When Internet as we know it was in the beginnings, back in 1995-1996, finding information was not as easy as today. Search engines did not have smart algorithms and often information you got was not what you were looking for. Web directories became popular out of pure need. It was easier to find information by going to specific category and then going to an interesting site, then searching for it.
Today, we have search engines that provide us with relevant information instantaneously. But there are still a lot of web directories, thousands and thousands of them. What is their purpose?
Purpose of Web Directories today
In theory, web and blog directories should give you three things.
- Visitors will visit the directory to find information, then find your site and visit it.
- Visitors will search for a term on a search engine, and a page from directory containing your site will appear in the search results and the visitor will come to your site again.
- Getting a backlink from directory to your site should help you rank better.
To find out if these claims are true, three weeks ago I have set up an experiment to test blog directories.
Here is the complete list of popular blog directories that participated in the experiment:
- bloghub.com
- bloggernity.com
- blogranking.us
- bloggingfusion.com
- truthlaidbear.com
- geekyspeaky.com
- getblogs.com
- blogrankers.com
- blogorama.com
- blogcatalog.com
- blogflux.com
- topblogarea.com
- blogtoplist.com
- lsblogs.com
After three weeks online, only three of them sent more then 1 visitor:
- topblogarea.com (23)
- blogcatalog.com (14) *
- bloggingfusion.com (8)
*note: blogcatalog.com is a directory/social media site, and data is from the blog entry only, no discussions were initiated. The site holds potential for more traffic thanks to a social media effect. Bumpzee.com is another example of similar directory/social site worth checking out.
Do we really need web directories anymore
As you see, in terms of traffic directories did not do very well. Specially compared to number of visitors I got from social media sites in the same period of time, which is measured in thousands (I recommend reading how to effectively use social media). In terms of backlinks it is similar story, the effect of social media sites is much greater thanks to bookmarking and tagging.
What about web directories? Well the situation is very similar. A very old site of mine dating back to 1997, has been included in DMOZ ever since. As you know DMOZ is the most authoritative web directory on the Internet. Few months ago out of curiosity I installed Google Analytics on the site, as I wanted to check the traffic stats. And although the site receives couple of hundreds of visitors daily, I still have to wait to see a first visitor from DMOZ. Not good for number one web directory.
There are two more things. Adding sites to directories is still pretty hard and time consuming process. Sharing articles on social media sites is much quicker. Adding a link for your new site to top social media sites will result in the site being indexed by search engine in a matter of hours. No web directory will ever give you that power with that ease.
Conclusion
So basically web and blog directories are becoming or already have become thing of the past. They gave ground to Social media sites. In fact, social media sites have become effectively what web directories once were. Today you will visit a social media for the same purpose you visited a web directory ten years ago - to quickly find interesting information.
Suggested reading:
- What are best blog directories to submit a blog to?
- How to effectively use social media sites from a Webmaster perspective
- Improve Search Engine Placement with Tags
Posted in: WordPress
TAGS:blog directories, link juice dmoz listing, list top social media, needed web directories, number web directories, peter caputa canada, rss feeds give backlinks, social media sites review, social sites versus, social traffic organic traffic, social web directories, top social media list, top social media sites, top social sites, web directories, web directories attask
11 Comments
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onlineuniversalwork
The reduced effectiveness of organic traffic coming via directories are more likely driven by the internet growth. Before, people have lesser options when searching for what they need. Now you don't even have to switch gears if you have the almighty Google right on your fingertips. Just like aging in humans, I guess time has always proven it can make you useful or not after some years or so...
It isn't just traffic that counts, but conversions. I don't have the statistics in front of me, but there have been quite a few studies that show social traffic doesn't convert very well for adsense/affiliate marketing. So whether or not you pursue that type of traffic depends on the goals of your site.
Also, many social sites only provide nofollow links so they don't pass on their juice. Web Directories and Article sites in most cases pass page rank on, thus helping you rank higher. Some blogs pass rank on comments.
You can monetize social media traffic as well (think CPM). Social media sites may not pass link juice, but if you hit a front page of digg expect tons of links from other places.
That's a good point. You just don't see many companies willing to do CPM type advertising. Any suggestions?
cd :O)
The directories only give back links, nothing more, now its confirmed.
Directories are good for backlinks and bringing you to front page if their PR is higher.
It depends on the search I suppose and I agree I get more SE traffic than I do from directories.
It seems like the only thing that directories do well nowadays (maybe) are help websites rank higher and or be the middle man between search engines and your website(2). Social media websites and search engines certainly help people find websites more than directories do nowadays.
Whichever of the two is more effective, both of them helps people to find what they need more easier and more accurately. Our world is changing so fast that sometimes we are just faced with new ways of doings.
I still have to see it significant organic traffic bosot, but the problem is how do you know what increased organic traffic? Granted my old site that I wrote about receives about 100 visitors daily from organic traffic, but how I know it is DMOZ and not the content?
I would have to disagree, they work wonders for generating organic based search engine traffic. Depending on how you lay your blog out if you do a good job at building those links you'll experience a lot of traffic, and not just one time traffic. Cheers.