We have added 150 new free directories over the last 3 weeks. See our newly added free directories. The list has over 3000 free general listings again.

We have been busy during February.  We are continually  cleaning up and adding new directories to our free directory list.

Below are PR stats that result from queries to our database of 19,000 directories.

Directory PR Statistics as of Jan 25, 2011

Directory PageRank have been very strong over that last 6 Google PR updates. The following table compares PageRank in our database, showing percentage changes between April of 2010 and the present.

Change since the Last PR Update

Factors that may have affected these numbers:

• Since many of the directories are added by the editor of this site, the directories included cannot be considered random. The results of any given date can be skewed by the types of directories that were added in the previous period.  Of late, we have stopped adding most .info general directories.
• We have recently added about 500 social media / social bookmarking sites.

As a result of the factors above, the statistics produced are more useful in showing general long-term trends.

Feb 3, 2011

I have created a new table that represents the percentage distribution of PR.

Sep 27, 2011 -  Our submission process has  moved to a new Directory Submission form.

We research and add the majority of our  listings ourselves so your directory could be in our list.   Please do a search of our directory list. Search for your domain, without the http://

If your directory is not listed then we will gladly add it for free. Our only criteria is that the website is a directory of websites that offers  some type of submission process. We do not list adult directories. Please be advised that low quality directories may be given nofollow attributes.
To have your directory considered for inclusion in our list of directories simply add a comment below using this format:

Directory*:  the domain where the directory is located
Directory Type*: (e.g. general, travel,  blog, USA, French language)
Cost of a Listing*: Free, Paid or Reciprocal

A “free” directory should provide permanent “dofollow” listings without requiring anything in return (like a payment or reciprocal link)

Example:

Directory URL*: legaldirectory.com/dir
Directory Type*: Niche / Legal
Cost of a Listing*: Paid

  To submit, add your info as a comment  below.

In order to identify automated submissions only comments in the above format will be reviewed. We  review submissions  every 5-15 days.  This post replaces the previous one.

Note:  A small percentage of users receive a blank screen when they try to add a comment. We suspect that these people are getting caught in Askimet’s spam software. If you receive a blank screen please use our contact form to send us your directory info.

Remember
Web Directories Only.  Your comment will not be posted if your site is not a web directory. 

I must start this post by admitting that I once was a fan of automatic approval directories.  I even recommended some.  I like the instant feedback and the instant link.  There were some that did a good job of eliminating the spam submissions (or maybe there was less back then) and would go through the listings often enough to get rid of the ones that didn’t below.  Of course that was in the day when everyone was in a race to get as many links as they could, as fast as they could.

As we approach 2011 things are much different.  Google’s is now extremely good at what it does.  They have a wide range of ways to identify good and bad links.   So what do I see happening in the directory industry.  The opposite. Some people are creating automatic approval sites that are part of large networks of identical directories.

What you have is:

1. A large network of directories are hosted on the same IP  =  CRAP
2. The directories are clones of each other and have no original content  = CRAP
3. The directories all sites submitted – no moderation   =  CRAP

The result is an exponentially crappy directory – CRAP to the power of 3

Say no to Crap.

Since links are so important to search engine rankings there is a strong incentive for website owners to to increase their links   An owner may generate hundreds of dummy websites containing little relevant or original content,  They would have backlinks pointing to their main website or inter-links between the sites.   The cost and time of running this ranking method would be greatly reduced if the owner hosted all of these websites on the same server (host).

Does this method work?

This type of scheme probably worked for a while, but over time the better search engines identified and discount the culprits.  Search engines can check to see if the inter-linking websites are hosted on the same IP or IP address range. If the web sites are in the same IP address, it is highly likely that they are operated by the same individual. Search engines devalue links from web sites pointing to other web sites hosted on the same IP address range.  They may make exceptions for large shared sites like Blogger.

The Ideal Links 

The search engines (especially Google) are very good at identifying sites that are trying to game the system. When building your links you should try to keep our link profile clean. First of all, links to your website should not have inter-linking websites from the same IPs.

Ideally:

- the links should come from different class C network addresses.

- the domains should be registered with different registrars using different names.

- the sites should not use the same template or have large chunks of similar text.

- the acquisition of your links should come close to a natural link profile.

Following these principles when link building will help ensure that your links are counted and your site is trusted.  Going too far the other way can result in low rankings or penalties.

Dedicated Hosting

I often get the argument that it is not necessary to host your website on a dedicated IP.  I completely agree.  In fact, Matt Cutts confirmed the fact in a recent video.

Yes, our list of free general directories is in better shape than it has been in the last 5 years. The first quick review happens when a new site is added to the list.

Usually, I use an assortment of automated and manual methods of keeping the list updated. I regularly do separate checks for dead directories and parked sites. I also check through the data and identify the networks of directories hosted on the same IP.  I supplement that with feedback from our loyal users (reports) and information we get from our manual submission service. For the free list, I regularly review high PR listings and try to outline the ones that are active.

Why is it better?

Over the last week, I have being doing a detailed review of the free list by hand.  I have been concentrating on identifying the directories that are not actively adding free submissions.  Along the way I have cleaned up a lot of things to make the list more useful. I am almost done the top PR sites and  and done most of the PR2s. I was quite shocked at the number of sites that call themselves free directories although they are obviously only listing featured listings.  While looking through the list just stay away from the sites with red comments.

Update: Jan 25, 2011 -  The directory submission page has moved.    

We research and add the majority of our directory  listings ourselves so your directory could very well be in our list.   Please do a search of our directory list

If your directory is not listed then we will gladly add it for free. Our only criteria is that the website is a directory that offers  some type of submission process. We do not list adult directories. Please be advised that low quality directories may be given nofollow attributes.
To have your directory considered for inclusion in our list of directories simply add a comment below using this format:

Directory URL*:
Directory Type*: (e.g. general, travel,  blog, USA, French language)
Cost*: Free, Paid or Reciprocal

A “free” directory should provide “dofollow” listings without requiring anything in return (like a payment or reciprocal link)

Example:

Directory URL*: abctraveldirectory.com
Directory Type*: Niche / Travel
Cost*: Free

  To submit, add your info as a comment  below.

In order to identify automated submissions only comments in the above format will be reviewed.. We  review submissions  every 5-15 days.

Note:  A small percentage of users receive a blank screen when they try to add a comment. We suspect that these people are getting caught in Askimet’s spam software. If you receive a blank screen please use our contact form to email your directory info.

Remember:  Directories Only.  Do no add you site if it is not a web directory. 

Over the last couple of months, I have been paying special attention to  the high PR directories that are part of our free general directory list.   I have observed two main problems.

1. Many of the sites are dropped domains.
2. Many of the directories have long ago stopped approving free submissions.

1. Dropped Domains

A dropped, or expired domain is a domain name whose registration was allowed to lapse by the original owner.   Some owners slap a directory on a high PR domain with the goal of making a quick buck.  These owners use category dumps that are already widely used.  These sites often have no original content at all.  If things go well they will leave the directory up.  If not they will just shut it down.  In many cases the site loses it’s PageRank over the next couple of updates.

 2.  Directories not approving free submissions.

A high PR free directory receives thousands of submissions per month.   Many of these do not approve any of these free submissions. I have noticed that many approve a couple of dozen per month, which could easily be the number of paid submissions they receive.  Some sites have not approved a free submission in years.

Most people like high Pagerank directories.   Please consider low PR directories for free submission.  If you select good, original directories that have good editing standards the directory will have a chance to grow over time.  Ideally, your listings will  still be on the site 5 years from now.

We have been busy  over the last couple of months.  Web-Directories.ws now has 18,000 directory listings.

We have been aggressively researching directories.  Mostly from Google.  We have concentrated on adding regional sites.  Most of the recent additions this time around came from Canada.  We just finished a research project for Canadian city directories.  Here is a link to the Canadian directory listings.

Over the last 6 months we have added thousands of new directories. Most of these have been regional and niche directories.  We have reached this new number despite our effort to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.  Thousands of directories have been deleted,  Many inappropriate, parked or otherwise dead directories are gone. We attacked the listings in various manual and automated manners to clean it up. We have stopped listing large networks of directories along with most .info directories.

As a result, the number of general directories has not increased.   The number of free directories has actually gone done.  Here is our free directory list that now has 2700 listings.

I have just created a new directory SEO glossary. The glossary contains definitions of common directory lingo along with many of the terms used in the directory reviews on this site.  I will be adding to this list in the future and going into more detail as to the SEO do and dont‘‘s with respect to directory submission.

Have a look at the Glossary of Directory SEO Terminology.  I would appreciate your comments here.