One Way Text Link - Directory Submission Blog
08/7/2009
The Fluid Nature of Web Directories
Having been in the SEO world now for 7 years I have noticed alot of trends. Specifically in the web directory world, one of the major trends is how quickly web directories come and go. I guess someone somewhere thought up a brilliant scheme to sell people on the idea of making their money online by starting a web directory.
800 million (I made that number up) web directories later, we have a very difficult list to go through. Web directory owners lose motivation very quickly when they haven't made any money with their site. That is why you see so many directories in our list that are no longer working sites. It is a very daunting task to keep up with the ever changing list of active directories that give a one way link.
That is also the reason that so many directories that have listed in the free section have since changed to paid only submission. They see how many submissions they have to regulate and decide they should try to make money on them instead.
No matter what we do to regulate this, it is a phenomena that is not going to change as long as directory submissions remains a viable option to build link popularity.
06/17/2009
We've Been Accused of Phishing
I received an email this morning from my web host telling me that Onewaytextlink.com had been accused of phishing and that if we didn't respond to them in less than 24 hours they would shut our website down. (Good thing I came into the office today) We are not a phishing site. The accusation is ridiculous, but we had to take it seriously because we have worked too hard for many years building a solid reputation.
From the new features that we added in April one of them was the ability to create a profile and pass submission info from your profile on our website directly into the submission form of the web directories in our list. In order to accomplish this we had to use a proxy server. It seemed harmless enough since we were only using it for that purpose. But somehow someone ended up on paypal's website through our proxy server which made it look like we were trying to pose as paypal. That is all it takes these days to get accused of phishing.
No need to worry. Your personal or financial information have never been in jeopardy. No one has scammed you, (at least not through this site) and you can rest easy knowing that we have taken the proxy down until we can figure out a better way to run the tool so we don't get anymore false accusations. Your privacy, safety and success have always been our top priority.
Thanks again for using One Way Text Link!
4/1/2009
New Features Now Live
Well I told you it was coming and now it has arrived. We have created the new semi-automated directory submission tool that allows you to quickly submit to web directories without having to fill out each form one field at a time. Now you can create your profile which includes most of the fields directories want and then just push the "Fill In From Profile" button and we automatically populate the form for you. All you have to do is choose your category and then hit submit.
It really is that easy now to submit to directories. We haven't found anything else like this on the internet.
Good luck in your link building efforts.
Thanks,
The One Way Text Link Team
2/11/2009
New Features In Store For OWTL
We are moving forward with some awesome new features for the site. The main change will be to how you manage and submit to directories. We are creating a semi-automated system that is going to blow your socks off, which begs the question, why weren't you wearing shoes in the first place?
Look for the new features to be in place in the next month or so and your directory submissions will go a lot faster. Link building will have never been easier.
Good luck in your link building efforts.
Thanks,
The One Way Text Link Team
10/27/2008
Who has the best list of web directories?
It is quite a task to keep a list of 3000 web directories updated. People that own free web directories often come and go quickly because they don't want to take the time to manage the directory if they aren't making any money from it.
So it becomes our task to constantly go through this huge list of web directories and find out which ones are still free and which ones are still working at all.
Well we have done it again! We went through the entire list of both paid and free web directories and have cleaned up the list. This means that we actually deleted from our list over 500 free directories that weren't working anymore. We hate to have to do that but our goal is to have the most useful, user friendly list of directories on the internet.
So keep submitting to those directories and let us know if you find any problems.
Good luck in your link building efforts.
Thanks,
The One Way Text Link Team
7/23/2008
Which email address to use when submitting
Many people make the mistake of giving their main email address when they submit to directories. You have to remember that although these web directories say they are "free", free always comes at a price. You are most likely going to start getting emails sent to you advertising other services that these web directories own. I highly suggest that you create an email address just for directory submissions. Use that email address for every submission that you do and let all of the new emails you get come that address. If not, you're inbox is going to get pretty full of alot of garbage emails. That's the price you pay for a free directory submission.
4/29/2008
Why paid submissions can be better.
Nothing beats free in life. Or is it nothing in life is free? Either way, we are tempted to look at free directory submissions versus paid submissions to see which is better.
More importantly we want to discuss how paid submissions can be better. I think the single biggest factor that gives paid submissions an advantage over free submissions is the time in which your website will actually be added to the directory.
Because of the high number of submissions to free directories, directory owners are slower to approve new submitted sites. Some directories will take up to 6 months to add your site to their directory. Whereas with paid submissions, most directories have a 24-48 hour inclusion guarantee.
Keep in mind that if you do enough free submissions there will be many that accept and include your site right away, but every paid submission is guaranteed to include your site within a day or two. I guess it all comes down to what is important to you.
3/11/2008
Free Directories List Cleaned Up
Based on the response and concerns of many users of our free directory submission tracking tool, we have gone through all 2400+ free web directories and made sure the site is still working. We found just over 150 directories where the site no longer exists. We went ahead and removed these directories from our list so hopefully you as the user will have a better experience.
2/4/2008
New Link Building Forum
OneWayTextLink.com is proud to announce a new link building forum for our members.
We have created this forum as a place where you can discuss link building ideas with other members,
give us ideas on how to improve the submission tool, report problems and buy and sell link ads.
Be one of the first to join at http://www.onewaytextlink.com/forums/index.php
Log on and post today.
2/2/2008
What to know before submitting to directories
After submitting websites to thousands of directories you will begin to realize that many of these "free" web directories are interested in one thing...getting your email address.
If you made the mistake of using your main email address when you submit to the directories then you probably already know what Im talking about. Most of these web directories are just part of a bigger company that is going to use your email to pitch to you their other services. Some may just sell your email and you will start receiving spam.
Our suggestion to you: Create an email address that you only use for directory submissions. That way if you start recieving spam it will only go to that email address. Just make sure you check that address after you submit to a directory because many of the free web directories will require confirmation through email
1/8/2008
We have cleaned up the free directories list
Many of you (our users) have expressed your concern to us that a large portion of the directories in the list of free web directories were not in fact free at all. In fact many directories got put on the free list and then immediately switched to a paid submission only. Well as we threatened in our previous blog post, we went through every single "free" web directory in the list of 1800 directories and removed all of the directories that were no longer free. You will notice that the list of directories is now down to 1680. We would rather have a smaller list of quality directories than a huge list of that you have to filter through to get the actual free directories. We hope this makes your user experience much more enjoyable.
12/4/2007
Note To Web Directory Owners
I just wanted drop a quick note to the web directory owners that want to join this list of web directories. We welcome you with open arms to our ever growing list of directories. A couple of things you need to know about our list. We strive to make this the best list of web directories on the internet. So here are some ground rules to live by (at least when your at this site ;-) )
1. If your web directory is new and/or the Google PR is grayed out, we probably won't accept your directory to be included on the list.
We need to make sure that we only put quality web directories here and so you can even have a PR0 but it needs to be at least 0.
2. If your website charges a fee for a listing that does not require a reciprocal link or does not have the "no-follow" attribute, then it is not a free directory.
Our definition of free web directory is one that allows a webmaster to list their site in the directory for free and in turn receive a one way organic text link.
3. If you are planning on listing your directory in our free section and then switching your fees so that payment is required please do us, our visitors and yourself a favor and list your directory in the paid section of OneWayTextLink.com.
People complain to me all the time that directory owners who were listed as a free web directory have now switched over and are charging for listings. This wastes the users time as well as my time as I have to read these emails and go into the site and make changes.
Moving forward when we find an offending directory like this, we will simply remove them from our list of directories.
Thank you,
The OneWayTextLink.com Team
10/09/2007
Major update to OneWayTextLink.com
I am happy to announce a major update to our list of directories. We have spent the last few weeks collecting a much larger list of free web directories and have finally added them to the list. As always our goal is to have the most extensive and up to date list of free and paid web directories on the web. Within the last 48 hours we have added more than 1200 free directories to our list. In other words there are now more than 1700 directories that will give you a free one way text link. We wish you the best of luck in your link building efforts.
08/20/2007
Why paid submissions can be a good option
With so many web directories out there these days it is hard to find the ones that may have the best impact on your link popularity. There are hundreds of new web directories starting up everyday. With so many free web directories out there why would anyone pay for a directory submission? Here is why: If you are paying money out of your pocket to submit your website to a directory, you have something to lose if the directory is no good. On the flip side of that, submitting to a free directory is 100% risk free. If it doesn't help you, you have lost nothing. So only someone who really cares and is serious about their own site/business is going to be willing to fork over money to be submitted to a directory.
That is why it can be beneficial to submit to paid directories. Search engines know the directories are paid directories and they associate any website that has submitted to them as a site that is not just a fly by night website trying to make a quick buck, but rather a website that is in it for the long haul. You can get credit for that simply based on the fact that you are willing to put forth a little money to be associated with a good solid web directory.
08/01/2007
Proof That Directory Submissions Help
I came across (again) a section of Google's webmaster help center that discusses specifically the topic of SEO. They give a lot of warnings against black hat SEOers and practices they deem to be not legitimate. They did touch on the subject of directory submission breifly.
They specifically said that, "Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners... helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted."
In other words, submitting to a relevant web directory is a legitimate SEO practice. There are many people who question whether directory submissions really help in the SEO process and this gives validation to the question.
You access that page at Google here
07/02/2007
Why manual directory submission is better
There are many new programs on the market that offer to submit your site to over a thousand web directories instantly using their new software. They claim your search engine rankings will make a huge jump and all of your wildest dreams will come true etc. As tempting as this sounds, I am still 100% convinced that manual submission to web directories will do more for you than any automated submission tool.
Think of it this way: If you can submit to 1500 web directories instantly using software, what will search engine spiders think when they notice that your website went from having 20 backlinks to 1520 in less than a week. That doesn't appear very natural to the search engines and it will raise a big red flag that you are trying to manipulate your link popularity. Slow and steady natural link growth wins the race. I'm not saying you can't do a couple of hundred submissions over a few day period, but automated submission software is not the way to go. If you really care about your online business, then take the time to do manual directory submissions and build your link popularity the right way.
06/25/2007
What to do when free web directories ask for a reciprocal link?
Many "free" directories say they offer a one way text link when you submit to their directory. In other words, they tell you that no reciprocal link is required. But when you go to submit your site to their directory, the submission form asks you where the reciprocal link is located. For most web directories, you can simply ignore this field and leave it blank and when you submit your website information, it will accept your submission with out any problems. The web directories do this because they want you to give them a link back so they make it look like it is mandatory, hoping you will add their link.
06/05/2007
It is amazing to me how many new web directories pop up every day. With programs that make it so anyone can create a web directory, it is hard to sift through the legitimate directories and the lame ones. I always find it interesting when someone submits a directory to be included in our list of directories and their web directory has a PR of 0 but they want to charge $20 to get listed. Do people actually pay for a directory listing in a situation like that?
05/16/2007
I added some really good high PR paid directories to the list today along with a few smaller free ones. I have about 15 more to do to clear out the list of directories in the queue. Thanks to all who have submitted directories to our list as we strive to make this the best list of web directories on the internet.
04/02/2007
I finally finished going through the list of 600 "directories" that had been submitted to be added to the list of free and paid directories. Turns out that only about 100 of the websites submitted were actually real directories. That brings our list of directories to over 700. We continue striving to put together the most extensive list of web directories so webmasters can easily submit and track submissions.
01/31/2007
Reciprocal Links vs Directory Submissions
Which is better, a reciprocal link or a link from a directory submission? I guess it depends on a number of factors. When looking at reciprocal links you have to take into consideration how related the two sites that link to each other are. As a general rule, reciprocal linking has become so abused that it is debatable whether or not it is even worth it to pursue those types of links.
On the other hand, the strength of a directory submission depends alot on the directory you are submitting to. Alot depends on the PR of the directory, the amount of links that are on the page where your link is located. Directory submission links are usually one way links so that also helps give them more importance.
2 years ago directory submissions and reciprocal links held about the same weight, at least with Yahoo and MSN and they were very effective in increasing rankings quickly. In 2007 it is harder to say. The best advice is to try to get a good mix of relevant reciprocal links and high PR directory submissions. It definitely can't hurt having both.
01/10/2007
New Directories Added
As we continue to filter through the 100+ web directories that have been submitted to be added to our list of free and paid directories, we have added about 10 new ones to the lists. We will continue to update and filter through the potential additions every day. Check out the new directories and submit to them. Right now we have about 650 total directories in our list.
12/17/2006
Do Directory Submissions Really Work?
Performing directory submissions to help build link popularity has become a hot topic in the SEO world. There is still a lot of skepticism whether or not they actually work to help increase rankings. Here is my take on the entire issue: Directory submissions are an important part of any SEO mix.
Do the links gained from directory submissions help your link popularity? Yes, but it differs with every search engine. MSN probably shows the most dramatic changes in their rankings when you do a good number of submissions. Keep in mind that I base my research from doing submissions using the same anchor text at least for 25 submissions.
Yahoo also responds positively with a good number of submissions but it probably takes more than 25 submissions to have a real good affect.
As far as Google goes, I haven’t seen any real evidence that doing directory submissions actually do anything for your rankings, however I have seen directory links showing up when I do backlink checks for certain sites.
In conclusion, I’ll repeat what I said before, directory submissions are an important part of any SEO mix.
12/15/2006
New Blog for OWTL
We have finally added a blog to our site. Check back here for updates on our website as well as directory submissions in general.