What is the difference between a search engine and a web directory?
A search engine – like Google – uses an automated process to rank web pages. It uses a system, a spider or web crawler, to automatically index websites and web pages, organizing them based on relevance to what someone has searched for and placing them onto results pages based on keywords or phrases.
A directory organizes links under various categories and subcategories, and allows people to find things by clicking deeper into a category based on interests.
While everyone understands the importance of Google – with 31 billion searches a month, who can ignore them? But why should you be concerned with directories?
Speeding Up Indexing
Google (and other search engines) are constantly out looking for new content that they can use in their displays. They don’t discriminate what type of sites they look at; they will use directories to find new listings as well. If a directory has authority, meaning it’s a reliable site, Google will check back frequently for new information. If you have a relatively new site that hasn’t been picked up by Google yet, placing your information in a directory will give you a greater chance of being found and indexed by Google.
Gain Authority
Google likes sites that provide quality information. They also like sites where other people link to them, making them a quality resource that others go to for information. So the more quality links to your website you obtain, the more favorably Google will rank your website. Directories are a great source for links, and a well maintained directory where you have your contact information and link to your website can give you a boost in ranking. The more relevant a directory is to your industry, the better off it is for ranking.
Drive Traffic To Your Site
Directories come up high in the search engines because they have quality information. And because they quickly bring on high amounts of traffic, your potential to gain some of that traffic goes up as well. While there are good and bad directories, concentrate on directories that give you the opportunity to be placed in a category that matches your business.
Good directories are human edited, meaning you aren’t approved automatically. Submit your listing, and you’ll be placed after a moderator reviews your content, and makes sure you are a good fit for the space provided. This creates a clean directory that provides quality to searchers, and gives you authority in your chosen location. While every directory is different, you usually can provide name, summary, link information and web address (URL) for placement.
Directory for Photographers
As a photographer, its smart to connect with as many photography related directories as possible. And a great place to start is our own VirtualPhotographyStudio Photography Directory. We’ve just updated our technology, and we now include the ability to add your studio, no matter where in the world you are located. It’s simple to do, just click on your location, and add in your information. We do approve all of these manually, so be patient if it takes us a bit to approve you as we’ve had a ton of response to our new worldwide format.