OK, so I decided to take a look at some web directrories and see what we're getting for our money and try to make a few measurments of value.

I would like to point out that I have excluded recurring cost directories at the outset - these are directories that charge a recurring fee (either monthly or yearly) - this is because it is difficult to quantify their value. How long will you pay for? If we assume 10 years then you can assume 10x less value than most directories here. A directory that charges $24.95 every year for 10 years will obviously be 10x more expensive than a directory that charges a one time fee of $24.95.

Below is a list of 150 directories that I have included in this analysis. They are taken somewhat randomly but I have tried to base selection on "popularity" (ie. how often they appear in directory lists etc.)

The entry criteria was a Google PR of 4 or above.

I have collected PR, Alexa Rank and Cost - obviously these change - but they are correct as far as I can tell at time of writing (July 2007). Where more than one price is available I have taken the basic standard listing.

With the available set of directories I would have liked more metrics - Yahoo inbound link count would perhaps be the next addition...

Top Tip:

The total cost of adding a site to these 150 directories is: $2,285.55 That gives an average price of: $15.24 The average Google Page Rank is: 4.33 The average Alexa Rank is: 232,628 There are a number of FREE directories listed, some of these require a reciprocal link (that is a link back, or "backlink"). Free directories have the critical dissadvantage of having zero investment (mostly), and therefore no real promotion and no paid staff. DMOZ is the defining example of this; while it is the number one directory in this list (due to it's high PR) it is staffed mostly by volunteers and while many do a good job they are clearly overwhelmed with submissions. The review process is therefore "unpredicable" at best, and "corrupt" at worst. For sure; take 2 minutes of your time to submit to DMOZ - but make sure that you then forget about it, you may get listed sometime within the following 12 months but don't fret, and don't bet on it. More than likely that is the last you will hear from them. I therefore strongly recommend that you stick with the paid directories on a basis of quality and service. In my experience you are almost guarenteed a response from an enqiry to a paid directory (as they want your business), the same is definately not true for free directories. I will therefore excluded free directories at this point, while some people will criticise this approach, the reality is that if you are a serious business owner you will rarely get the service that you require from these free directories. Removing the free directories we are left with 102 directories and... That gives an average price of: $22.19 The average Google Page Rank is: 4.41 The average Alexa Rank is: 255,652 The free directories actually have a slightly lower average Alexa ranking but they have a lower average Page Rank also. This shows (as you may expect) slightly more traffic due to the attraction of being "free" but less inherent quality - which shows itself in the Google algorithm**. So lets march on with the paid directories... There are 2 PR7 sites: Average Price: $37.45 Average Alexa Rank: 27,222 There are 15 PR6 sites: Average Price: $38.11 Average Alexa Rank: 5,092 There are 32 PR5 sites: Average Price: $23.97 Average Alexa Rank: 218,152 There are 53 PR4 sites: Average Price: $16.45 Average Alexa Rank: 342,493 So, what can we draw from this? The first thing we can see is that there is some excellent value to be had here... The PR7 sites are less than $40 on average, this is really very good value for inbound links. The PR6 sites seem to have most of the traffic - just look at the average Alexa Rank - nearly 5000! And again these directories cost under $40 on average. The average PR5 site comes in at under $25, and the PR4's at around about $18... These average prices can surely be taken as great guide; so lets take a look at submitting to all the paid directories that come in under the average cost... If we look at submitting to all the directories that come in at under average cost for their respective Page Rank; that is, the PR7 directories for $40 or less, all PR6 directories $40 or less, all PR5's $25 or under and all PR4's under $18, you are left with our conclusion: To get the best best value submit your websites to a total of 66 directories, at total cost of $911.03. This will give you a stunning average cost of just $13.80 per directory, and an amazing average Page Rank per submission of 4.6! (The directories that fit these criteria have been marked with an orange hash - # - in the list below) ** Two notes on this; firstly, any figues higher than 100k are not particuly reliable anyway. And secondly, directories are not likely to give you huge amounts of traffic anyway so it is the quality, not the quantity we are looking for.

The list:

DMOZ PR:8 Alexa: 330 Price: $0.00
Big Web Links PR:7 Alexa: 23,672 Price: $49.90
Excellent Guide Dir. PR:7 Alexa: 29,769 Price: $24.99 #
V7N Directory PR:6 Alexa: 1,004 Price: $49.95
Uncover The Net PR:6 Alexa: 3,941 Price: $39.00 #
ExactSeek PR:6 Alexa: 5,561 Price: $0.00
Aviva PR:6 Alexa: 8,739 Price: $49.00
Joeant PR:6 Alexa: 10,379 Price: $40.00 #
Chiff.com PR:6 Alexa: 14,047 Price: $0.00
Alive PR:6 Alexa: 16,420 Price: $149.95
Directory Dump PR:6 Alexa: 29,677 Price: $24.99 #
Sphericom PR:6 Alexa: 36,153 Price: $0.00
InfoListings Directory PR:6 Alexa: 37,150 Price: $9.95 #
SevenSeek Directory PR:6 Alexa: 40,826 Price: $40.00 #
BusyBits Web Dir. PR:6 Alexa: 48,364 Price: $0.00
ThisIsOurYear PR:6 Alexa: 53,841 Price: $24.95 #
Kwik Goblin PR:6 Alexa: 77,134 Price: $24.95 #
Level10s PR:6 Alexa: 78,392 Price: $29.00 #
InCrawler PR:6 Alexa: 83,272 Price: $24.95 #
Link With Us PR:6 Alexa: 122,177 Price: $10.00 #
Smittyz PR:6 Alexa: 233,488 Price: $24.95 #
Tenth Year PR:6 Alexa: 349,275 Price: $29.95 #
SearchSight PR:5 Alexa: 9,529 Price: $0.00
Add URL-Free PR:5 Alexa: 17,945 Price: $40.00
AbiLogic PR:5 Alexa: 19,920 Price: $14.95 #
World Site Index PR:5 Alexa: 22,060 Price: $7.05 #
Web World PR:5 Alexa: 23,847 Price: $25.00 #
GoGuides.org PR:5 Alexa: 25,246 Price: $69.95
SoMuch.com PR:5 Alexa: 26,348 Price: $0.00
Gimpsy PR:5 Alexa: 29,537 Price: $40.00
WoW Directory PR:5 Alexa: 31,346 Price: $35.00
Able2know PR:5 Alexa: 32,301 Price: $0.00
IllumiRate PR:5 Alexa: 32,552 Price: $0.00
Add Your Site Free PR:5 Alexa: 35,461 Price: $9.00 #
Skaffe.com PR:5 Alexa: 35,713 Price: $40.00
AbiFind PR:5 Alexa: 37,434 Price: $7.95 #
Sootle Web Directory PR:5 Alexa: 39,124 Price: $19.99 #
LdmStudio PR:5 Alexa: 40,622 Price: $0.00
Ask Directory PR:5 Alexa: 44,748 Price: $30.00
DirectoryWorld PR:5 Alexa: 53,005 Price: $10.00 #
Webxperience PR:5 Alexa: 56,816 Price: $10.00 #
ABizDirectory PR:5 Alexa: 59,260 Price: $10.00 #
Massivelinks PR:5 Alexa: 61,829 Price: $10.00 #
Search Monster PR:5 Alexa: 61,500 Price: $39.95
Qango PR:5 Alexa: 63,881 Price: $50.00
LinkoPedia.com PR:5 Alexa: 74,635 Price: $10.00 #
Tygo PR:5 Alexa: 79,365 Price: $19.95 #
Anthony Parsons PR:5 Alexa: 79,610 Price: $20.00 #
Most Popular Sites PR:5 Alexa: 84,695 Price: $0.00
Clickey PR:5 Alexa: 92,484 Price: $0.00
123world PR:5 Alexa: 99,294 Price: $49.00
Re-Quest dot Net PR:5 Alexa: 101,399 Price: $0.00
1 Link Directory PR:5 Alexa: 102,724 Price: $0.00
GoonGee.com PR:5 Alexa: 135,610 Price: $0.00
Ozami PR:5 Alexa: 173,777 Price: $40.00
OneBigIndex PR:5 Alexa: 181,770 Price: $0.00
Hoppa PR:5 Alexa: 189,842 Price: $12.30 #
Web 10 PR:5 Alexa: 203,616 Price: $24.95 #
Click4Choice PR:5 Alexa: 205,251 Price: $20.00 #
Search Turtle PR:5 Alexa: 215,327 Price: $5.00 #
AXEQ PR:5 Alexa: 232,692 Price: $15.00 #
Seekon Web Directory PR:5 Alexa: 233,674 Price: $29.00
Net Zoning PR:5 Alexa: 447,288 Price: $40.00
Links Directory PR:5 Alexa: 482,399 Price: $0.00
Managed Names PR:5 Alexa: 1,553,948 Price: $10.00 #
Port Prophecy PR:5 Alexa: 2,473,884 Price: $2.95 #
01Web Directory PR:4 Alexa: 24,354 Price: $49.00
MavicaNet PR:4 Alexa: 27,091 Price: $0.00
Directory Gold PR:4 Alexa: 31,105 Price: $5.00 #
oneMission PR:4 Alexa: 31,945 Price: $0.00
Humand Edited Directory PR:4 Alexa: 40,019 Price: $14.00 #
Portal IT PR:4 Alexa: 48,946 Price: $0.00
SiteInclusion PR:4 Alexa: 55,717 Price: $0.00
The SEO King PR:4 Alexa: 56,499 Price: $2.50
Free Website Directory PR:4 Alexa: 57,166 Price: $0.00
Arakne Links PR:4 Alexa: 58,546 Price: $0.00
Network-Room Links PR:4 Alexa: 61,849 Price: $0.00
Klik Klik PR:4 Alexa: 64,337 Price: $0.00
NetInsert PR:4 Alexa: 67,249 Price: $0.00
A1DirectorySearch PR:4 Alexa: 67,690 Price: $20.00
UU Directory PR:4 Alexa: 74,656 Price: $9.00 #
SeekZap PR:4 Alexa: 77,000 Price: $30.00
TopSites PR:4 Alexa: 78,566 Price: $0.00
GreenStalk PR:4 Alexa: 79,087 Price: $9.00 #
CyborgInfo PR:4 Alexa: 82,623 Price: $9.99 #
Thales Directory PR:4 Alexa: 85,401 Price: $25.00
SearchWIZ PR:4 Alexa: 86,462 Price: $0.00
WebSitesPromotionDirectory PR:4 Alexa: 97,546 Price: $0.00
Octopedia PR:4 Alexa: 98,576 Price: $25.00
Find Good Sites PR:4 Alexa: 98,950 Price: $0.00
Yeandi PR:4 Alexa: 101,680 Price: $20.00h
KingBloom PR:4 Alexa: 105,435 Price: $1.00 #
Umdum PR:4 Alexa: 105,848 Price: $40.00
SiteSnoop.com PR:4 Alexa: 109,423 Price: $10.00 #
SEOMA PR:4 Alexa: 112,618 Price: $15.00 #
Bhanvad PR:4 Alexa: 113,831 Price: $15.00 #
Websavvy PR:4 Alexa: 114,642 Price: $0.00
Gawwk PR:4 Alexa: 124,360 Price: $10.00 #
RubberStamped PR:4 Alexa: 132,233 Price: $25.00
Clear Lead Inc PR:4 Alexa: 138,172 Price: $29.95
Human Ranked Dir PR:4 Alexa: 138,408 Price: $9.95 #
GMDir PR:4 Alexa: 141,816 Price: $0.00
Wamchu PR:4 Alexa: 142,404 Price: $4.99 #
Web's Best Directory PR:4 Alexa: 142,960 Price: $19.99
Josh's Sanctum PR:4 Alexa: 143,234 Price: $0.00
All The Webmasters PR:4 Alexa: 153,140 Price: $0.00
Web Beacon PR:4 Alexa: 174,114 Price: $40.00
Link-Pimp PR:4 Alexa: 186,401 Price: $0.00
A Look Web Directory PR:4 Alexa: 196,495 Price: $4.95 #
All Dot Net PR:4 Alexa: 205,525 Price: $0.00
Allestra PR:4 Alexa: 207,207 Price: $39.00
Pharos Search Directory PR:4 Alexa: 210,129 Price: $26.00
eWilla Web Directory PR:4 Alexa: 214,624 Price: $24.99
A Great Directory PR:4 Alexa: 215,140 Price: $9.99 #
Go To Web Guide PR:4 Alexa: 218,953 Price: $0.00
Abboo PR:4 Alexa: 219,196 Price: $15.00 #
One Way Link PR:4 Alexa: 224,052 Price: $19.00 #
Arielis PR:4 Alexa: 225,263 Price: $20.00 #
Rank Land PR:4 Alexa: 227,363 Price: $10.00 #
Aeoma PR:4 Alexa: 229,567 Price: $2.99 #
OneDir.Biz PR:4 Alexa: 242,722 Price: $0.00
Really First PR:4 Alexa: 249,191 Price: $0.00
TM4B Directory PR:4 Alexa: 259,772 Price: $0.00
Thelanka PR:4 Alexa: 265,726 Price: $10.00 #
WebSkyGuide PR:4 Alexa: 285,699 Price: $14.95 #
Portal Boost PR:4 Alexa: 324,914 Price: $0.00
Permanent Listings PR:4 Alexa: 336,456 Price: $19.95
Established Websites Dir PR:4 Alexa: 350,166 Price: $0.00
Open Grid PR:4 Alexa: 356,003 Price: $0.00
Tell Your Friends PR:4 Alexa: 358,896 Price: $2.00 #
Link Lasso PR:4 Alexa: 387,034 Price: $15.00 #
Smarty Links PR:4 Alexa: 392,313 Price: $15.95 #
Objects Directory PR:4 Alexa: 435,455 Price: $5.00 #
SEO Works PR:4 Alexa: 438,302 Price: $24.95
Engine Grip PR:4 Alexa: 448,877 Price: $9.00 #
Directory Hound PR:4 Alexa: 495,514 Price: $5.00 #
WebAtlas PR:4 Alexa: 518,207 Price: $25.00
Indexplex PR:4 Alexa: 523,909 Price: $0.00
Frequently Asked PR:4 Alexa: 528,905 Price: $0.00
Performance Corporate PR:4 Alexa: 542,240 Price: $19.99
Link Now Directory PR:4 Alexa: 545,950 Price: $0.00
Go Seven PR:4 Alexa: 597,048 Price: $10.00 #
Fast PC Networks PR:4 Alexa: 736,361 Price: $30.00
Plugitin-Now PR:4 Alexa: 830,067 Price: $0.00
King Directory PR:4 Alexa: 894,572 Price: $5.00 #
Linkit24.com PR:4 Alexa: 925,418 Price: $0.00
Skatoo PR:4 Alexa: 1,151,865 Price: $15.00 #
Red Reach PR:4 Alexa: 1,291,560 Price: $15.00 #
Portal-Web PR:4 Alexa: 1,347,890 Price: $9.00 #
Find Services PR:4Alexa: 2,700,603 Price:$10.00 #

Top Tip:

# Please note that these directories may not be the "best" directories per-se, but they represent the best value based on a cost per value (Google PR and Alexa Rank) as a group. Given a budget of under $1000 these represent the directories that provide "less than average" cost for benefit. The remaining 36 paid directories will cost $1374.52, and I believe that they will not represent as good value as the recommended 66. This leaves 48 free directories, which are of course hit and miss, you may or may not receive the benefit that you desire.

As soon as I have the opportunity I will put my money where my mouth is and see what we get, in the mean time if anyone has experience of these directories please let us know!

Please PM me with changes or updates required to the list - thx.

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That is a great list and some good analysis you have done. It is good to see an attemt to quantify how good or bad a directory is. However a few things - I think that you can get some good deals from free directories. Why would you leave DMOZ out of the recommended package? At the end of the day it is free and its high PR and Alexa rank will add nothing to the cost, but add massively to the average PR and rank?

I think you are correct when you say that additional metrics would add to the analysis - Yahoo Site Explorer stats would be an interesting addition as you rightly say. I wonder where you could go with this if you used a more comprehensive metric such as the Page Stregth from SEOmoz.

Also I would be interested in experimenting with submissions to these directories as you describe - PM me maybe we can work something out, also I have a few directories that I'd like to add into the mix...

Hi dirmaster,

yes its a very god point you make about extending the metrics - it's just time and the tools that cause an issue...!

With regard to DMOZ, it is exclueded on the basis of being free because it therefore falls into a "grey area"; as I point out at the end of the post free directories are very hit or miss. On the basis of simplicity it is much easier to exclude them as a group. Obvioudly there are exceptions, DMOZ is great if you get listed, but the chances are that you will only waste your time by submitting.

PM sent about testing the theory...

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