The two kinds of directory
A directory is either a place people use or a place links live. The first kind has visitors, a search function that gets used, and moderators who remove dead entries. The second kind exists so that somebody can list a website on it, and nobody has read a page on it in years.
The distinction matters because search engines make it too. A listing on a directory with traffic behaves like a citation. A listing on an abandoned link farm behaves like nothing at all, and on a bad enough domain it is a liability.
Five checks before you submit
None of these take more than a minute, and together they remove most of a bad list.
- Is it indexed. Search for an existing listing from the directory. If pages of that type are not in the index, a new one will not be either.
- Is there an editor. Open submission with instant publication means the directory fills with spam. A review queue, however slow, is a good sign.
- Does it have a reason to exist. National business registries, industry associations and review platforms have a purpose beyond links. General "web directories" usually do not.
- Is the listing complete. A directory that only accepts name and URL gives you a thin page. One that takes a description, categories, opening hours and images produces a page that can rank on its own.
- Are the neighbours reputable. Look at the ten most recent listings. If they are casinos and payday loans in four languages, you have your answer.
What a listing is actually worth
Treat directory listings as a floor rather than a strategy. Thirty solid listings will not move a competitive keyword, but their absence is visible: a business with no presence in the obvious registries looks less established than one that has them, both to a search engine and to a person checking you out.
The exception is local search, where the major national directories still feed data into how a business is understood. There, consistency of name, address and phone number across listings does real work, and inconsistency actively hurts.
The mistakes that waste the effort
Almost every failed directory campaign fails the same three ways. Submissions are made in bulk with the same 40-word description, so every listing is a duplicate of the last. The business details differ slightly between sites, so the citations contradict each other. And nobody records what was submitted where, so six months later there is no way to update a phone number or remove a listing.
Doing thirty listings properly over three evenings beats three hundred done automatically, and it is the version that can be maintained.
What we have catalogued in this category
Of the 527 places in the catalogue, 164 are of this type.89% of those pass a following link, and 86% are ones a beginner can complete without prior accounts or a verified business.
| Market | Platforms |
|---|---|
| 🌍 International | 79 |
| 🇩🇰 DK | 31 |
| 🇸🇪 SE | 28 |
| 🇩🇪 DE | 21 |
| 🇳🇴 NO | 5 |
Counts describe our catalogue rather than the web as a whole. We publish the numbers, not the list: the list is the product.
12 of these are on the free tier
No payment and no card. These are the ones you can open and work through today, and they are a fair sample of how the rest are written up.
| Platform | Market | Link | Difficulty | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hitta.se | 🇸🇪 SE | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| Svenskalänkar.com | 🇸🇪 SE | dofollow | Very easy | 15-25 min |
| Eniro.se | 🇸🇪 SE | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| Gulesider.no | 🇳🇴 NO | dofollow | Moderate | 45-60 min |
| Das Örtliche | 🇩🇪 DE | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| 11880 | 🇩🇪 DE | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| WebWiki Deutschland | 🇩🇪 DE | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| Europages.dk | 🇩🇰 DK | Script-link | Easy | 15-30 min |
| Hotfrog.dk | 🇩🇰 DK | dofollow | Moderate | 20 min |
| Virksomhedsoplysninger.dk | 🇩🇰 DK | dofollow | Very easy | 20-25 min |
| Startsiden.dk | 🇩🇰 DK | dofollow | Easy | 15-25 min |
| Trustpilot | 🌍 Intl | nofollow | Very easy | 15 min |
What sits behind this
This category is one of 22. The whole catalogue holds 527 places across 5 markets, and every one of them is written up step by step in both English and Danish.
The work behind the list
- 133 of them have been opened and checked against the page that is actually there now, not just imported from a list.
- 156 of them have a link straight to the form, so you are not hunting for it on their front page.
- Authority figures from Ahrefs are refreshed on the first of every month. Last run 1 September 2026.
What we warn you about
A list you scraped yourself will not tell you what does not work. This one does, and that is usually where the hours go.
- 26 of them only count your submission once you have put a link back to them on your own site. That is in the guide before you start.
- 7 of them turned out not to be directories at all. They are flagged rather than deleted, because they can still be an opportunity.
- 10 of them have stopped responding. They carry a warning rather than wasting your time.
- 72 of them pass nofollow. We say so, including when the directory itself claims otherwise.
20 of the 527 can be opened and worked through without paying anything. They are not a selection of the weak ones.
Examples of this kind of platform
Names most practitioners would recognise, to make the category concrete: Trustpilot, Crunchbase, Yelp, Europages, Hotfrog, Eniro, Das Örtliche.
Common questions
Are directory submissions still worth doing in 2026?
For the major national and industry directories, yes, as a baseline. For general web directories that exist only to host links, no. The value has concentrated in a small number of places that people actually use.
Do I need a paid listing?
Rarely. Most directories that matter have a free tier that includes the link. Paid placement usually buys position within the directory, which is a traffic decision rather than a link decision.
How many directories should a new site be listed in?
Between twenty and forty covers the obvious ones in most markets. Past that you are into diminishing returns and increasingly obscure sites.