Directory Engines

How directory engine works?

A directory can be compiled by a robot, but mostly, it is compiled by humans. Yahoo! is a good example of a directory base search engine. When you submit your site to Yahoo! a human will review your website for consideration in their index.

Today directory search engine are as important as other engines. This is because each major "search engine" is now associated with a "directory". For example, we used to call AltaVista a search engine. But, do you think it is correct to use that terminology. Because when you go to AltaVista and type in a search - you are definitely getting results from the "engine" part of AltaVista. But when you search down through the "categories" - you haven't typed anything into the "search box" - you are now getting results from a directory, these results can be from two directories - Open Directory Project and/or LookSmart.

There is a relationship or alliance between search results in the "engine" and the directory or directories that are associated with a particular search engine. It appears that many search engine's algorithms have been set to include results based on the directory. Therefore, it is imperative that you are listed in the directory associated with each search engine. To know more about search engine relationship click here.

Guidelines while submitting to Directories....

Make sure your site is 100% up and running, with no "under construction" signs. Good site design, fast loading pages, and content are important, especially for Yahoo.
From the homepage of a directory take your time and find the appropriate category your site fits into. You can do a keyword search using your most important keywords or key phrases and note the category that lists these sites. That will probably be the best category for your site. You may also have multiple categories, in which case you must submit under all the suitable categories.
Once you have found a suitable category, look out for a "Suggest a site" or an "Add URL" link. Click on this link to submit your site.
Before rushing off to submit your site, carefully read their suggestions on how to submit. They REALLY mean it. Follow their instructions to the absolute letter.
Since Directories do not use robots, everything indexed into a directory is done by people. No META tags, ALT image tags, HTML comments or image maps will help your performance here. Your best bet is to describe your site accurately and the final decision of adding your web site to a directory's database rests with the editor who reviews your web site. Best of luck!