What exactly is web directory submission and how can you benefit from this link building method? This is a simple guide that will help explain what directory submission is, and is not. Hopefully, you can use the tips here to build high quality back links to your own sites.

Web directory submission means submitting your URLs to online web directories. These are websites that organize URLs, so that visitors can find the sites that they want easily. Remember Yahoo and DMOZ web directories? These are the grandfathers of web directories on the Internet. They are created many years ago because there is no simple way to locate websites. Of course, now you have search engines, and most people don't really use web directories to search for sites anymore.

But interestingly, because of the search engines, web directories are now used for a different purpose - to build back links to a website. Now what has this got to do with the search engines?

You see, the search engines decide which website to rank higher in the search results depending on the number of quality back links that a website has. The more incoming links, the higher a site will rank. That means free traffic from the search engines.

Internet marketers are using web directories to acquire back links quickly because it's one of the easiest and fastest way to get a ton of links to a website.

So how to submit URLs to the web directories?

The submission process is simple. Just go to a popular web directory to try out a submission for yourself, and you gain an understanding of how web directory submissions work very quickly. At DMOZ, simply navigate to the most relevant category. If there is a deeper category that is more relevant to your website, go to that category. Then look for the "add url" or "suggest url" link. Once you click on that, you will get to the submission form.

The form will prompt you for small pieces of information like your site title, your url, the site description, and your email address. Use your target keywords as your site title so that when the link goes live, it has your anchor texts in it. Click submit and that's it! Some web directories may require you to confirm the submission. So check your email for a confirmation email. If there is one, simply click on the confirmation link and the submission is completed.

Your submission may be approved in a week, or it may be approved in 6 months. It all depends on the popularity of the web directory. The more popular the directory, the longer the wait. But there is no need to worry about the approvals. Just give the editors some time to review the links. It's only a matter of time your site will be approved and listed in the web directories.

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