Web Directories
Web directories are not search engines in the typical sense; they are collections of links that have been organized by humans. The advantage of web directories over typical search engines is that all the links are (usually) reviewed by human editors for quality, relevance, and suitability before being posted online. Make no mistake: some web directories are completely automated. You should avoid these types of directories.
The most famous web directory, Open Directory Project, boasts 4,576,062 URLs in its listings at the time of this writing. Most web directories, including Dmoz.org, can also be searched.
Not all web directories are free. Some require yearly or one-time listing fees. One such directory is Yahoo!. Currently, you must pay a $299 yearly fee to be listed on Yahoo!.
Here is a list of additional web directories:
For the longest time, Google stated that it would view listings on web directories as a good thing. Many directories lost their ability to pass on link juice in Google’s crackdown on paid (automated garbage) directories.
Google rewards human-edited directories, although it does not want to see paid directories that are auto-generated with no human editing. Before you decide to put a link on a web directory, ensure that the benefit will be there. See Chapter 12 for more details.