A web directory or link directory is a directory on the World Wide Web. It specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links.

A web directory is not a search engine and does not display lists of web pages based on keywords; instead, it lists web sites by category and subcategory. Most web directory entries are also not found by web crawlers but by humans. The categorization is usually based on the whole web site rather than one page or a set of keywords, and sites are often limited to inclusion in only a few categories. Web directories often allow site owners to directly submit their site for inclusion, and have editors review submissions for fitness.



Web directories as defined over at Wikipedia.org, but basically, a web directory (or web directories) is in fact a series of web pages that categorizes links to other web pages on the Internet in which you can compare a web directory to your local yellow pages. But another more common and known definition is that a web directory is an online directory on the World Wide Web that specializes in linking to other websites and and categorizing their links for easy searching. Web directories like Yahoo directory most times often permits site owners to submit their website for inclusion and at the same time have human editors to review all submissions.

Most of us would think a web directory as a search engine but in reality, it isn't. In addition is the fact that it does not display web pages based solely on just keywords, but instead, it list web pages in convenient categories or sub categories. This categorization is genereally based on not just a set of keywords, but at the same time the whole website and at most times, there is often a set limit of one or two categories for site inclusion as well.

There are numerous SEO friendly web directory/directories on the Internet, with the most well known or common ones being provided by BOTW and DMOZ. The latter being a powerful player in the directory market because of its open content approach to editorial review.

But experts still refute the statement which states that web directories have superior quality. Furthermore, web directory development like business web directory is still said to be a relatively hard task to undertake. Although hopefully, there have been many attempts in recent times to make directory development easier by using a "links for all" type of link submission site by simply using a script or available PHP portals and programs.

And to talk about the icing on the cake, social software techniques have spawned new efforts of categorization, with major name websites like Amazon that have add tagging to their product pages for easy reference. And in a nutshell, a web directory is a listing of websites that are organized in a hierarchy of categories for easy look-up and reference.