Online Marketing Blog

Directory submissions used to be a very big part of most search marketers traffic and link building efforts. That’s changed a great deal in the past few years or so but some directories are still important and have been consistent in their quality guidelines and ability to offer link/traffic benefit.

A short list of our favorite directories include:

• Yahoo Directory
• DMOZ (albeit grudgingly – just submit and forget about it)
• Business.com
• Microsoft bCentral Small Business Directory
• JoeAnt
• BOTW.org (oldest directory on the web)

In fact, it looks like Brian, Greg and the Best of the Web team are at it again with a special Halloween promotion. 15% off on any directory submissions to BOTW.org by October 31st and the chance to win a plasma HDTV.

Best of the Web, the web’s oldest directory, has launched a new program for volunteer editors in conjunction with their Blog Directory. With other volunteer directories, there is often a problem with over-enthusiastic SEOs trying to stuff their client listings in. Greg Hartnett of BOTW has a response to that:

“Please don‚Äôt see this as an opportunity to stuff your blogs into the directory. First of all, you don‚Äôt have to become an editor to get your blog listed. Just submit it. It‚Äôs free, so you don‚Äôt need to feel compelled to put on some big charade to get your blog listed. Secondly, editors don‚Äôt get special priviliges to stick any blog they want in.”

The guys behind BOTW are as standup as they come – in any industry. Interested and qualified individuals can sign up online.

It looks like the good people over at Best of the Web are celebrating two years of doing monthly promotions by having a “Cinco de Mayo” promo during the month of May. The object of desire is a 10% discount on the directory submission cost, AND an entry into their contest to win an Applie iMac Powerbook:

Am not sure about you, but a 17″ Mac Book Pro would look mighty handy on the desk, on the couch, the deck – where ever your computing takes you. More info at the BOTW blog. If nothing else, getting into a quality directory like BOTW.org at a discount is worthwhile all on it’s own. FYI, they also have a blog directory.

Yesterday at the New York Search Engine Strategies conference I ran into Brian Prince, CEO of Best of the Web (BOTW.org), who clearly have plenty of fans as evident from all the black, long sleeve t-shirts worn by conference attendees. In fact, they ran out the first day of the conference and had to get more.

A few months ago, BOTW.org launched a new blogs directory. Yesterday, they took the next step and added search to the directory. You can search by posts, tags or blogs.

I agree with Brian that the blog search engine problem really hasn’t been solved yet. Technorati and Google Blog Search are the two I use most, but the emphasis on recency as an indicator of relevancy muddles the search results. Plus there’s so much blog spam. To their credit, Technorati has released some new features recently, including favorites and a “relevancy” slider tool, which shows they are continuing to improve.