So you have now got your new e-commerce web site set up, live and ready to do business. Hopefully you have carefully crafted your pages and product descriptions with keyword rich and informative text and descriptive pictures to entice those all important sales.
Your next step is to embark on your web shops promotional activities, which is part of that minefield exercise often referred to as SEO. One of the quickest and best ways to gain awareness of your new site at the launch, with the added bonus of some backlinks, is to submit the URL of your new online shop site to the search engines and some of the main e-commerce directories. Many are free to list within and these business directory sites can be great places for your potential customers to get focused results for their key word/phrase searches and seeing your e-commerce web site listing in some of the better known and trusted directory sites gives you credibility that search engine results don’t always offer.
Niche Directory Sites
If you can find some, then niche directories can offer you and your new e-commerce site some excellent authority as they usually have some sort of vetting process carried out by ‘human’ editors that your site must pass to be included in their directory. This can mean alot in the business world as only sites that have been qualified and proven to be related to the niche of the directory will be published. Therefore if your new e-commerce store passes the vetting procedure and your details are published amongst the other site entries within your ‘niche’ then you are guaranteed a much higher percentage of targetted online traffic that will in theory be more likely to purchase from you.
We have compiled a short list of some of the many Directory sites that are out there on the web, these are general ones that we have used ourselves or regularly advise clients to register with and the list also includes some free to use shopping comparison sites that are also very useful ‘targetted’ traffic generating sites for your new e-commerce web site.
Before You Start Submitting to Directory Sites
Before you start on your directory submitting though, save yourself some time by having a pre-prepared store description for your site, it is also advisable to have a number of different variations of the text too, to ensure that each directory submission that you make differs slightly from the last but ensuring that your content makes sense, is appealing to your potential readers/customers and is about two paragraphs or 250 words in length.
Many directory sites require you to give them a reciprocal link, these are less desirable than one-way links and they are given a little less weight by the search engines in terms of increasing your own sites page rank but consider it as a necessary evil as it is still worthwhile to exchange links with these directory sites as it is still a link to your site and more often than not it will drive traffic to your new online store. Something worthwhile considering is to create a dedicated page on your site purely to post these required backlinks rather than clutter up your web site footer or sidebox with a large number of directory site links.
To Start Things Off Here is Our Short List of Directory Sites to Submit to
(Please note that Page Rank and Alexa scores were taken at time of publication of this post and are subject to change)
DMOZ (PR 8 – Alexa Rank 451)
- DMOZ claims to be the largest human edited web site directory on the web, apparently loved and actively promoted by Google. It isn’t the easiest directory site to navigate when trying to select the category that suits your online store and as each entry is vetted by an editor alot of care is needed to ensure that you fill out your entry in the required manner otherwise your submission request may be rejected without notification. As DMOZ is so popular, there seems to be a constant shortage of editors so in some categories a successful submission may take up to 12 months but the general concensus is that it is well worth the wait.
Business Directory UK (PR 5 – Alexa Rank 46, 883)
- This is a free to list Directory site that is professional in it’s appearance and easy to navigate. The free listing option requires you to have a reciprocal link within your site and they claim it can take up to six months to be published. They offer paid for directory submissions from £19.99 to £49.99 per annum which offer featured status and multiple links.
Free Index (PR 6 – Alexa Rank 5,976)
- Quite a well established Directory site that features high in the Google U.K. search results, free to submit to and no reciprocal link required, also allows clients to review your business, the more reviews the better listing position your submission will have. Once your e-mail address is verified your directory listing will appear within two days.
InfoZed (PR 0 – Alexa Rank 155,988)
- Submission to this Directory site is free and quick. The site is easy to navigate and the category structure is simple to follow. All submissions are manually vetted, usually within 36 hours and a reciprocal link is required. A featured listing option is available if you place the reciprocal link on your home page.
Hot Frog (PR 0 Alexa Rank 25,708)
- Hotfrog is another directory site that features high in the Google U.K. search results, it is a free to submit to business and product listing site that appears to have immediate listing of your details, they frequently follow up submissions with telephone calls attempting to sell you additional services though.
E-Commerce Directory (PR 0 – Alexa Rank 1,903447)
- We have added this directory site to our list although it is new and a bit of an unknown entity as we always like to support new online ventures. We were impressed by its fresh and professional looking appearance, it is also free and easy to list on with a reciprocal link required stating that it can take three days for your directory submission to appear, they offer a lifetime premium listing for $10. Worth a try.
Wow Directory (PR 4 – Alexa Rank 64,396)
- This is another directory site that is easy to submit your e-commerce web site listing to and no reciprocal link is required, the site states that it can take some time for your listing to appear though.
ShopWiki (PR 4 – Alexa Rank 10,888)
- Shop Wiki is a free to use, Web Site and product listing directory. A little different from the rest in respect that scans the internet and pulls product details from all e-commerce sites it finds rather than allowing web shop owners to submit their products for sale by way of a feed. The information is then used as a ‘resource’ for price comparison, research etc. You can give yourself a headstart by submitting your web shop URL so that it’s bots are aware of your store and start scanning your site sooner.
Free Website Directory (PR 4 – Alexa Rank 19,102)
- Offers a free directory submission in exchange for a reciprocal link or a featured listing without at a cost of $9 per year. Quick and easy to submit to.
Shop Mania (PR 4 – Alexa Rank 75,551)
- Every new e-commerce business needs to register with Shop Mania’s Merchant Program. It is a free to use Business and Product submission facility that is almost gauranteed to generate traffic to your online store. The service requires you to have a reciprocal link which in some respect is like a badge of trust and the site offers your products in their comparison pages, customers can also review your service, the more reviews the higher your store and products will feature in their directory listings.
Registration is simple but you will be required to add the file that generates the product feed to your web site.
UK Small Business Directory (PR 3 – Alexa Rank 29,391)
- This is a very basic looking but seemingly well used Directory site that offers a free option to list a description and address for your online store or business with no link shown for your site, only a telephone number unless you opt for one of their premium listings at either £50 or £100 + VAT. A good start all the same.
UK Small Business Directory Site
Hopefully this short list of Directory sites will have been of some help with getting your new e-commerce venture noticed and generating some traffic to your store. Any feedback of your experience with these sites or maybe ones we haven’t listed here is welcome to help others.
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Hi, Great information, When listing your website on directories is it best to do it manually so you see every directory your listing to?
As everywhere you look on the web it says “list your website to hundreds of directories” for a small fee!!..
Is there any benefit to siging up for these services or is it something thats not recommended?
I personally like to list manually so i see who the directory is,
Thought i’d ask to hear your opinion on them,,, Thanks
Without wanting to generalise that all directory submission services are to be avoided as I am sure that there are some that are good value for money, personaly I would prefer to list any directory submission myself so that I know my store description and or product descriptions on each directory site are how I want them and differ slightly each time.
I would also want to know exactly where, and on what sort of directory my site is being listed on to ensure that it isn’t placed on some spammy directory that could possibly do my site more harm than good.
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