The other thing is is that the results might be a bit skewed for a simple reason. From my experience directories can get quite a bit of traffic for specific queries. This is of course due to the fact that some categories of a directory (for one reason or another) rank good, while others don’t. It would be better in my opinion to have at least five sites submitted in each directory at different categories and then rank the directories based on the average position for five different search queries. This would also make it harder for people to try and manipulate the results by getting external backlinks.

Now, the real question is will I enter the competition? I just did, however, I have decided that I will not do any offsite optimization, I will not even link to the listing page of my entry from this post.

Good luck to everyone (you are going to need it to beat me lol)

Other noteworthy changes include that two of the most heavily marketed directories Alive Directory and Aviva Directory are finally getting the PR that everyone was expecting (PR7).

I suppose it would better to let things settle a bit more before I post my thought about this PR update and how it will affect new and established directories (like it or not it does affect them).

Most of the people when submitting to directories tend to use keyword rich titles (even if the directory guidelines say that it isn’t acceptable) thinking that it will help them with the SERPs. Aaron Wall has recently written a post about Google depreciating Anchor Text and I agree with him for the most part. However I have a slightly different theory about it. Google isn’t depreciating anchor text, it’s depreciating anchor text when it looks unnatural. Let me explain this theory of mine a bit more. All of us at some point we have visited one of the thousands of arcade or Myspace resources sites etc. These kind of sites tend to link exchange a lot and every owner wants to get a keyword rich title for his link. The result is a block of links that looks like:
Flash Games
Free Flash Games
Cool Flash Games
Flash Games
Addicting Flash Games
etc
Now tell me does this look natural to you? Obviously not and I suppose Search bots are clever enough now days to filter these results and devalue these links, so in this case anchor text might even hurt you (just my personal opinion).
On the other hand think of blog post that goes bla bla bla this is my favorite sites for playing Flash Games
Much better and I believe that in this case the anchor text really adds value to the link in this case.

Now how does this affects directory submissions? In some rare cases, submitters actually submit their sites at the right categories (yes I know it’s shocking but it’s true). So for example let’s assume that there is a category Games/Online Games/Flash Games
If everyone submitted their sites using a keyword rich title then we would have the same effect as the first example and a keyword stuffed page full of links with the same or similar anchor text. Doesn’t look good to me. I believe that it’s obvious that I believe that using the actual name of the website might be more beneficial.

Of course there is a third choice as well. The Title, Keyword Keyword one. This in terms of SEO benefits might even the best (don’t take my word for it). Plus it has an advantage in terms of SEM. Let me explain this with another non directory example.
Let’s say again that I am visiting the Game site at the first example and I see all these links with the same anchor text (just a regular visitor not a search bot). I obviously won’t visit all or maybe none of those links. Let’s now say that one of them has asked the owner of the site to use a title like Brandablenamehere: Flash Games. I am still not going to visit BUT I have seen the name of the site and that is related with flash games. Big deal you might say, and you are wrong (or might be wrong who really knows ). The reason that this is important is that if I see the name again the next day, and then again at another site after two days etc it’s becoming a brand in my mind (obviously the flash games niche isn’t the best for this example), and brand recognition is really important in Marketing.

So what would I do, I would definitely include the sites name in the title and if I am allowed to do so by the directory’s guidelines I would also add two to three descriptive keywords and vary these keywords between directories that allow keyword rich titles. Would I go just for the Keyword Keyword title? Not really, but I suppose most people would disagree with me.

Disclaimer: The contents of this post are just the personal opinion of the author (me ) and should not be construed as medical advice or substitute for professional care. If you are having symptoms of a heart attack each time the SERPs change please ignore the above post and consult your family SEO .

Informenter: Informenter is a form filling extension for firefox. This is the tool that I personally use the most for my directory submisssions.

Roboform: Probably the most well know and ost widely used form filling tool. If configured right and it can be extremely usefull for directory submissions but I avoid using it because it annoys me. Not that it is a bad software, actually it is really good but not for my taste.

Web Directory Form Filler: Haven’t used it but the demo looks really nice, a bit pricey but it looks like it is worth it.

Directory Expert: A tool that I have heard really good things about. I will probably give it a try and post a review.

If you know of any other tools feel free to comment and add to the list.

Moral of the story, concentrate on the obvious sources of traffic for your sites, they are easier to get and generally convert better for commercial sites.

Search Engine Saturation: Koopy has 431 pages indexed by Google (at the time of this review) which is not much compared with other directories but lets not forget that Koopy is a niche directory with only four top level categories (and no details pages for the listings). So I guess search engine saturation is very good.

Link Popularity: According to Yahoo, koopy has about 12.500 backlinks. Also if you look at the backlinks they are mostly relevant (at least the first ones) so it seems that the owner has done a pretty good link campaign. (Check number 7 , in case you get different results because of geotargetting it’s directories blog)

Category Structure: As you can see it is a very niche directory and there are very few different categories structures that could have been used. My main objection is that using as top categories free and paid and reciprocal might cause a few problems (I am saying that from my own experience since I did the same mistake at my directory). The main problem would be that directories turn from free to paid and vice versa all the time so it will be difficult to keep the listings accurate and up to date. IMHO it would be better if the top categories where General and Niche.

PR: For the PR obsessed Koopy has a pagerank of 2, but the top level categories all are PR4. This is probably due to the fact that Google didn’t update sites that had PR before the 4/4 update/

Traffic : Obviously I don’t know the traffic stats but I was going to take a look at my logs to see how much traffic it sends to my directory but I just realised that it isn’t listed. I guess I forgot to submit it. The Alexa rank is 218,623, not great but not bad either for such a niche directory.

Pricing: Koopy is currently free but offers sponsored listings for 24.95$. It doesn’t mention if it is a recurring fee so I assume it is a one off payment. The price is really reasonable, especially if you consider the fact that it has very limited real estate to sell featured links because of the very low number of categories.

Conclusion: Koopy as a niche directory does a pretty good job, especially in a very limited niche where there are some really big established directories like ISEDB and Search Engine Colossus. It’s a nice looking directory and you just can’t beat the price.

Now here are a few common mistakes when adding a title for a directory submission taken from examples in my current review Que (Things that you shouldn’t do)

Here is an example of a site trying to target multiple keywords in the title and thinks that I might actually approve it (specific keywords were removed)
Service 1 Location 1, Service 2, Service 3, Service 4, Service 5, Location 2
They don’t even mention the title of the site or even try to spam me with just one keyword they are going after at least five keywords and guess what, they have just lost a link and I guess if this is their standard practice many more in other directories (the site is not bad btw)

Here is an example of what I call an advert title:
Submit Your URL Here
What does that tell you as a title, great huh? and no it’s not the domain or the name of the site that is obviously a directory (tragic) and for Christ’s shake it’s not a term with an overture or something.

Of course there are always the separated multiple keyword titles like keyword 1 / keyword 2 / keyword 3 / Site name(the site name is optional )
Yes those are great, why? because I don’t even have to visit the site to reject it, thanks for saving my time.

Another great practice is the “Category Title” where they submit for example in the web design category and the use as a title for their site “Web Design“. Imagine having a directory page with 50 sites titled web design you may get some decent rankings for the term unless SEs penalize you for keyword stuffing.

To be continued…… (too many mojitos to go on now)

This isn’t about me or my directories but directory submission is fairly easy, nothing extreme is requested by most directories. A proper title, a proper description and adding sites at the most relevant categories is what most directories require. By following these simple guidelines you will surely get a much higher acceptance ration which means more backlinks. I don’t understand why people keyword stuff their descriptions, I can’t see how can this help with SEO, the only thing it can possibly happen is that the directory page where the description is will outrank the actual sites.

I find it especially funny when I see submissions from “professional SEO companies” that scream reject me without even visiting.

Edit to add, this is a description of a site submitted at one of my directories that I just came across (and it’s not something rare).

website, websites, website design, print design, logo design, print, logos, logo, website designer, website designers, websites that work, content management, site design, bespoke websites, java, html

Even if the site is listable there is no way that I am going to accept it with that description. So people submitting to directories please use proper descriptions and you will save both directory oweners time and your time as well and you will get more backlinks for your sites.