With the ever-increasing importance of qualified traffic and first-page rankings, directory submission can be a wise and lucrative investment...if you know how to choose the right directories.

The rules seem simple—look within your niche or industry and submit to those directories that are reputable. But finding the right directories can be difficult, as can evaluating those directories for effectiveness. If you don't consider all of the angles you can quickly waste money.

Finding Good Directories

Let's start explaining how to find the good directories, and then we'll talk about the steps you need to take when evaluating those same directories.

Here's the four steps to take to find directories to list your site in...

1. Search for your top keywords in Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live. Are any directories ranking in the top three pages? If so, write them down, because those are very likely going to be good places to submit to.

2. Add the keywords directory and directories to your searches and see what directories show up on the top three pages. For example, if your site is for a hotel in Denver, search for phrases like Downtown Denver hotel directories, Denver hotel directories, Front Range hotel directories, and Colorado hotel directories.

3. Where are your competitors buying directory listings? Use the Site Strength Indicator Tool and analyze your competitor's incoming links to see what directory listings they may have.

4. Take a look at the Planet Ocean Directory List, whe...