Will a vertical directory benefit your business?

Internet reputation management is all about having a positive presence on the web. A site doesn’t always have to have a negative review or bad blog report to fall in the search engine rankings. It can fail due to being on the wrong directory.

Many companies offering SEO services persuade their clients to list their sites on large directories – the most prolific being Dmoz, otherwise known as the Open Directory Project. This is an open content directory, meaning anyone can take the content and use it for their own purpose.

While this has the potential of raising the profile of your site via link building (Google uses a large amount of ODP data) there is much concern among online reputation management professionals that listed sites are in danger of being spammed or even blacklisted. In the past, allegations were raised that volunteer editors were simply using the site to improve the rankings of their own websites, while lowering the online reputation of their competitors.

While staff have the power to take action against those abusing the system, many users feel the site is still far from transparent. At its inception, it was accused of being set up as a commercial enterprise, a complaint still raised on SEO forums today. It is still run by a hierarchy of editorial staff, who make decisions behind closed doors.

With the best will in the world, the average site owner is unlikely to get much traffic from Dmoz directly, there are simply too many other sites in competition on the category pages. In addition, although each site is only supposed to have one listing, in one category, some have hundreds. Topix.com, a news aggregation site founded by Rich Skrenta, has over 10,000 listings. Interestingly, Skrenta was also the founder of ODP. It certainly proves the usefulness of the site from a social media marketing angle, just don’t expect much in the way of SEO.

A much better idea for search engine optimization is to get listings on vertical directories. Generally operated under a closed-content policy (meaning site content is protected) these directories provide in-depth content on a niche area of the market. This could be, for example, pet products, home improvement firms, travel or estate agents. There are also local directories, which provide categorised listings for companies within a localised area. These are very useful for “clicks-and-mortar” firms. An obvious example would be Thomsonlocal.com.

Search engine optimization services have found that vertical directories play a dual role in SEO: they provide search engines with content in response to localised enquiries, and they offer a platform for PTC (pay-to-search) advertising for smaller businesses.

Also known as PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, this is a popular way to avoid the uncertainties of search engine optimization. However, many owners have given up on schemes like Google Adwords, finding they get a better ROI (return on investment) with social media marketing tools. PPC advertising in vertical directories has gone some way to reversing this trend, especially since verticals have begun adopting the search engine model.