Three fundamental reasons to create a web directory

Some people wonder why webmasters do create directories at all. Some would say they are born thousands everyday and die out thousands next month. What is the reason to create them? Money, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), some indirect benefits? Some people don’t know how they can utilize their directories to the fullest and newbies, don’t know the purpose of directories at all.

In fact there are so many purposes directory can be used for. It is not only links collection, but rather a valuable source of information and monetizing. It is helpful both for the visitors and owners. All the reasons why directories are being created you can explore in this chapter.

First of all, let me remind the history of directories. Originally directories started to appear when the number of websites on the Internet has significantly increased. It became difficult to find relevant and quality websites. It was Yahoo who first collected websites with descriptions in catalogs. And that became something what we call “directory†today. So, the first purpose of creating a directory was making the catalog of relevant websites.

For convenience we can outline two main types of directories. The first one is directory as a separate website and the second when directory is a part of main website. This separation doesn’t really change the matter: directories can be applied in different situations and for different purposes.

Primarily there are three fundamental purposes why directories are being created. They are:

• SEO purposes

• Monetizing

• Quality resource

Let’s look through all three and that will give you an insight in the web directory nature.

First goes SEO benefit. With about 20 billions of websites in the World Wide Web the competition between websites has become tough. For every webmaster it has become really hard to attract the visitors and manage the search engine results. They thrive to have high page rank, traffic, popularity, visitors’ loyalty and high earning potential. Directories contribute to SEO in many ways.

If you know at least some basic information about Search Engine Optimization it must be clear for you that the content of the website is one of the main factors. The better the quality of the content is the better SEO is. Thus you might guess that a web directory as a part of the main website may be a great part of the content. Besides, the web directory content is not ordinary… it is free of spam, human-edited catalog of quality resources (!) i.e. that is great content for SEO purposes. It contributes to the Page Rank of the web page. And at the same time users enjoy it because they can easily find the necessary information from the website. They visit the website more often and it increases the traffic.

The second important thing about SEO is that a web directory provides contextually relevant information. It is also one of the SEO criterions. The example of it is when niche website opens a directory that corresponds with the topic of the site. A directory in that case enriches site with contextual information. By the way, all the links listed in the web directory give a web site hyperlink relevancy that also contributes to PR.

Having a web directory as a part of the website makes the work on SEO generally easier. Besides the mentioned content and relevancy benefits there are such facts that for a web directory it is much easier to develop linking, set up many backlinks, and attract additional traffic and popularity. To add a web directory to the website can be a great solution to promote the existing website. The directories have an advantage in SEO and they appear in SERPS much quicker than any other web site.

Let’s summarize the stated and conclude that Directories contribute to:

• Page rank

• SERPs

• Traffic

• Content

• Contextual relevant information

• Hyperlink relevancy

• Links exchange

The huge list of advantages! A web directory is an easy and efficient way to SEO.

The next fundamental thing about directory is monetizing opportunity. (I’ll explain that in detail later)

The last, but not the least benefit of a directory is that it makes a website a quality resource of information. Let’s see an example. Imagine that you are a specialist … for example in traveling. You have certain information on your website about traveling, but you would like to broaden it. What would you do? Surf the Internet, look for the appropriate websites, waste a lot of time and finally not find the needed info? No! Set up a web directory and people themselves will come to your website and will propose their material and their websites. That will enrich the information about traveling on your website.

What is important also is that each website listed in the web directory is being checked by an editor. That procedure guarantees the high relevancy of the directory content and links in it. The content in directory is constantly updated and becomes richer and richer every day. The quality content of web directory is important to the users that visit the website and, of course, it influences the SEO and prestige of the website.

Let’s make a conclusion:

A web directory provides quality information via:

• Resources free of spam

• Human edited information

• Resource on one specific topic

• Ease of collecting the information

You see that Directory is a great solution! It is appropriate for so many purposes! If you, for example, don’t give a damn to SEO, but you are interested in gathering the information then a Web Directory is a solution! If you just want to earn in the Internet a Web directory is for you! Undoubtedly, you can simultaneously achieve all possible goals – to earn, to make SEO and to get the information you need! So many attractive opportunities! But what on earth is SEO? So many times this abbreviation has been repeated in the book… Don’t worry I will explain. The next thing you need to learn is what it’s called web directory Search Engine Friendliness.