Directories, like search engines, are used by people to search for websites containing the information they seek. However, the way they do the search and present their results are very different. Search engines use web crawlers to find and index websites on their own and will produce search results from the database of these indexed sites. Although there is an Add URL page in some search engines, websites generally are added to the search engine’s index automatically and not via submissions. On the other hand, websites owners need to submit their URL directly to directories in order to be included in the directories’ database. The submitted websites are then placed under specific categories with each site having a brief site description. Most directories take some time to approve websites before they can be added to the directories’ listing.

Although, as mentioned earlier, directories arrived in the Internet scene before search engines did, search engines have become the more popular way for searching websites. With the advent of search engines people have come to question the viability of directories and whether people still use them to search for websites. In David Wallace’s article on Directories and Your SEO Campaign – Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em, he found the answer to this question by going to his web servers that track all the activity in his websites. He found that not surprisingly most of his traffic came from search engines but that there were some directory referrals that still existed as well.