Search engine submissions and directory submission were once viewed as being
the ultimate in Search Engine Optimisation practices. Webmasters submitted their site URLs to search
engines like Google as soon as they started to design them and then waited
for up to three months for their pages to be indexed. In contrast, getting
that same web page listed with the DMOZ directory was seen as being a preferential
alternative because Google was known to give extra weight to sites that were
listed in this once high profile directory. SEO has come a long way since those
early days and the validity of such submissions has changed.

Search Engine Submissions

Search Engine Submissions is the easiest topic to deal with because they have
become next to useless in terms of SEO. Even in the days when it was a viable
method for getting page indexed you had to wait weeks, or more often months,
before it actually had any effect. In contrast, submitting a sitemap or gaining
a good link from another page can see a page indexed in a matter of a few days
or even several hours. No extra SEO weight is awarded to sites that submit
to search engines so there really is no reason to do it any longer.

Directory Submissions

Directory submissions are slightly different. When directories proved particularly
popular with search engines, many of them were created on the Internet. There
were seemingly thousands of directories, some highly specific topic or industry
related ones, while others were general topic directories. In order to cash
in on the SEO success that directory submission brought they often attracted
cash payments and had very few if any submission and acceptance guidelines.

The Devaluation Of Directory Listings

The result was that directories soon became devalued by the search engines,
especially Google (as is often the case in SEO matters). The search engines
recognised that even a brand new and poor quality website could generate masses
of links by using directories alone to build links and so they found ways to
reduce the value of these links. In most cases this was done by devaluing links
from pages with more than a handful of outbound links on them.

Current Search Engine Optimisation Benefits

With all of that said, there may still be some SEO value to decent directory
links and a good directory link can still generate direct traffic. You’re certainly
unlikely to benefit hugely, in terms of your search ranking, if you build a
link profile that consists of nothing more than directory links but by finding
some high quality directories and gaining links from these you should still
see some benefit.

Directory And Search Engine Submissions For SEO

By using search engine and directory submissions it was once possible to dominate
search rankings but things have (fortunately) changed; search engines require
more. There is no genuine point to search engine submissions any longer although
good directory listings from strong directories may still offer a little SEO
benefit and can certainly be used as a direct source of traffic for any website.

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