without testing it a few times. Some free directories accept submissions on the same day, some take a week or more and some take up to a year. Only by submitting several links to a directory can you get an idea of how long it takes for them to post links.
Some directory owners have stopped accepting any links since Google penalized directories for selling links and are trying to sell their directory behind the scenes without openly mentioning this on their website. They often have unique methods of thwarting submissions so they look like a valid directory but don't have to bother with link submissions. The do this by fixing the submit link so it doesn't work or giving so many ridiculous submission rules that it's not worth your time and effort.
When trying out a new directory (not necessarily new in age) submit a couple of older quality sites and then wait a couple of months to see if they are accepting links before submitting any more. If they don't accept those links then move on to another directory.
It usually takes about 20 minutes to find a decent directory and then submit to it due to so many problems which qualify them as
Directories to Avoid. If you have a list of tested directories then you may be able to accomplish this sooner but the more links you submit for a site the harder it gets to find links later on so it all averages out.
Submitting Free Links:
Sometimes a directory will claim it offers free submissions but require you to trade links. Most websites have PR on all their pages where directories don't so trading links in that situation is not as "free" as it appears with the directory getting all the benefit. Some directories hide the fact they are charging a fee so you have to go to all the trouble of submitting your site to find out there is a submission fee after you hit the submit button.
You also need to watch out for directories that list sites that Google considers "bad neighborhoods" and then your site will get demoted if you trade links with them. Also beware of sites that only list your domain URL, i.e., example.com as it won't help you rank for your directory name. You should always use your business name or your main keywords where possible.
