Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

• Directory name
• Google Page Rank
• Alexa popularity rank
• Saturation (namely, how many other pages link to this directory)
• Any fees required for submitting
• Whether submission is free, paid, or conditional
• A link to more details about the directory

Easy to access and compare, lots of details—overall, a great place to identify broadly based directories.

Internet Search Engine Database

Not as user friendly as the Strongest Links list, it also has only very basic info about each search engine. The list has seven pages of directories, though, so you should be able to find some that Strongest Links missed. I'd start with Strongest Links, though, and move on to ISEDB only after you've exhausted Strongest Links. And make sure you scroll down to find the links to the additional pages. Most of the first page is devoted to sponsored links.

Search Engine Watch forum discussion on directories

In mid-2004, the Search Engine Watch forum had an excellent discussion in which a number of webmasters submitted the directories that they consider highly. Granted, being in forum format, info is not all that well-organized. But if you go through the thread, you should find some additional gems in there.

SearchIt!

I was also going provide info about SearchIt! a multi-purpose free research tool that includes modules to search for smaller, niche directories closely related to your site's theme. The more I considered it, though, the more I realized that SearchIt! really calls for some instructions on how to use those modules. It's a great tool, but if you're like me, you could easily try to skip the instructions on the SearchIt! site and end up confused about what you're doing. (I admit it. That's exactly what I did.)

So I'll continue with more detailed info about using this aspect of SearchIt! in next Sunday's blog.

Jeff