If you are like me, you have probably googled Top SEO Directories or something like Best Directories for SEO and have come up with many lists from bloggers of various website directories you can try. Well the problem is, some of these lists are out of date, unrealistic, or confusing. Besides, do you really have the time or money to submit to DOZENS of directories? What I have done is gone through all of the major lists of recommended SEO directories available and have TESTED many of the Top Directories recommended. After researching all of these lists and also testing many of these directories on a number of SEO campaigns and websites, I have determined the below 6 directories to be the BEST overall directories available for purposes of website promotion, and in particular for improving organic website rankings from the “backlink juice” you get. I also checked Alexa rankings, Pageranks, Domain Age, and inbound link profiles of these directories to ensure they were overall, the best from a statistical standpoint. Now that's not to say there aren't other directories out there, but if you are looking for directories for the main purpose of driving up organic rankings these are the way to go. Of course, you must also ensure your website is optimized as well at least to some basic level, at the very least having your home page optimized for specific key phrases. So here are the creme' de la creme' of seo friendly directories that many SEO experts and companies use for their clients, specifically for the purposes of increasing organic keyword rankings. In many cases, these are the "silver bullets" needed to get a website over that hump in terms of organic rankings:

Best Practices For Website Directory Submissions:

1. Find the most relevant category (search engines will notice this!)
2. If choosing between two categories pick the one with higher pagerank if possible (use IE pagerank meter)
3. Include your most important keywords in description, but adhere to submission guidelines. (don't sound too "promotional")
4. Don't use excessive "hype" in your descriptions - just look at other websites in the same category!
5. Look at the websites in the same category - title & description - make yours similar but unique.
6. Stagger your submissions. Search engines like to see a "natural progression" of new links each month.

Recommend SEO Friendly Directories to Increase Your Organic Search Engine Rankings:

1. The DMOZ Directory, also know as the open directory project, is a great directory for seo that is free to submit, however VERY difficult to get into, but once you do, this will make a HUGE difference for your organic rankings. DMOZ has a Pagerank of 8, an Alexa ranking of just 2608 currently. The DMOZ directory was established in 1999. It is a simple submission process. Drill down to the best category and then submit within that category. You should submit website every month until accepted. It is difficult to get into but is the #1 link to achieve anywhere. Getting a link here will make profound and substantial increases in traffic and rankings almost immediately.

2. The Yahoo directory is another great seo directory with a pagerank of 8, and an Alexa ranking of 1. The Yahoo directory was established back in 1995. The age of this domain, the # and type of incoming links in both DMOZ and Yahoo both play major factors, in addition to their overall pagerank, in making them the most important directories to get into. There is a $299 Non Refundable Submission Fee, $299 Annual Fee if included. Most websites that are not under construction, have no major technical flaws, or offense content, as well as some unique content, are accepted without a problem. Links from the Yahoo directory will also result in profound increases in search engine rankings for target keywords, and thus increases in traffic.Author Tested! HIGHLY Recommended.

3. The Best of the Web Directory (best overall value) has a pagerank of 6, alexa ranking of just over 26,000, about 2,000 incoming links, and has been around since 1996. This is considered one of the best directories to get into as far as creating substantial increases in organic rankings on keywords. Fee is $149 to submit and $149 annual if accepted. Since DMOZ may take a long time to get listed, and since Yahoo is a bit steep in cost, I normally recommend BOTW as the first paid SEO directory for my SEO clients to participate in. Author Tested! ** BEST Bang For the Buck!
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4. The Goguides.org directory has a pagrank of 6, an alexa ranking of under 50,000, and was established in 2001. Goguides is known as one of the best paid directories for seo purposes, and is a good value for the money. Cost to submit is $69. Links from trusted .org are considered of higher weight in some cases as opposed to .com names, therefore the .org extension has an effect on the importance of this directory, as does botw.org and dmoz.org. The substantial trust behind the yahoo and business.com directory, higher inbound links, types of inbound links (# of .org extensions incoming to them), age of domain, and higher pagerank keeps this directory from being higher on the list, although it is still one of the best out of thousands of online directories.Author Tested! Highly Recommended! Great Value!

5. The Business.com directory has a pagerank of 7, an Alexa ranking of 1707, almost 5,000 incoming links, and was established back in 1998. Business.com is considered a highly credible directory for both referring quality traffic as well as increasing pagerank for the website it links to. Fee is $299 to submit, and $299 annual if accepted.Author Tested! HIGHLY Recommended.
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6. The What U Seek directory, has a pagerank of 7, has been around since 1996, and has an alexa ranking of around 43,000 currently. Cost to submit is about $50.Author Tested! Highly Recommended!

Hi All! I have compiled this list of seo friendly directories that anyone can leverage for seo purposes after conducting EXTENSIVE research which has included scouring existing online lists for dozens of sources, and testing out dozens of recommended seo directories. I then took the information available and analyzed pagerank, alexa ranking, age of domain, and link profiles, as well as general recommendations for reliable sources. Also, I have personally tested and regularly use many of these listed. They WORK for higher rankings. Just make sure to adhere to submission guidlines for each directory. Some of them are costly, but well worth the add. If you are struggling to move up in rankings and just can't get any major breaks, this IS the way to go. Try submitting to one of these seo directories a month from this list and within weeks you should start seeing major differences in organic rankings. Best of luck!