10 SEO Friendly Directory Submission Services
In 6 Great Free Resources, I mentioned Jeff Johnson’s free Underground Training Lab.
I studied the videos that come with this outstanding information. In particular I was very curious about directory submission services. Jeff recommends using them, up to 100-200 directory submissions for your traffic generating sites up to a 1,000 for your money making websites.
I don’t think there’s much value in submitting your site to thousands of directories, as most of them aren’t decently indexed by the search engines and lots of them do not pass link juice. Those that do are so crowded that listings are split into several pages, where you will end up at the last page without any significance.
Also, IN GENERAL, directories do not generate much traffic, as few people visit and use them.
But there are exceptions!
And prices are dirt cheap. In fact, some offer submissions services so cheap that it’s hard to believe they can make money from it.
So I did a search using Google and came up with 10 Directory Submission Services that seem worth to try out.
Let me first emphasize this: I haven’t used these submission services.
I’ve used services like this offered on forums by people I knew, but not from search results.
So I can’t recommend any of them. My intention simply is to provide an overview from which you can select your own resource and try it. No guarantees!
As you can see from the search, I added ’seo friendly’ to the term, meaning that I only wanted submissions to directories that pass (some) link juice.
I also added ‘manual’ to avoid directory submission services that use software to submit your sites.
The search produced thousands of results, of which I took those at the top that looked great and also included a submission report, or at least mentioned it. It seemed to me, that if a directory submission service is in the top 10 of a search result, they must be serious about their business. That does NOT mean there aren’t any other great ones, see below.
I skipped submission services offered on forums, because they mostly are individuals, not established companies. But that doesn’t mean they’re not good. Just try them and you may end up with a virtual assistant who does all the submissions for you.
The same applies for individuals that do submission services on freelance sites.
Also, I didn’t look specifically for services that submit to high pagerank directories, because these higher P-rankings mostly apply to the home page, not the listing pages. Besides that, IF a listing page has a high PR, most of the time it’s cluttered with thousands of links, reason to split the listings into multiple pages which results you ending up on the last page with no PR at all.
In general, I found that if you buy more, prices will go down, but I’ve also seen services, like Compbizz, where prices go up. I suggest you compare these offers thoroughly.
The time necessary to submit to the directories varies from just one day to months for large packages. Always check that.
If you see a submission service to 900 directories done in 1 day, there’s something fishy going on. Make sure there’s a solid relation between the submission time and the number of submissions you want.
That’s why I hesitated to include one of the services below. I found it hard to believe that they can submit your site to 100 directories manually for only 5 dollars, but it’s what they say they do.
Again, check thoroughly.
Sometimes more variables than I searched for apply, like
- a certain number of submissions to PR5+ directories
- spreading the submissions over a certain number of IP addresses
- the opportunity to submit different titles and description of your link
- deep linking (pages within your site)
Some services even guarantee their submissions. Therefore, you should take your time to compare all these different offers.
The aforementioned variables show, that cheaper doesn’t always mean better. It’s what you want that counts, as is the quality of the service (which, again, I did NOT test).
I also want to emphasize that the overview below is just a short selection of what I found. There are many, many more submission services and I may have missed some good ones. Use the Google search link above to find your own favorites.
Finally, if a submission service lists the directories they will submit to, it’s very wise to study that list, so you get an impression of the quality of the directories submitted to.
So do your own due diligence and be prepared to loose some money as I can’t guarantee the quality of the services listed below.
Here’s the overview of manual directory submission services that I’ve found.
| Submission Service | Min. Order in US $ |
Mininmum Directories |
Price Per 100 |
| Directory Maximizer | 5 | 35 | 14 |
| iNetZeal | 40 | 250 | 16 |
| Directory Site Submit | 30 | 170 | 18 |
| Directory Vault | 15 | 30 (PR5) | 23 |
| Submit 2 Please | 100 | 500 | 20 |
| Submit Edge | 15 | 100 | 15 |
| Compbizz | 7 | 100 | 7 |
| Cheap Directory Submission | 5 | 100 | 5 |
| GNNLive | 18 | 150 | 12 |
| Directory Submission Service | 35 | 500 | 7 |
| Link Building Dir | 10 | 100 | 10 |
| Nation Submit | 8 | 100 | 8 |
Ah yes, there are 12 submission services. I thought it was good to add two extra, just in case.
Let me know what you think of it. Post your comments below.
Also, if you have any experience with one of these services or another one, please let us know what you think about it.
Tags: Directory Submission Services, software, submissions, traffic
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May 22nd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Thanks for the lovely blog on directories submission service. There is a lot of points worth to be mention in your blog, but I will comment on just one or two.
Directory submission site/company are far better than individual submission service, it better to dill with company/site than individual.
It is better to ask for the list of directories your site is going to be submitted to for better assessment. And to make sure that your site is not submitted to a back listed directory
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Very helpful post! I’ve tried directory maximizer — and they’re pretty good. They also provide a list of SEO friendly directories so you have the option of submitting yourself. 14 dollars saves you a lot of time though.
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I’ve always been a little skeptical of these services, simply because the price usually seems to be either to cheap to believe, or ridiculously high. Probably why I’ve always done my own. Although DirectoryVault looks pretty good.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:21 am
I’ve used Submit Edge and Directory Maximizer and I can vouch for Directory Maximizer being the far superior service, especially with their customer service and the features they offer.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:30 am
Good post, well i was finding this kind of post to develop directory links for my site. Thanks for the list of directory sites.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:31 am
I’ve never used any directory submission software. I don’t like taking control out of my hands. I fill better if I get to control the rotation of the anchor text and stuff like that.
I do use some software that helps speed up submission, but allows me to see all the information and I just have to hit submit. That way i get to stay and control and not waste too much time.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 am
Thank you so much for researching those SEO “friendly” websites. It’s a great list that I will definitely look more into. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
That’s a great list you have there, thanks for the informative post. I have been getting some private people through DigitalPoint forums, but dealing with a more establish system could definitely be advantageous.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I’m too paranoid to give someone take care of my linking. And I find it relaxing to go through my directory list and submit sites for one hour every day. I usually do 5 of my sites to 10 directories.
This way, I get 300 links for each website in one month, free of charge. If I have a site that I know will be there for a long time, I want to make sure links will come slowly, with different anchor and that they really WILL be submitted.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I’m not a big fan of directory services, but that’s mostly due to the fact that a lot of them end up being scams :/ – sometimes even if they are legit, the PR doesn’t see drastic increase. My goal: Create good content, visitors and links will come after.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Theres no getting around the fact it’s time commsumming building links Keeping it in your own control is worth your ROI.
May 24th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I have found more directories than that which help. What about WoW, V7n, iWebtool, and more…all of those directories are good.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:26 am
I wouldn’t let anyone take care of my link. no way.
“”Create good content, visitors and links will come after.”" yes but a WHILE after. On the other hand some of them do turn out to be scams. I’ve found some which aren’t though. Try looking around for them. They can help.
May 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I have used programs like this in the past, however I have noticed that I can have much more control when I do it myself. It doesn’t seem to take much time and is free.
May 26th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Great resource thanks. Also a special thanks for the people who have used and reviewed some of these services. It feels like it takes 5 bad experiences before you have a good one with online services.
May 26th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I’m not sure which internet some are working on where directory submission “doesn’t take much time”.
Or maybe they have a different definition of how long “much” is.
Directory submission is on my list of effective ways of promoting a website, but far down toward the bottom of that list. An hour a day or more is too much personal time to be spending on it even if I could have a little more control over anchor text. Much better to outsource a necessary but low priority task like this.
Thanks for the list!
May 26th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Exactly Carl.
My time is much too precious to submit to every directory myself. I can make so much more money doing something else.
May 26th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Till now I didnt concentrate much on directory submission. But you wrote interesting points here. I will check up with couple of sites from your list.
thanks
May 26th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Nice post, Case, and I liked the way you debunked the myth of ‘more is better’ for directory listings with this quote:
“I don’t think there’s much value in submitting your site to thousands of directories”
Quality beats sheer numbers most of the time in terms of getting good traffic to your site. Thanks for sharing that list of directory submission services.
All success
Dr.Mani
May 27th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Since i don’t have much time, i will surely try some of these hoping they function well, since i think that directory submission is an important part of a link building strategy.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:08 am
I use website submitter from submit suite and find it quite goods. Though it takes up lot of your time.
Regards,
CA Ashish Ahuja, FCA
A Roaming Blogger and a CA
May 27th, 2008 at 8:07 am
I’ve used Directory Maximizer numerous times and can honestly say that they have a great account administration console that makes it very easy to start submission for all your websites, and they keep track of the directories you are submitted to so they never submit duplicates.
For $14 per 100 submissions they are not the cheapest directory submission service but probably the most user-friendly. From my experience I never gained any noteworthy results from these directories but they do build up your number of backlinks if you continuously submit over a long period of time.
Just be sure to check the email address you give them, a lot of the directories send out confirmation emails that you have to respond to for them to acknowledge your submission.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am
I’ve not got much of a budget so I hand submit them my self using the free version of directory submitter by Brad Callen. It’s a nice bit of software to use and I’m currently working my way through the hundreds of directories, very boring indeed!
Becky.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I’ve tried a variety of directory submission services with varied results. You can get a lot of donkeywork done for very little cash but the results are not always too impressive. A good point was made regarding the acknowledgement e-mails that are sent out – make certain you respond to them. Often worth setting up a dedicated e-mail account.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Directory dominator is another one that has been around for some time. Helps as well.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Very useful post! Thank you!
May 27th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
This is EXACTLY the kind of high quality post that provides value to all of us. I’ve been trying out lots of different directory submission softwares and have settled on Directory Submitter from imWishList. I’m using the free version and it works well for me.
As for submitting links to hundreds or thousands of directories, I sort of agree with you. A link is a link is a link…sure some are lots better than others. And there is a point of diminishing returns that probably occurs before you reach the thousands category. That said, i shoot for about a hundred and if I happen to be able to get more than that, i will.
Thanks again for the great post and links and keep up the good work!
May 27th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Directory submissiona are a great way to boost your ranking in the search engines. I’ve never heard of any of these services but will definitely consider looking at them the next time I have to do submissions.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Directory submissions can be an effective way to gain links, however, the time it takes to enter all the information for each directory isn’t worth it. Sometimes it takes months or even years till your links start showing up.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I have to agree with Nashville SEO up there; I’m somewhat of a control freak, so I just don’t know if I can fully entrust the work into someone else’s hands. I do use a “semi-automatic” submission software, and it speeds the process up WAY faster than entering the usernames, passwords, emails, URL’s, etc. by hand, so it’s somewhat of a decent middle ground. Call me OCD, but I gotta be in control.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Great post! Thanks for the list of directory submission you have shared here!
May 29th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Thanks for the informative blog. I’ve been submitting all by hand and it’s a big pain. I think it will be useful to utilize some of the companies you posted. Thanks!
May 30th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Do you think that paid directories are better than free directories?
May 30th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Wow awesome list of directories. Nothing beats paid or free directories as long as you get some traffic
May 31st, 2008 at 6:23 am
I know one more way on how you can easily submit your site to numeral directories. For this you have Alsubmitter program and database with directories for it, that you can find and download.
May 31st, 2008 at 8:39 am
This is a great list. It would be interesting to see you expand that list beyond 10 though, say maybe the top 50?
June 1st, 2008 at 3:48 am
Those are very popular brand names who do Quality submissions.I have heard all of them doing very successful business.
Just a thought, there could be some other websites who gives that quality.
Anyways very good lists and recommended one too.
Thanks
Chris
June 1st, 2008 at 12:35 pm
For the most part I agree that directory’s are pretty useless. I have applied to some free directory’s though. This list gives me something to think about, thank you.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:58 am
My online gift store (goodnperfectgifts.com) is less than a year old so I appreciate this timely info.
I chose to contact the one titled Directory Submission Service as they claim they can guarantee listings vs submissions only. I emailed them a question 3 times and haven’t received a response which doesn’t lend to their credibility.
I will check out Directory Maximizer based on the comments posted. Thank you all for your input!
June 8th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Just want to say that that above list of Directory Submision services websites is really helpful for me. I just bought a plan from submitedge.com and i think it is best directory submission service. I have choose the plan “600 High PR Directory Submission Service Package – 12 Days” for Only $50.It is really cheap and best plan.
I know that uou have taken some pain to collect/compose this list. Thanks a lot. Two thumbs for you. Keep it up.
June 9th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I have been searching for a combination of directory submission and search engine submission software and or services. The results when you are search for one or both are exhausting and you don’t know which works and which are scams. I am surprised more SEO experts don’t write about who they prefer as far as companies that submit and software.
I have been using a free service offered with my domain registrar/hosting company for a few of my sites for over 6 months now and have not had any great results. There are so many services and types of search engine and directory submission software that I feel overwhelmed when trying to find the best. I end up just giving up and moving on to my next online chore. With over 50 sites, I need something affordable that delivers real results. In this day and age, you wouldn’t think it would need to take in some cases, months for your listing to appear in their results. DMOZ seems to be corrupt or something because it is nearly impossible to get listed unless you know someone or beg. I have been in BOTW and Joeant for months but still to this day, most of my traffic comes from Google, Yahoo and AOL.
One thing I have found that truly helps is to create a blog for your website. This gets your site spidered much faster and it also makes it so your updates appear in the search engine results faster usually, than if you had not created the blog.
I am still searching for a service or the software that will get my sites listed in the important directories and search engines without breaking the bank.
I will give one or two of the services you listed a try.
I very much appreciate the list and the comments. I am glad to see this topic discussed.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:25 am
I have used a lot of submission services in time, but in most cases, it’s a waste of time. Just my appinion
June 10th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I own one of the above listed companies (or rather brands).
I must say that directory submission remains as an integral part of any search engine optimization campaign. Some people think that it is a waste, but we have seen that even simple directory submission can get rankings for some less competitive (or moderately competitive) keywords.
So, it has to be in your SEO mix!
And yes, do not ignore low PR directories. Even if 10% of them become successful and become “paid directories” in next few months / years, you will get many times your money back! They are like penny stocks.
Abhishek
June 11th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I would say among the directory submission services that directory maximizer is the best — they also provide a directory of directories that’s very useful. Thanks for the info.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Directory submission should be done in great directories with good PR and prestige. And not to 100.000 directories with PR 0.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I think care should be taken when dealing with directories with little to no PR. In fact, I think too many backlinks from the wrong sites can actually work against you. Thanks for taking the time to compile these directory sites!
June 27th, 2008 at 3:08 am
Hi,
I have used Submitedge for 1250 Directory Submission Service and found their service to be helpful and i tried them for DMOZ submission and i got my listed in Dmoz in less than a week which was amazing.
I never would have imagined my site listed in Dmoz lol..
June 28th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Good post that covered many aspects. To find out a serious directory submission service company that would give value for money check
1. If it gives any guaranteed listings. Also check if they are getting links from a directory network. A directory network is owned by one or two individuals. They maintain hundreds of web directories ( generally paid with a small fee ). If you pay a small fee your site will be added on all those directories. The problem here is all those directories are very similar and contains exactly SAME content that is same sites listed. And most of those directories share same c block IP address.
2. Now make a comparison of guaranteed listings and the price they would charge. This should give you some more idea of a directory submission company.
Kalyan
July 4th, 2008 at 2:27 am
I am not a big fan of submission services. I like to submit my sites by myself because in that way I can do that slowly over the time and I can randomly change the anchor text and description. I believe that those 2 things are very important to have in mind while submitting.
July 12th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
While I have used a submission service I got a huge bang in links on yahoo, only to have them slowly and surely disappear on the back links to my site. Between being devalued by Google, and the fact that there are so many links on most of them I tend to think they don’t help much, but may still have some usefulness.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Earlier I learnt and taught others about how one should write Meta tags and the Title. This would almost fail that exam, but it’s worked many times for many people : )
July 28th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
But when you work with the directory service they submit your website .
But when i look around on google there are mnay free directories where you can submit your website fore free ,but many are not follow.
So when your work with a company ask of the links are dofollow or not.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I like to submit my sites by myself because i can choose high pr directory!
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I have used directory maximizer and found them pretty good for the amount that they charge. But if you have time I would highly recommend that you submit to directories by yourself. Then you can be sure that you are choosing the best category and following all the correct procedures. Directory submission services are good for people who are short on time but as I like to say if you can do it by yourself then do that.
Steve
August 7th, 2008 at 2:24 am
I always enjoy submitting in free directories though paid are better but because of huge crowd there I go for fresh one. Still I hope this list may be helpful if I get proper listing. Thanks again and I aprreaciate your effort that you have devoted time to search this list and provided it free of cost.
August 8th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Most submission services reuse the same lists again and again. But these lists have a lot of neglected directories which never will approve their submissions (sometimes more than 50%). So, customers should always ask for a minimal approval rate guaranteed (after 1 or 2 months). It’s basical for any reliable submission service.
Susan
August 10th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Lets take directory maximizer for example. I have submitted through them to 100 directories around 7 months ago but till date, i can only see around 15 links coming in from my new site which i have not even performed SEO for. It is a test that proves unreliablity.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Currently, i have actually outsourced my directory submission services to external parties at DP forum and they are doing a rather good job. At least i do not have to worry much about being scammed.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
thanks for your list, do we got any guarantee? and i think submitted into directory is so important to got high position in search enggine results.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Submission of website into directory listings are not “SO IMPORTANT” to attain higher rankings in SERPs. There are many factors involved and you may want to check out the strength of such directory. Paid ones that have strong authority will include BOTW, Business.com, Yahoo Directory and so on.
-Rif Chia
September 21st, 2008 at 3:54 am
Nice review. I’ve been using directory submission services for a few years and can say with some confidence that listings in multiple directories will not do a site any harm. They may not bring much benefit in terms of improved rankings – but featured links where the link is presented from the main page can be beneficial – IMHO. Tony Gee
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Does it help to use automatic directory submision? Isn’t that google looks for unique text so submitting your page automaticly with nearly the same text to many web directories won’t help too much? I’m trying to do everything manually and subscribe my pages only to best directories. Is it a good way or am I wrong?
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:09 am
Every link still consider a link, so I’ll submit to most directories as I can as well as others methods such as social network. In fact you couldn’t know some links may bring you traffic even it’s not indexed by search engine.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
The best way to get links to your site is to submit articles to free-content article directories. Share your knowledge with the world. Only this time, you’ll be giving other people permission to reprint your article on their websites provided they link back to your site. This is known as back links or inbound links and that’s the kind of thing search engines look for when deciding PageRank and relevance when determining your site’s place in the SERP ranks.
Kevin (Editor)
October 10th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Yes directory submission is worth the money. For a few $$ you can get good amount of backlinks. However I am skeptical about the quality of links.
You can get better deals at popular webmaster forums like Digitalpoint and WHT.
Pritesh
October 17th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I’ve always been a little skeptical of these services, simply because the price usually seems to be either to cheap to believe, or ridiculously high. I have been getting some private people through DigitalPoint forums, but dealing with a more establish system could definitely be advantageous.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
A directory submission service takes the leg word and guesswork out of your websites submission to individual directories. Depending on what package you purchase from them, these directory submission services will scour the internet for the proper directories and categories for your web page.