OntoSearch

SEO or search engine optimization is one part of the growing search engine marketing (SEM) methods that purely involves the use of several techniques in order to gain traffic via achieving the highest ranking in any search engine, may it be Yahoo!, Google, or MSN. These techniques usually involves changes within the website (commonly called by consultants as On-Page SEO) as well as techniques used outside the website (or Off-Page SEO). One particular technique used in SEO, apparently categorized as an Off-Page SEO technique, makes use of web directories to achieve higher results in search engines. A web directory or link directory is a directory on the World Wide Web. It specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links. Human-edited directories are often targeted by SEOs on the basis that links from reputable sources will improve rankings in the major search engines. According to SEO Philippines consultants, many human-edited directories, including the Open Directory Project (or DMOZ) and World Wide Web Virtual Library, are edited by volunteers, who are often experts in particular categories. Top web directories used by SEO specialists or consultants today include:

Open Directory Project (or DMOZ) World Wide Web Virtual Library Yahoo! Directory JoeAnt Best of the Web Directory
Open Directory Project or DMOZ
The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as Dmoz (from directory.mozilla.org, its original domain name), is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links owned by Netscape that is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors. ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings. Listings on a similar topic are grouped into categories, which can then include smaller categories. There are, however, several controversies surrounding the use of these websites. There have long been allegations that volunteer ODP editors give favorable treatment to their own websites while concomitantly thwarting the good faith efforts of their competition.
Such allegations are fielded by ODP’s staff and meta editors, who have the authority to take disciplinary action against volunteer editors who are suspected of engaging in abusive editing practices. In 2003, ODP introduced a new Public Abuse Report System that allows members of the general public to report and track allegations of abusive editor conduct using an online form.
World Wide Web Virtual Library The World Wide Web Virtual Library was the first index of content on the World Wide Web and still operates as a directory of e-texts and information sources on the web. It was started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of HTML and the Web itself, in 1991 at CERN in Geneva. Unlike commercial index sites, it is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert. It is sometimes informally referred to as the “WWWVL”, the “Virtual Library” or just “the VL”. The central affairs of the Virtual Library are co-ordinated by an elected Council. A central index (the ‘Catalog’) is maintained and joint services provided by the Council on behalf of the association. Yahoo! Directory
The Yahoo! Directory is a web directory which rivals the Open Directory Project in size. The directory was Yahoo!’s first offering. When Yahoo! changed to crawler-based listings for its main results in October 2002, the human-edited directory’s significance dropped, but it is still being updated. The Yahoo! Directory offers two options for suggesting websites for possible listing: “Standard”, which is free, and a paid submission process that offers expedited review. Payment is required when suggesting a commercial site. JoeAnt JoeAnt is a human edited directory offering “to provide a directory of quality sites for Internet users”. Created by a group of a dozen former Go.com (Disney) volunteer Go Guides, JoeAnt was born of the desire to provide relevant results in a wide variety of topics, and seeks to work by forming a ‘community’ of editors where anyone interested can join in. Launched on May 24, 2001, JoeAnt has grown into a big directory with a large editor list.
The site was re-launched in August 2002 following an extensive site rebuild that recreated the back-end to enable the directory to be indexed by search engine spiders, while adding several new tools for editors, and improving the performance of the search engine. According to SEO Philippines consultants, additions can be made in two ways. Listings can be paid for by website owners, with no guarantee of being listed. Listings can also be added by volunteer editors. Volunteer editors are registered automatically and do not have to go through a review process. The sites they submit go to a higher-level editor regardless of topic. This allows the submitter to get a quick review of the site without the likelihood that the reviewer is a competitor. Best of the Web Directory Best of the Web Directory is a commercial web directory providing websites categorized topically and regionally. Headquartered in Uniondale, New York, BOTW also maintains offices in Orange, Texas, Rocklin, California, Studio City, California and Highland Beach, Florida. In 2002 BOTW transformed into a general web directory, aiming to provide users with a spam-free categorization of websites. The company employs a team of paid editors that search the web for sites with original content, whilst considering user-friendliness and web standards. BOTW offers listings for both commercial and non-commercial sites, and places each site that meet their editorial guidelines in its most relevant topical and/or regional category. Due to the manual editorial involved in the listing process, many search engines view listings in “quality directories” as a valued citation. According to SEO Philippines consultants, submitting their sites to directories can increase their search engine listings. For more information visit our website at http://www.myoptimind.com.