Directories are like internet phone books. A directory will list your website and a small bit of information about it. The directory will also place a link that visitors can click on to go directly to your site. There are varying types of directories, however, and you need to choose the type that will best suit your needs and promote your website.

 

 

Paid directories charge a fee for your website and company to be listed on the website. Many of the most popular directories are paid directories. This is because of the high volume of traffic that comes to the website each day. Paid directories are often categorized according to the business or interest niche. Most paid directories are kept current through human interaction and not through the use of software. Broken links are quickly fixed or removed and you will often find less competition here than on a free directory.

 

 

Free directories are online listing of businesses and websites; however, you won’t have to pay an initial fee or a recurring monthly fee to be listed. Many of the free directories offer thousands of websites and the competition will be greater here than in paid directories. Most of these types of directories use software to add your link and this can sometimes lead to errors. These errors can be in categorization or in the actual link. However, there are some directories that do not use software to add your website. These are probably the best to use when it comes to free directories.

 

 

These directories work a little bit differently than the other two. A reciprocal directory is used to place your link to your website, the same as the other two types of directories. However, in exchange, you must also link the directory to your website. This type of “trading” is called reciprocal link building. While it often helps to link to other websites, you need to exercise some caution as well.   Sometimes the search engine will penalize your website in the search engine results pages if your website is linked to another site that is not relevant to the content found on your web pages.

 

 

Directories are a terrific way to get your new website or business name in front of people. The goal of any website is to draw traffic. While not every directory will have a significant effect on the number of visitors you have, many will increase your traffic dramatically. Choose the directories you link to carefully in order to avoid any type of penalties from the search engines.