This article will show you how to get approved in any directory if you respect some simple rules. I’m writing this article as a directory webmaster and describing how I manage and sort the links that are submitted into mine.

First of all, don’t submit crappy sites. You are just wasting both my time, as well as yours. Be sure that any good directory webmaster will check any link that is submitted to his site (a bad webmaster is not the subject of our article). If he doesn’t like what he sees, it will instantly delete the link. You may get lucky if he miss-clicks on the approve button, but this is a one in a million chance. Are you willing to put a base on it? If you have a crappy site, this means you have a site like the ones you can do in just a few minutes, using some specialized service that offer thousands of articles already made, using templates with the same layout as many other sites. We call them mirror sites. For example, the insurance ones, most of them look alike, or the loan ones, with the ‘apply’ button that appears twice on every page (and by the way, some of them have really stupid names like motorcycle-loan or very-bad-credit-loan), or health spammy sites like the thousands ones that want to sell Viagra and other drugs stuff. WE DON’T WANT THEM. You can always apply for a ppc service, and save us some time. We like original sites and content the most; these things are the most precious to our searchers.

Second, don’t submit www.example.com/blablabla/bla~bla=?notcool if you get the picture. I, for example, start sorting the links by deleting these ones first. I only leave sites in my database that end with .com, .biz, .info, .net, .edu and so on, and most of the directory webmasters do the same.

Make reciprocal linking. Of course, most of us prefer this type of submission, and we even approve it faster. We really hope that our directory is a valuable resource, so valuable that it deserves a link back on a site that is asking the permission to be in our directory. But when you do this kind of linking, try to put the directory’s reciprocal link on a page that has less than 10 other links, and only in the right section. If the place you put the reciprocal link has 50 other links and looks like a link farm, most of us will NOT accept your submission.

Submit to the closest related subcategory. This is good as well for you (you will get targeted traffic), as for directory webmasters (they don’t spend extra time editing your subcategory). Most of us delete your link if you don’t submit to the most related subcategory. DON’T submit to a general category like Business, for example. Your link will either be accepted, and moved later on to a subcategory, without any notice, or deleted from the start.

Do not use automated submission programs. We can figure that out, for example, from the period of time that passes between two links that are submitted. If it is just 10 seconds, we will get suspicious. Always submit manually, and take your time doing it. Or apply to a manual submission service, but make sure it is a proffessional one, don’t let yourself getting scamed by others.

Provide us with a working mail address and with a good and simple description of your site. This would be good for you as well, because net-surfers like it to be ‘good and simple’. Find directories that are specialized on your niche. These are the best for your site to be on.

If you have the possibility, apply for a featured submission. It’s fast and easy. Find good and nice directories that are at the beginning of their ‘web life’. They usually have insignificant featured prices. Submit to them. With time, they will grow and their prices will grow too, but you will appear on the first list of your subcategory, for that very low price you paid at the beginning.

Apply to big directories that are, let’s say, jammed by the amount of pending links (6000 and more), only for fun. You could get listed in a year or two, or maybe even more, or never. It is best to apply to directories that respect their customers and review the pending links in less that a week or so. Always look for a contact page, maybe you would need to contact the webmaster for some reason.

Thank you for your time, and have a great day.