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I've been trying to promote my link swap directory over the past few weeks/months and I am now getting at least two new submissions per day. Despite high PR pages throughout the directory, traffic is minimal.

I would love for my directory to be more than just a place to get a free backlink, but to actually be trafficked for people looking for things. It's completely searchable.

Is there any hope for me in succeeding at this? Are there any directories out there (aside from Dmoz) that generate any substantial amount of real traffic?

Currently the directory receives a couple hundred uniques per day, but that's just nothing compared to the amount of traffic my site generates.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by lovely

Dani AI

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A few practical pivots that explain why a high-PR directory still feels empty and what to do next.

The core problem is audience, not PageRank. Getting submissions (as notes) proves interest from webmasters; it doesn't prove searcher demand. Prioritize making each listing genuinely useful for a person who arrived looking for that service or product. That means unique, human-written descriptions, editor picks or verified badges, screenshots or quick facts, user ratings, and category landing pages with original explanatory copy that targets long-tail queries.

Technical and SEO moves that make the site findable and valuable:

Small, measurable experiments beat broad link swaps or untargeted buys. Track listing impressions, CTR, and listing-to-click conversion with analytics; A/B test description lengths and call-to-action wording. Outreach should be targeted: niche blogs, newsletters, and communities relevant to a category perform better than generic directory submissions. Be cautious about selling links — follow Google guidance and mark paid links appropriately to avoid penalties (https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/link-schemes).

Tying the thread together: suggestions from , , , and can help with visibility, but focus first on user utility and measurable improvements. Example JSON-LD for a category (ItemList):

{
  "@context":"https://schema.org",
  "@type":"ItemList",
  "itemListElement":[
    {"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://example.com/listing/alpha","name":"Alpha Shop"}},
    {"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://example.com/listing/beta","name":"Beta Services"}}
  ]
}

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for bobchrist

Do you advertise it on dani? Buying sitewide links on high traffic sites may help you.

Member Avatar for dss

Submit your website to directories directory like directorycritic and you will soon get lots of links and hits :).

I have 8 directories and all submitted there and i regulatly receive link requests.

Try it out.

There are about 7-8 directories directory submit to all.

Thanks

Member Avatar for Optical

Join other webmaster sites dani, people are more than happy to add there links to your directory, Also you can add your directory to other directorys :)

Member Avatar for LinkBuilding

If you want a targetted traffic, its better you can go for some relevant links based on the directory categories. If yr directory has good PR, many will swap the links with you.

Member Avatar for lovely

It is a good ideal to make the directory for people who are looking for some thing apart form backlink, I think it will increase your traffic as well.

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