Home : How to use the Directory of Directories in your link building campaigns

Niche and topic-specific directories provide a rich source of incoming links. Such directories are generally happy to link out to quality sites serving the niches they focus on, frequently for free. The real difficulty comes in finding the directories in the first place!

Introducing the Directory of Directories

The Directory of Directories (see links in right-hand navigation) is a directory that lists many hundreds of niche directories that themselves accept listings for sites in their niches. The DoD is divided into topics of ever-increasing specialism. For example, general technology directories are under "Computers and Internet", whereas those specialised in web design resources can be found at a lower level, under "Web Design".

If you're promoting a subject-specific website, you should focus on several layers of directory: the General Directories, which accept most sites, the broad topic-related directories (e.g. Sports or Entertainment) in the category your site would fall under, and directories that match your specific subject (e.g. Watersports or Real Estate.)

If your site is regional i.e. related to a specific town, city or area, then you should look at the directories in the Regional category.

Listing structure

Each DoD entry contains some or all of the following information.

  • Title
    Links to the front page of the site in question, or to the directory section of a larger site (the [w] notation is used to denote a link that will open the site in a new window).
  • Link type
    Can be "direct" (URL is included in link) or "indirect" (URL is obscured by some type of tracking mechanism.) This can have Google Pagerank implications, as direct links will typically pass PR whereas indirect ones may not.
  • Submission Mechanism
    Form, email or other submission mechanism.
  • Cost
    Free, for-fee or both.
  • How to submit
    Very brief note on how to get your submission processed. Most sites provide detailed information at the submission stage, which you should always read.
  • Submission info
    Either a link to the "Submit" page, or additional information on how to submit your site.

If a particular entry is missing, that's because the information wasn't available at the time the site was added to the DoD.

Using the Directory of Directories

After you have prepared your promotion kit, read through the background information on requesting links, and then work your way through the DoD, submitting your site to all relevant directories. Don't forget to record your progress at every stage.

The Next Step

Once you've exhausted the DoD listings in your topic area, the advice in the Sources of links section of this site will guide you through the process of finding additional places to promote your site.