Business Web Directories Generate Good Business

It is tough to believe that businesses actually existed in the pre-Internet era. The net has so well straddled the world of business. Functions necessarily thrive on sponsorships in order to be successful, since operating costs can get quite significant. Like in the case of most other media, most of the costs are borne by advertisers and not by users.

The Internet based websites work on a similar economy as other websites. The web is practically a sprawling fair ground for thriving and established businesses, in an effort to stake their share of the user's attention, and hopefully generate good business in the process. With numerous corporations sprawled all over and across the vast area of open cyberspace, it's but natural for a user to be hindered by limitations when searching for a particular product or service, unless he knows the particular domain which the company has taken on.

In my opinion this makes a strong case for Internet based web directories.

Business web directories function very much like every other search engine: the user types a query or keyword which is related to a particular topic in mind, and the search engine processes all content within its database which has any relation to the keyword.

This is compiled into a list and presented to the user in order of decreasing relevance. Business web directories differ since they focus mainly on topics of business and financial content. For example a query keyword of 'stock' may bring results containing the word of varied topics in a general search engine, but with a business web directory, the list would only contain topics which leans to the business context of the word, such as 'stock options' or 'stock market.'

Business web directories have a database containing numerous business articles which may be of assistance to the user who may be looking for content of specific nature, or for those who are still unsure of what to look, for but may have a vague idea concerning a topic.

Hiring people, setting up companies, having a strategy, are just a few of the things that business articles are all about. Users can also browse business documents of varied content, some are available free of charge while some require a viewing or download fee. Content can be anything from documents of rights acquisition to a copy of a corporation's in-house policies.

Business web directories generate a substantial part of their income from paid advertisements and sponsorships, as well as paid links which are published on the site. A typical search listing from a user may include paid links which comprises the top results, giving more exposure to the company which posted it.

Business directory owners want to give the maximum bang for the buck to their advertisers and hence give them top billing. Regular advertisements are also a main source for income, since companies pay high premiums in having their company ad posted on the header or sides of a page.

There are many kinds of sponsorships. It could be CPC, CPM or simply a fixed fee paid per month. Of course when it comes to the Internet, there is more than one way in which you can get advertiser dollars.

Business Web Directories

An important tool in organizing and presenting the plethora of websites available on the internet is the use of Directories – an alternative to Search Engines that links and categorizes sites on the web. The main advantage to Directories as opposed to Search Engines is that directories are edited by humans, whereas search engines simply return automated results based on keywords which may not always be the most effective way to quickly find a website that is apropos to the topic being searched for. Websites are submitted to directories by the webmaster, where they are reviewed by neutral editors, evaluated, sorted into categories, and ranked within category according to relevance. They are then listed in a directory form that is simple to read and navigate for the average browser. For a website to create and maintain high web visibility – and therefore attract a high number of visitors – it is essential to be listed in a number of quality Directories.

The best known directories are Yahoo, Dmoz and Google, but it is worth being aware of the quality of the directory before submitting a site. The average browser will not explore beyond the second or, at most, third page of directory results for their searched for topic, but if the Directory is not of quality some websites listed in those all-important first few pages may not deserve to be there. The usefulness of Directories to return appropriate search results to be valuable to a site is under debate.

If links are being sold across the entire site, that may be indication of a lower quality Directory. Google is one of the worst culprits for targeting sites that sell links, and sites that appear to promote the Google page rank of their pages. This may not be indicative of how relevant a site is to the topic searched for – it is all too easy for crafty webmasters to manipulate keyword SEO to gain a higher Google page rank than their site deserves. This is time-wasting and frustrating for browsers, and may result in them losing patience with the Directory all together. Another common problem with Directories to be avoided is that pages within the site may be linked only internally and not to other, relevant, quality, external pages. Search Engines will not find such pages if they are low on keyword content and they will be skipped over entirely.

Dmoz, the Open Directory Project (ODP,) editors are volunteers – they are naturally third-party neutral and will review and consider each submitted website on its own merits. Each editor applicant is screened for any conflict of interest, so any search results returned by Dmoz Directories can generally be trusted. The main downside to submitting a website to Dmoz is that the submission process can be interminable – although ultimately worth it in terms of relevant traffic directed to any website included in their directory. The Yahoo! Directory rivals Dmoz for size and comprehensiveness, and was in fact Yahoo’s initial reason for existence. It has since evolved away from the fundamental classic human edited format of Directories, by instituting crawler-based listings in 2002, but remains a quality Directory that can be trusted. The Yahoo! Directory is very clearly displayed on its homepage. LookSmart, and Zeal – LookSmart’s non commercial arm – are other famous examples of quality directories.

For a website to be listed in a trustworthy Directory such as Dmoz or Yahoo! can be one of the most important quality-assurance seals of approval and can be the essential difference between focused and relevant traffic to the site and random hits by frustrated browsers.