I am pretty sure that all free directory owners (free as in free submission) know that they have 2 main types of visitors. One of these types of visitors are those who visit your directory to submit their sites. I wonder whether these kind of traffic can actually be considered as traffic? Because most of these visitors are usually webmasters or those hired by webmasters (like SEO Companies or freelance websites submitters) to submit their sites to the directory. In my opinion, they are not real traffic.

I have two directories. One of them is a free general directory and the other is a Singapore small business directory (also free). So, in general terms, one is catered for everybody and the other is only for Singapore small businesses. The main traffic for the general directory goes to the submit page of the directory. However, for the Singapore small business directory goes to the different categories I have in the directory. And the visitors mainly come from Singapore. I got these information from my WebStats program. Well, you may not think that this is significant as traffic is still traffic, no matter where it goes. But in my opinion, it isn’t. Directories are meant to for users to come and source for information and this information should be arranged in such a way that web users can easily find whatever they are looking for. Hence the name “Directory”. So if the majority of your visitors goes to the submit page, then it is useless as a directory. Your directory then cease to be a directory and becomes just an SEO Tool.

It is also important to note that my general directory attracts web users to the submit page while my Singapore small business directory attracts users to the different categories I have. It stands to reason that a specialized directory (or a niche directory) is more useful to web uses then just a general directory which users don’t usually visit to search for information. How many of us really visit even big name general directories to search for sites anyway?