If you are a webmaster, you will want your site to rank on the search engine. Before your website can rank, it must have backlinks. There are two ways to obtain backlinks including link exchange and one way link. A few years ago, link exchange was extremely effective in ranking the site. However, Google had reduced the effectiveness of link exchange after many people attempted to spam the search engine. One way link is the best because it prevents your site from leaking out any page rank points.

When submitting to directories, make sure you read the submission guidelines. It is important to submit to the lowest category that is most relevant to your site. Some directories have disabled the submit link in the homepage to prevent users from submitting to the top category. If you submit to the top category, the moderator will have to spend time moving it to the appropriate category. Most directory moderators would rather not move the site to the right category. Instead, they will just delete it from the directory. Once the site is deleted from the database, you will have lesser chance of getting approved in the directory. Therefore, you should only submit to the most relevant category. For example, if you own a Graphics tutorial site, you should submit it to Home > Computers & Internet > Graphics > Learning and Tutorials instead of Home > Computers & Internet > Graphics.

Some directories offer reciprocal for a better listing position. If you want to do reciprocal link, you should only link to reputable directory. Before performing a reciprocal link exchange, you should first check if the directory is listed in Google as well as the number of backlinks it has. It is recommended that you don’t do too much reciprocal linking otherwise it will affect your ranking the search engine.

The description should vary slightly to prevent duplication problem. If possible, you can write a different version of the description for each directory. You should use the official page title as the title in the directory submission. The titles and description must describe the content on the site. You are advised not to use promotional words in the titles or description as it increase the risk of your site getting declined.

The category which you choose should not be too crowded. If it is too crowded, you can find an alternative category that has less listing. The listing page should not contain too many links. Good directory will have up to 15 links per page. Page that has too many outgoing links is referred as link farm. Having a backlink on a page that has too many outgoing links will produce zero benefits for your site.

After submitting to the directory, you will have to patiently wait for the editor to approve your site. For free submission, it will normally take 1 day to 3 months. If you purchase a paid submission, your link will be live on the directory in a short amount of time.