Chapter 12
Submitting to the Directories
In This Chapter
Knowing why search directories are important
Submitting to the top two search directories
Submitting to second-tier search directories
I
n Chapter 11, you look at getting your site into the search engines. In this
chapter, you look at getting your site into the directories. The major direc-
tories are very important to a search strategy, although they can be rather
frustrating to work with. Compared to search engines, the overall process of
working with directories is very different — and in some ways it’s simpler,
but in other ways not.
Pitting Search Directories
against Search Engines
Before you starting working with directories, it’s helpful to know a few basics
about what directories are — and are not:
The directories don’t send searchbots out onto the Web looking for sites
to add.
The directories don’t read and store information from Web pages within
a site.
Because the directories don’t read and store information, they don’t
base search results on the contents of the Web pages.
The directories don’t index Web pages; they index Web sites. Each site is
assigned to a particular categor y. Within the categories, the directory’s
index contains just a little information about each site — not much more
than a URL, a title, and a description. The result is categorized lists of
Web sites — and that’s really what the search directories are all about.
