1. Dmoz is probably one of the most well known directories on the web. Many other directories online get their content and links from Dmoz, which means that if you submit one link to Doz, then chances are your link could end up all around the net.

2. Dmoz is well known for being liked by the search engines. Having your link on this directory could mean much higher rankings in the search results, which results in more traffic for you.

3. Dmoz’s homepage currently has a Pagerank of 8, and many of it’s inner pages also have a very high PR. Chances are, if your website is included in the Dmoz directory then it could wind up on a page that also has a high pagerank, therefore increasing the pagerank of your own site.

4. Dmoz doesn’t accept just any old website to be included in it’s directory, which can be a good thing for you. This means your link won’t be cluttered up with a load of junk links. As long as you make sure your website is the best it can be, with plenty of good content and not too much advertising then you should get approved.

5. You don’t have to pay a single cent to have your website listed on Dmoz, it’s completely free. What more can I say!

Here is a short list of differences you may find between these two different types of web directories to help you decide.

Free Web Directories

When submitting your site to a free web directory it can often take a long time for it to be approved. It may be weeks or even months before you hear a reply from them. Sometimes you won’t even get a reply at all. A free web directory can sometimes have a lot of ads, which can distract visitors from your listing. Another disadvantage of free web directories is that they can be overcrowded with a lot of other website listings because of the fact that they are free.

Paid Web Directories

When you submit your website to be included in a paid directory, you should expect to hear back from them at least within 48 hours. Paid web directories won’t be cluttered with ads because they earn their money from the paid listing fee. They are also less likely to be overcrowded with other listings, because not as many people will be willing to part with their hard earned cash to be listed there.

To sum it up, if you don’t ind parting with a little bit of money then a paid web directory may be the way to go. However, it is still worth submitting your website to plenty of free directories, after all it doesn’t cost you anything.

Many people submit to one or two web directories, and expect miracles to happen, and thousands of people to flock to their site immediately. But in reality if you only submit your website to a small handful of web directories, then it probably won’t make too much of a difference to your rankings.

Although it’s important you submit to a lot of directories if you want it to have any kind of impact on your rankings in the search engines (like explained above). It is also important you take it slow and steady, and not submit erratically. Don’t submit your website to thousands of web directories in one day and then none for the rest of the month, as Google may find this behavior unnatural and punish your website. Instead why not set an hour aside each day, and use this time to submit to 10 or 20 web directories. Slow and steady really does win the race.

Another web directory tip is to choose quality over quantity. Some web directories are just not worth the time to submit to. They are low quality, and sometimes even considered as nothing but link farms. Submitting to these types of directories can actually do harm to your website’s rankings. Instead choose quality directories, such as Dmoz, Yahoo, or other directories that have a high pagerank. Think about it this way, 10 links from quality web directories can equal 100 links from lower quality ones.