Got this again from our beloved Digitalpoint forums. Someone claiming that after they do directory submissions (around 1-5 per day), their biggest keywords fell off Google recently. Well, I am not sure whether directory submission is the cause of it. There are rumours that Google is supposedly “banning” directories and webmasters are worried that these “bans” on web directories will affect the listings in those directories. They are also worried that any penalty incurred in those directories will “flow” down to the listings on those directories. There are also people out there claiming that directory submission is dead and virtually useless for SERPs.

In my opinion, I doubt that Google will be trying to devalue directories. I mean, web directories are one of the most useful sites on the Internet. I mean, just look at blogs nowadays? Most blogs are about nothing and everything, making them a free-for-all kind of site. I have nothing against general blogs, but seriously, what value does these provide for their readers other than getting entertained? The main purpose of a directory is to help categorize other sites, and this in turn help Search Engines understand what those sites are all about. You know, it’s like a university library which arranges everything for you so that students and professors can find information much easier.

And as for bad links, I really don’t think Google will use this too much. First of all, webmasters don’t have control over what other webmasters link to. So if a webmaster with a bad site links to your site, you can’t do anything about it. It’s out of your hands, even if your site isn’t some crappy nonsense adsense gallery. We cannot stop people from linking to whoever they choose. And if Google did, then I am sure a lot of devious webmasters will be spending time submitting their competitors’ sites to these “bad” sites. It doesn’t make sense for Google to do it this way.

Well, I have to tell anyone who is worried about all these is that actually website submission is not as easy as it sounds. It’s requires tough work to get results. You need to create unique descriptions about 500-600 words (if the directory supports that much) in length for your sites. And you need to plan your title (aka anchor text) to get the maximum value from the link. Doing 1-5 submissions per day is good, but beware that those submissions may be rejected or the editors may take their time to approve your submission . So I would suggest more, about 10-20 submissions per day. And if possible, link to your internal URLs. You don’t want Search Engines to see only your main page. Deeplinking can also help push competition away from your main page to your inner pages.