Directories

Directories

Unlike those robot search engines, directory listings are often compiled by humans. Whether these humans are editors who work for the search engines or the site owners themselves who write and submit their own listings, it is often easy to tell the difference between a directory and a robot search result. Take a look at this robot-generated listing from Google. It’s called a snippet—text slurped directly from the web page and spat out into the search results page.

Now take a look at this directory listing. Note the sentence-like structure, the human touch, and the category information.

Directories aren’t likely to come out and find you the way robots will; site owners need to submit to them manually. Sometimes you can purchase a listing, sometimes they’re free, and sometimes you pay for the “privilege” of having your submittal reviewed whether your site is included or not. Although it’s a little extra work to achieve directory listings, at least you can be relatively certain that your submittal will be reviewed by somebody and your site will have a fair chance of getting in. This is different from the robots, which do not guarantee review or inclusion.