A web directory is a directory on the World Wide Web. It specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links. Web directories often allow site owners to submit their site for inclusion, and have human editors review submissions for fitness.
A web directory is not a search engine, and does not display web pages based on keywords, instead listing web pages in convenient categories and subcategories. The categorization is usually based on the whole website, not one page or a set of keywords, and there is often a limit of one or two categories for site inclusion.
Well known web directories include the Yahoo! Directory, LookSmart, and the Open Directory Project (ODP). ODP is an important player in the directory market, perhaps because of its open content approach to editorial review and its use by Google. Zeal, Looksmart's volunteer-run dirctory, closed in March 2006.
A debate over quality in directories and databases continues, as search engines use ODP's content without real integration, and some experiment using clustering. There have been many attempts to make directory development easier, whether using a "links for all" type link submission site using a script, or any number of available PHP portals and programs. Recently, social software techniques have spawned new efforts of categorization, with Amazon.com adding tagging to their product pages.
Human-edited directories
A human-edited directory is created and maintained by editors who add links to their directory, which is organized into separate pages for categories and sub-categories.
There are different types of link submissions that can be submitted for review
* Paid Submissions - a fee is charged for reviewing the submitted link
* Reciprocal Link - the site submitted must link back to the directory in order to be listed
* Free Submission - there is no charge for review of the site
* No Follow - there is a "no follow" tag associated with the link, meaning search engines will not follow the link.
* Featured Link - the link is given a premium position in the category where is is submitted
* Featured Homepage Link - the link may be listed on the homepage of the directory.
Some directories are general in focus, and list all links, while others may only focus on a niche. People who are in the directory industry often classify directories as either general directories or niche directories.
Directories have become quite popular, because people who engage in search engine optimization like to increase the number of links pointing to their site, and submitting to directories is one method for obtaining more links.
Human-edited directories are often targeted as part of a strategy for being indexed in the major search engines. The idea being that a new site needs to quickly build inbound links from reputable sources in order to have higher rankings within search engine results. Nevertheless, the directories may prevent search engines from rating a displayed link, by using redirects, nofollow attribute and other techniques.
