The growth of free web directories
Several years ago when I first began to work online I noticed that free web directories were a relatively untouched area in terms of building links to a new site. As most people who work in the search engine optimization and internet market fields know, building links to a website is probably the best way to improve your search engine rankings. Typical directories, such as the Yahoo web directory, generally charge a nominal fee for a listing. Sometimes, as is the case with the Yahoo directory, these fees are recurring, either on an annual or yearly basis.
Lately, however, there have been a growing number of web directories that offer free submissions. These sites have become increasingly popular as people have started to realize what a great source they are for building link popularity.
How do free web directories work? The concept is fairly straightforward. A free web directory is basically a collection of links to quality websites where the links are organized by category. This, in theory, makes it easy for people to find the kinds of web pages they are looking for quickly. And, again in theory, because these sites are all manually approved (that is, to be listed, your site has to be approved by an editor), the quality of the websites will be higher than what you might find in typical search engine result pages.
I personally submit my new websites to a large number of free web directories whenever I start out on a new project. It is relatively time consuming, but it generally seems to be worth the trouble because of the large number of inbound links you can acquire in a fairly short period of time. In my opinion, free web directory submissions is still one of the best ways to build links, particularly for new sites that have not yet become established.