Web directories for promoting business websites have turn out to be quite common. However, they have changed over the years and while links to websites were hand picked and integrated within the directories based on the recommendation or website worthiness at one time, this isn’t the case any longer. Business web directories have grown using the Internet, the necessity for inclusion within the greatest directories still exists, albeit differently.
The biggest search engines at the beginning of web directories included both Yahoo and Google, among others. The inclusion of a business link within these directories was the hallmark of a great or exceptional business. The process for selection and placement into the directory was completed by hand and those that made it to the top meant that the business in question had something to offer that no other had, no matter what it was.
However, when websites became simpler and much less costly to build and maintain, they grew in numbers. This meant there was a lot more competition in terms of selecting the very best links for the web directories. This also meant that numerous more businesses had been integrated and also the sites grew to scale with the Internet. However, this created the issue of which links were the very best rated and how would a visitor towards the directory search via them and discover what they had been searching for. Not only could the directories’ editors and hand selectors not maintain up using the ever-increasing amount of hyperlinks for directory submission in require of review, but also they could not seem to maintain up with the maintenance of the directories, resulting in broken links and 404 errors everywhere.
This is when automated business web directories started making an appearance in addition to various pay schemes for link inclusion. Because smaller businesses would not want to pay the nominal fees for website review and inclusion within the business web directories, the editors would not need to be cluttered with websites that id not belong in the first place. This left more openings to larger and more worthy businesses for inclusion to the directories, meaning less work for the editors.
Then the Internet search systems began to appear, although they started out too slow and were too inaccurate to be of any use to people searching for businesses, and offered little to no competition to the web business directories. However, these search engines quickly became much more cost-effective and accurate and eventually competed with the directories on a larger scale where they now dominate the Internet in providing the most accurate search results possible.
In modern times, the internet business directories are based on a pay-per-click model of which business advertisers bid for keyword matches and ad inclusion and for every click-through to the website. These internet business directories aren’t directories at all, they’re refined search engine results of which have an efficiency never seen prior to and because each inclusion is paid for, categories are usually relevant and updated. The downfall to this system is that it can become quite costly.
The future of the internet business directory is in technology because without active and functional lookup tools, users of these sites cannot lookup coherently for anything. Directory editors are constantly overwhelmed using the hundreds of thousands of websites in need of evaluation and simply because most are performed by volunteers, numerous from the websites go unlocked at and unlisted, thus pushing them to other venues. If the search engines can utilize the very best search algorithms, then the web business directories ought to have the capability to do the same, although numerous don’t, which leaves the future of web business directories up in the air.
Kyle owns Jasmine directory, one of the best available online because each category and subcategory has unique content articles as description to maximize webmaster’s SEO efforts.
Posted under SEO
This post was written by Kyle M. Ferguson on September 6, 2010

