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A web directory or link directory is an online list or catalog of websites. That is, it is a directory on the World Wide Web of (all or part of) the World Wide Web. Historically, directories typically listed entries on people or businesses, and their contact information; such directories are still in use today. A web directory includes entries about websites, including links to those websites, organized into categories and subcategories.[1][2][3] Besides a link, each entry may include the title of the website, and a description of its contents. In most web directories, the entries are about whole websites, rather than individual pages within them (called "deep links"). Websites are often limited to inclusion in only a few categories.

There are two ways to find information on the Web: by searching or browsing. Web directories provide links in a structured list to make browsing easier. Many web directories combine searching and browsing by providing a search engine to search the directory. Unlike search engines, which base results on a database of entries gathered automatically by web crawler, most web directories are built manually by human editors. Many web directories allow site owners to submit their site for inclusion, and have editors review submissions for fitness.

Web directories may be general in scope, or limited to particular subjects or fields. Entries may be listed for free, or by paid submission (meaning the site owner must pay to have his or her website listed).

RSS directories are similar to web directories, but contain collections of RSS feeds, instead of links to websites.

History

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During the early development of the web, there was a list of web servers edited by Tim Berners-Lee and hosted on the CERN webserver. One historical snapshot from 1992 remains.[4] He also created the World Wide Web Virtual Library, which is the oldest web directory.[5]

Scope of listing

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Most of the directories are general in on scope and list websites across a wide range of categories, regions and languages. But some niche directories focus on restricted regions, single languages, or specialist sectors. For example, there are shopping directories that specialize in the listing of retail e-commerce sites.

Examples of well-known general web directories are Yahoo! Directory (shut down at the end of 2014) and DMOZ (shut down on March 14, 2017). DMOZ was significant due to its extensive categorization and large number of listings and its free availability for use by other directories and search engines.[6]

However, a debate over the quality of directories and databases still continues, as search engines use DMOZ's content without real integration, and some experiment using clustering.

Development

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There have been many attempts to make building web directories easier, such as using automated submission of related links by 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.

Monetizing

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Directories have various features in their listings, often depending upon the price paid for inclusion:

  • Cost
    • Free submission – there is no charge for the review and listing of the site
    • Paid submission – a one-time or recurring fee is charged for reviewing/listing the submitted link
  • No follow – there is a rel="nofollow" attribute associated with the link, meaning search engines will give no weight to the link
  • Featured listing – the link is given a premium position in a category (or multiple categories) or other sections of the directory, such as the homepage. Sometimes called sponsored listing.
  • Bid for position – where sites are ordered based on bids
  • Affiliate links – where the directory earns commission for referred customers from the listed websites
  • Reciprocity
    • Reciprocal link – a link back to the directory must be added somewhere on the submitted site in order to get listed in the directory. This strategy has decreased in popularity due to changes in SEO algorithms which can make it less valuable or counterproductive.[7]
    • No Reciprocal link – a web directory where you will submit your links for free and no need to add link back to your website

Human-edited web directories

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A human-edited directory is created and maintained by editors who add links based on the policies particular to that directory. Human-edited directories are often targeted by SEOs on the basis that links from reputable sources will improve rankings in the major search engines. Some directories may prevent search engines from rating a displayed link by using redirects, nofollow attributes, or other techniques. Many human-edited directories, including DMOZ, World Wide Web Virtual Library, Business.com and Jasmine Directory, are edited by volunteers, who are often experts in particular categories. These directories are sometimes criticized due to long delays in approving submissions, or for rigid organizational structures and disputes among volunteer editors.

In response to these criticisms, some volunteer-edited directories have adopted wiki technology, to allow broader community participation in editing the directory (at the risk of introducing lower-quality, less objective entries).

Another direction taken by some web directories is the paid for inclusion model. This method enables the directory to offer timely inclusion for submissions and generally fewer listings as a result of the paid model. They often offer additional listing options to further enhance listings, including features listings and additional links to inner pages of the listed website. These options typically have an additional fee associated but offer significant help and visibility to sites and/or their inside pages.

Today submission of websites to web directories is considered a common SEO (search engine optimization) technique to get back-links for the submitted website. One distinctive feature of 'directory submission' is that it cannot be fully automated like search engine submissions. Manual directory submission is a tedious and time-consuming job and is often outsourced by webmasters.

Bid for Position directories

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Bid for Position directories, also known as bidding web directories, are paid-for-inclusion web directories where the listings of websites in the directory are ordered according to their bid amount. They are special in that the more a person pays, the higher up the list of websites in the directory they go. With the higher listing, the website becomes more visible and increases the chances that visitors who browse the directory will click on the listing.

Propagation

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Web directories will often make themselves accessing by more and more URLs by acquiring the domain registrations of defunct websites as soon as they expire, a practice known as Domain drop catching.

See also

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Link destinations
Types of web directory
Other link organization and presentation systems

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Web directory". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  2. ^ Wendy Boswell. "What is a Web Directory". About.com. Archived from the original on 2010-01-07. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
  3. ^ "Web Directory Or Directories". yourmaindomain. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  4. ^ "World-Wide Web Servers". W3C. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  5. ^ Aaron Wall. "History of Search Engines: From 1945 to Google Today". Search Engine History. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
  6. ^ Paul Festa (December 27, 1999), Web search results still have human touch, CNET News.com, retrieved September 18, 2007
  7. ^ Schmitz, Tom (August 2, 2012). "What Everyone Needs To Know About Good, Bad & Bland Links". searchengineland.com. Third Door Media. Retrieved April 21, 2017. Reciprocal links may not help with competitive keyword rankings, but that does not mean you should avoid them when they make sound business sense. What you should definitely avoid are manipulative reciprocal linking schemes like automated link trading programs and three-way links or four-way links.
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Local search engine optimization (local SEO) is similar to (national) SEO in that it is also a process affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine's unpaid results (known as its SERP, search engine results page) often referred to as "natural", "organic", or "earned" results.[1] In general, the higher ranked on the search results page and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users; these visitors can then be converted into customers.[2] Local SEO, however, differs in that it is focused on optimizing a business's online presence so that its web pages will be displayed by search engines when users enter local searches for its products or services.[3] Ranking for local search involves a similar process to general SEO but includes some specific elements to rank a business for local search.

For example, local SEO is all about 'optimizing' your online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches. The majority of these searches take place on Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, Baidu and other search engines but for better optimization in your local area you should also use sites like Yelp, Angie's List, LinkedIn, Local business directories, social media channels and others.[4]

The birth of local SEO

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The origin of local SEO can be traced back[5] to 2003-2005 when search engines tried to provide people with results in their vicinity as well as additional information such as opening times of a store, listings in maps, etc.

Local SEO has evolved over the years to provide a targeted online marketing approach that allows local businesses to appear based on a range of local search signals, providing a distinct difference from broader organic SEO which prioritises relevance of search over a distance of searcher.

Local search results

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Local searches trigger search engines to display two types of results on the Search engine results page: local organic results and the 'Local Pack'.[3] The local organic results include web pages related to the search query with local relevance. These often include directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, Facebook, etc.[3] The Local Pack displays businesses that have signed up with Google and taken ownership of their 'Google My Business' (GMB) listing.

The information displayed in the GMB listing and hence in the Local Pack can come from different sources:[6]

  • The owner of the business. This information can include opening/closing times, description of products or services, etc.
  • Information is taken from the business's website
  • User-provided information such as reviews or uploaded photos
  • Information from other sources such as social profiles etc.
  • Structured Data taken from Wikidata and Wikipedia. Data from these sources is part of the information that appears in Google's Knowledge Panel in the search results.

Depending on the searches, Google can show relevant local results in Google Maps or Search. This is true on both mobile and desktop devices.[7]

Google Maps

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Google has added a new Q&A features to Google Maps allowing users to submit questions to owners and allowing these to respond.[8] This Q&A feature is tied to the associated Google My Business account.

Google Business Profile

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Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool that allows businesses to create and manage their Google Business listing. These listings must represent a physical location that a customer can visit. A Google Business listing appears when customers search for businesses either on Google Maps or in Google SERPs. The accuracy of these listings is a local ranking factor.

Ranking factors

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Local Online Marketing

Major search engines have algorithms that determine which local businesses rank in local search. Primary factors that impact a local business's chance of appearing in local search include proper categorization in business directories, a business's name, address, and phone number (NAP) being crawlable on the website, and citations (mentions of the local business on other relevant websites like a chamber of commerce website).[9]

In 2016, a study using statistical analysis assessed how and why businesses ranked in the Local Packs and identified positive correlations between local rankings and 100+ ranking factors.[10] Although the study cannot replicate Google's algorithm, it did deliver several interesting findings:

  • Backlinks showed the most important correlation (and also Google's Toolbar PageRank, suggesting that older links are an advantage because the Toolbar has not been updated in a long time).
  • Sites with more content (hence more keywords) tended to fare better (as expected).
  • Reviews on GMB also were found to strongly correlate with high rankings.
  • Other GMB factors, like the presence of photos and having a verified GMB page with opening hours, showed a positive correlation (with ranking) albeit not as important as reviews.
  • The quality of citations such as a low number of duplicates, consistency and also a fair number of citations, mattered for a business to show in Local Packs. However, within the pack, citations did not influence their ranking: "citations appear to be foundational but not a competitive advantage."
  • The authors were instead surprised that geotargeting elements (city & state) in the title of the GMB landing page did not have any impact on GMB rankings. Hence the authors suggest using such elements only if it makes sense for usability reasons.
  • The presence of a keyword in the business name was found to be one of the most important factors (explaining the high incidence of spam in the Local Pack).
  • Schema structured data is a ranking factor. The addition of the 'LocalBusiness' markup will enable you to display relevant information about your business to Google. This includes opening hours, address, founder, parent company information and much more.[11]
  • The number of reviews and overall star rating correlates with higher rankings in the Google map pack results.

Local ranking according to Google

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Prominence, relevance, and distance are the three main criteria Google claims to use in its algorithms to show results that best match a user's query.[12]

  • Prominence reflects how well-known is a place in the offline world. An important museum or store, for example, will be given more prominence. Google also uses information obtained on the web to assess prominence such as review counts, links, articles.
  • Relevance refers to Google's algorithms attempt to surface the listings that best match the user's query.
  • Distance refers to Google's attempt to return those listings that are the closest the location terms used in a user's query. If no location term is used then "Google will calculate distance based on what's known about their location".

Local ranking: 2017 survey from 40 local experts

[edit]

According to a group of local SEO experts who took part in a survey, links and reviews are more important than ever to rank locally.[13]

Near Me Queries

[edit]

As a result of both Google as well as Apple offering "near me" as an option to users, some authors[14] report on how Google Trends shows very significant increases in "near me" queries. The same authors also report that the factors correlating the most with Local Pack ranking for "near me" queries include the presence of the "searched city and state in backlinks' anchor text" as well as the use of the " 'near me' in internal link anchor text"

Possum Update

[edit]

An important update to Google's local algorithm, rolled out on the 1st of September 2016.[15] Summary of the update on local search results:

  • Businesses based outside city physical limits showed a significant increase in ranking in the Google Local Pack
  • A more restrictive filter is in place. Before the update, Google filtered listings linking to the same website and using the same phone number. After the update, listings get filtered if they have the same address and same categories though they belong to different businesses. So, if several dentists share the same address, Google will only show one of them.

Hawk update

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As previously explained (see above), the Possum update led similar listings, within the same building, or even located on the same street, to get filtered. As a result, only one listing "with greater organic ranking and stronger relevance to the keyword" would be shown.[16] After the Hawk update on 22 August 2017, this filtering seems to apply only to listings located within the same building or close by (e.g. 50 feet), but not to listings located further away (e.g.325 feet away).[16]

Fake reviews

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As previously explained (see above), reviews are deemed to be an important ranking factor. Joy Hawkins, a Google Top Contributor and local SEO expert, highlights the problems due to fake reviews:[17]

  • Lack of an appropriate process for business owners to report fake reviews on competitors' sites. GMB support will not consider requests about businesses other than if they come from the business owners themselves. So if a competitor nearby has been collecting fake reviews, the only way to bring this to the attention of GMB is via the Google My Business Forum.
  • Unlike Yelp, Google does not show a label warning users of abnormal review behavior for those businesses that buy reviews or that receive unnatural numbers of negative reviews because of media attention.
  • Current Google algorithms do not identify unnatural review patterns. Abnormal review patterns often do not need human gauging and should be easily identified by algorithms. As a result, both fake listings and rogue reviewer profiles should be suspended.

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ Brian, Harnish (December 26, 2018). "The Definitive Guide to Local SEO". Search Engine Journal. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  2. ^ Ortiz-Cordova, A. and Jansen, B. J. (2012) Classifying Web Search Queries in Order to Identify High Revenue Generating Customers. Journal of the American Society for Information Sciences and Technology. 63(7), 1426 – 1441.
  3. ^ a b c "SEO 101: Getting Started in Local SEO (From Scratch) | SEJ". Search Engine Journal. 2015-03-30. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  4. ^ Imel, Seda (June 21, 2019). "The Importance Of Local SEO Statistics You Should Know "Infographic"". SEO MediaX.
  5. ^ "The Evolution Of SEO Trends Over 25 Years". Search Engine Land. 2015-06-24. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  6. ^ "Improve your local ranking on Google - Google My Business Help". support.google.com. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  7. ^ "How Google uses business information". support.google.com. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
  8. ^ "6 things you need to know about Google's Q&A feature on Google Maps". Search Engine Land. 2017-09-07. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
  9. ^ "Citation Inconsistency Is No.1 Issue Affecting Local Ranking". Search Engine Land. 2014-12-22. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  10. ^ "Results from the Local SEO Ranking Factors Study presented at SMX East". Search Engine Land. 2016-10-07. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  11. ^ "LocalBusiness - schema.org". schema.org. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  12. ^ "Improve your local ranking on Google - Google My Business Help". support.google.com. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
  13. ^ "Just released: 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors survey results". Search Engine Land. 2017-04-11. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  14. ^ "'Things to do near me' SEO". Search Engine Land. 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  15. ^ "Everything you need to know about Google's 'Possum' algorithm update". Search Engine Land. 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2017-05-18.
  16. ^ a b "August 22, 2017: The day the 'Hawk' Google local algorithm update swooped in". Search Engine Land. 2017-09-08. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
  17. ^ "Dear Google: 4 suggestions for fixing your massive problem with fake reviews". Search Engine Land. 2017-06-15. Retrieved 2017-07-16.
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