The sites below are well-established general directories that have been around as directories for at least 5 years. Most of them have been around much longer. Along with our other criteria, we hope that you will be able to submit your website with confidence.

Directories are ranked according to the value they provide relative to their cost. Consequently, the top directories are not necessarily the best but rather the best bang for the buck. The "Best Paid Directory" list tends to include the heavy weights, very well-established directories. We also provide a couple of lists that rank more cost-effective directories, sites that offer regular listings for under $10 or $20.

7

7

$299 / yr

 

 

1996

Yes

 

 

Without looking at the price, this has to be the most useful directory to be listed in. Its expensive but is worthwhile if you have a potentially profitable site. Yahoo has over 100,000 .edu and .gov backlinks. Add to it the fact that it has been around as a directory since 1996 makes it a great candidate as a authority site. The site moved to it's current location of dir.yahoo.com in 2002. You will also get some traffic from your listing. The internal listing pages also have extremely high PR. A disadvantage is that you don't have many options for your link text (i.e. usually your site name).
Non-commercial Sites are added for free. There is always a small chance that a very useful site will be added for free, especially in a local Yahoo directory like ca.yahoo.com or au.yahoo.com. I have paid for a listing in the past and renewed it for a year of two. A year after discontinuing the payment I noticed that my site continued to be listed on the directory.

6

5

$40

 

July 2001

Yes

No

A popular website that has been a directory since July 2001. Has a good design. One of the few directories that has enough traffic to send you some customers. They have a fair amount of authority links and have been around over 5 years. Submission reviews cost $40, which seems like a fair price. On the bad site the $40 fee is non-refundable.

6

4

$300 or $150 / yr

 

 

April 2003

Yes

Yes

The directory has been around since April of 2003 but the site itself has been in existence since 1996. The site does has very good search results in Google. They receive quite a bit of traffic (Alexa rank under 5000). You have the choice of paying $100 per year for review or paying a one-time submission fee of $240. This site would be ranked higher if it weren't for the high price. They do not guarantee acceptance and the fee is non-refundable. The site is respected by Google (see Matt Cutt's blog). During my research I consistently find BOTW listings in Google's search results.
Non-commercial sites can submit for free.

4

4

$25

No

Nov 2002

Yes

No

Go Guides
goguides.org

5

5

$70

 

 

Feb. 2001

Yes

No

They have a money back guarantee if they don't list your site. The directory is listed in dmoz.org. The directory is not crowded, meaning that your site will get good visibility for your submission.

InCrawler
incrawler.com

5

5

$25

$50

March 2004

Yes

No

The site, which has been a directory since 2004, is not overly crowded. The site started as a search engine in 2002. Great category breakdown had my basic listing added in about an hour. Good value for your money.