How to Select the Best Category when Submitting to Web Directories

Last Update: Thursday, May 25, 2006.

In this article I show you how to select the best category when submitting to a web directory, to give your site every chance of achieving top rankings for the keywords you want to target.

Selecting the right category when submitting to a web directory can mean the difference between achieving top rankings and being lost in oblivion.

Don't think that by paying for your submission, it guarantees top rankings. It doesn't! The only guarantee you will get is for a review within a certain time limit. If you don't select the right category, you might as well just be throwing your money out the window.

Here's how you should find the best category to submit to, in order to give your site every chance of achieving top rankings for the keywords you want to target.

Go to the web directory's home page and enter in the exact keyword phrase you're targeting in the search box.

Let's use the Yahoo! directory as an example. A search for, "cheap Web hosting" returns this page of results:

http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=cheap+web+hosting

Take a look at the category link directly underneath the #1 listing, where it says:

"More sites about: Web Site Hosting > Directories"

The majority of the top listings are placed under this category. This tells you that Yahoo! considers this particular category as the most relevant for the keyword phrase we searched for.

Click on the "Web Site Hosting > Directories" category link. This will take you to the sub-category in the Yahoo! directory.

On the next page, take a look at the border at the top of the page that stretches across the screen, directly underneath the banner. It's in yellow. This indicates that the category is classified as commercial. Non-commercial categories are in blue.

You will also find the listing that you clicked on located somewhere down the page.

There you have it. That's how you select the best category when submitting to a web directory. You can use a similar technique when submitting to other web directories.

For example, to submit to the LookSmart Directory, find the best category in MSN Search. The reason for this is because MSN search results include LookSmart listings and sends more traffic than LookSmart itself.

The same is true for the Open Directory Project index. In this instance, use the Google Directory.

Good luck with your web directory submissions!

About The Author: Michael Wong is an internationally recognized search engine marketing expert, and the author of a leading search engine book, numerous marketing tips, and reviews of internet marketing software and ecommerce solutions.