After a few posts about directories, I thought it was worthwhile summarising some of the features to look for when deciding whether to buy directory listings.

There is no doubt that submitting your site to paid directories is a great way to obtain one-way links, increase the PageRank of your site and can sometimes generate traffic as well. But how are we to decide which are the best to spend money on?

There are a number of factors to consider such as PageRank, Page Strength and number of back links. Several lists have been published that compare these factors, such as the strongest directories list at Aviva Directory and the web directory list at Linksjuice. Directory Critic is another great site that lists and compares directories.

However, these lists concentrate on the quality of the directory as a whole and many of them are of a very similar ‘strength’. So does it just come down to price?

Price is obviously an important factor, but it is also important to consider the quality of the specific page a site is to be listed on.

1. Does it include relevant keywords in the URL, page meta-title and on page title (H1 tag)?
2. What is it’s PageRank, Page Strength and number of backlinks?
3. Are there many outgoing links on the page? Direct links out from the page will dilute the PageRank and lessen the strength of the link to your site, but this needs to be balanced with ….
4. How relevant are the other listings and links on the page? Relevant outgoing links make the page authoritative and increase the value of the link to your site. (Lots of irrelevant site-wide links are not good.)

Finally, consider the additional links offered by some directories. The facility to add links to pages within your site is a valuable extra feature.

An important point to note is that by adding your site to a directory page where competitors are listed will help negate the effect of the link to their sites (although how long the link has been there is also a factor). Buying a featured listing that lists your site above your competitors could make your site look more important to the search engines.