How Directories Work
Check out a highly competitive directory category here:
In highly competitive categories like the one listed above people take alphabetical listings to extreme ends. You'll notice that in the above category the first regular listings start with sites that begin with exclamation points. We both know that using exclamation points at the beginning of something isn't proper English (in Spanish it would be proper but that is a different matter), yet these people do it anyways so that they can get a high listing. There is an important point to this example as well. Visit one of the first sites on the list. You will notice that they maintain the exclamation points in their domain names with the words "exclamation" or "exclamations" and in the title on their pages themselves. This is very important, you cannot simply submit a title to the directories that includes these tools to get ahead on the list, if this isn't your actual site title, as reinforced by your domain name and the title header on your page, then not only will the editors not allow you to use such a title in the directory, but they may also refuse to list your site altogether. Also I'd like to take this time to stress that a good ranking does not equal success. The sites at the top of the list in this category may have a high ranking but their websites are in general not professional looking so most people would probably be reluctant to do business with them.
If someone is searching through a directory the order in which sites are returned is based on few factors. The number one deciding factor is going to be keywords. How many times is the keyword the person is search for repeated in your title, description, category name, and URL. Depending on where the keyword is it can be given more value, for instance most directories will weight keywords in the category name the most. This is why I've been stressing keywords in your title and domain throughout this book. A good directory listing, especially in Yahoo, can mean huge amounts of traffic, so you should consider doing whatever it takes to achieve the best possible listing.
The only thing not covered so far that will influence your directory ranking is what I like to call special ranks. Most directories have a feature by which sites are given a ranking based on quality, this can be represented by a special icon and a top placement, or a simple numerical rating to the side of the listing. Sites might also be ranked by popularity or some could be given higher listings as a sponsorship deal. Each directory has different features but nearly all do have at least one of the above features that will raise your ranking.
There is one more benefit to being listed in a directory, and that is link popularity. Search engines that take link popularity into account generally give high weightings to links that come from directories. Additionally directories like The Open Directory Project, which give their data to hundreds of other sites, can get you incoming links from those other sites as well.
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