Finally, after long debates with myself (sometimes I do that) I decided that now is the time for me to get involved with SEOMOZ and let fellow members to deal with my brainstorming for a change. So, now you too may have my head ache just to keep me a company and I, as token of appreciation, promise to give you one.

Now, allow me to go right to the business.
Today’s topic: AMRAY Web Directory.

I say that AMRAY is pound per pound or if it pleases you, feature per feature is much better directory amongst most of “Strongest Directories” I stumbled in Aviva’s list.

Wow, I said it and now is your turn to prove me being wrong.

Of course just point your finger down won’t do it without your input in form of side by side renew of options that separate hyped mediocre directories on that list from real high quality directory. So, lets talk quality, shall we?

 :)

fastreplies

1. First of all directory must be site owner friendly. If directory links point to internal pages, then leave that directory alone because you won’t get any backlinks. You can find if this is the case by placing mouse over link Title and by looking if Status Bar points to site domain or to directory. This is your test #1

2. Open “View Source” and check Meta Tags ‘description and keywords’. You will be surprised how many directories never bothered to have them at all and the rest will have them so badly written that Google will simply ignore that site and as result have it buried in SERP. Also make sure it says ‘follow’ because submitting to no-follow is waste of time.

3. Then you need to find if directory is offering “More Info”, “Rate Site”, “Review Site” pages. If it does, then you will have 3 more links from that directory listed by Google. Remember test #1 applies to these links as well. Site must have content in addition to directory links or Google won’t take that site seriously and will place it at the bottom.

4. Submission Form can tell a lot about directory as well. If you see well formulated Guidelines list of dos and don’ts, then chance that owner cares enough about what he wants to have in his Index.

You also need to pay attention to payment schedule. If it says: “Free” and “Free with Reciprocal” then owner either noob or idiot because if you offer Free, then why would anyone want to use reciprocal?
Free with Reciprocal is an oxymoron because you pay for submission with backlinks. Plain and simple; you can’t have them both at the same time. Good directory owner would understand that.

5. Look at Directory in whole if the owner took his time to add About, Terms, Privacy, Contact, Site Map etc. pages. Good owner will make his directory user friendly by adding all kind of informative and useful to visitors’ stuff with hope people will come back for more.

How many links that directory has will help you to determine if directory is active. 3 years old site with 1,000 links is bad news because it should have at least 5,000 links by now which says that the owner simply neglecting to promote his directory.

6. Stay away from directories that offer overnight inclusion. As a Rule, owner will careless about quality of submitted sites thus making his directory link farm and thereafter totally useless as far as Google concerns.

Take your time and look at listed sites Titles and Descriptions. If Description has ‘flowers’ or ‘travel’, for example mentioned more than twice; 3, 4, 5, 6 and more times and Title looks like Description then you can forget about presents of owner’s Editorial Integrity and you’ll be better off if you forget about submitting to that directory and walk away.

7. Never worry about PR or Alexa’s ranking because worthless metrics or slimy green image on GTB will never reflect real value of any site including directories and as useless as 1,000 or 10,000 DirectoryCritic.com or Best-Web-Directories.com directories lists. Instead Google for something like:
best free directories and see which directory and not list has been doing well in SERP.

8. Just remember that if you are chasing after PR, then 100 backlinks from quality web sites and not their PR will give you your PR 4 or 5